Migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5. Part 2-1. Transferring jDownloads and jComments

Migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5

Introduction
1. Transferring content
2. Transferring extensions:
2.1. jDownloads and jComments
2.2. Template, editor, and other extensions
Epilogue

In the first part we have hard, but worthy moved our menus, categories, articles and other content to the new site with preserving the structure. We now consider how to restore the customary set of extensions. Let's start with a separate examination of two very popular components. jDownloads and jComments are considered nearly the best each in its own sphere of application, a great many of Joomla users take advantage of them. In addition, both are free and have been translated into many languages. There is an obvious desire to transfer the entire set of comments and downloads to the new site. Detailed review of reliable and proven methods of migration jDownloads and jComments from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5 is the goal of this article.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to remind once more about the necessity of backing up your site before starting the steps below! And, again, read the introduction first!

jDownloads

Everything is good here. The developers have taken care to provide their component with the option to backup and restore its data. At the official site in the FAQ section there is a tab How to move jDownloads from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5? describing the requirements for migration of the extension and the process itself. It comes to the following sequence of actions:

At the old site update component to the latest stable version (in description - 1.8.2, but there is already 1.8.3). In the component's control panel create backup file (Backup Creation).
At the new site install the latest release of jDownloads for Joomla 2.5 (as of this writing it is 1.9.1 Build 931), turn off auto-monitoring (Configuration > Monitoring > Download directory monitoring?).
Replace the files folder (JoomlaROOT/jdownloads) and the pictures folder (JoomlaROOT/images/jdownloads) with the same ones from the old site.
Then open a previously created backup file in Notepad++ and replace using Replace All all occurrences of the old prefix by the new one (in our example - jos_ by aaaaa_). Save the changes.
Go back to the new site and open Backup Restoration. (It's written there in red and white: You can only restore backup files from jDownloads 1.8.2 or newer! I nevertheless successfylly transferred this way 1.8.1 RC2 Build 832. But still it is probably better to first update to the latest release of the component in Jumla 1.5.) Load our customized back up file, click the button Restore the database right now.
After the process is successfully completed, carry custom changes, if they have been made on the old site - .css stylesheet, language files, user groups.
It is also recommended to check the date and time format in the component configuration, as in the new version it has been changed from php strftime() to date(). In other words, if format is %d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S, and dates are displayed in the form of %25.%07.%2012 %14:%July:%th, then, after changing the format to, for example, Y-m-d H:i:s, date and time will be displayed in a suitable form - 2012-07-25 14:09:51. You can adjust it in the Configuration section> Downloads tab > Date-Time format parameter.

And it's all about moving the jDownloads component from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5. Let's proceed to the next extension.

jComments

Developers of the most popular component of comments did not include the transfer option. Fortunately, enthusiasts did it instead of them. The script for migrating jComments from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5 has been found in the Internet - over there. Here is the script (click on the title, and it will open).

Script

 
-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- MIGRATION SCRIPT FOR JCOMMENTS IN JOOMLA v1.5.x TO JOOMLA v2.5.x 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 -- NOTE: Replace string "mydb_livecopy_j15" to your Joomla 1.5.x database name 
 -- -- -- (example: "anolddatabase") -- 9 occurrences 
 -- NOTE: Replace string "mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_" to your Joomla 1.5.x database name & table prefix 
 -- -- -- (example: "anolddatabase.jos_") -- 8 occurrences 
 
 -- NOTE: Replace string "mydb_upgrade_j25" to your Joomla 2.5.x database name 
 -- -- -- (example: "anewdatabase") -- 9 occurrences 
 -- NOTE: Replace string "mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_" to your Joomla 2.5.x database name & table prefix 
 -- -- -- (example: "anewdatabase.rndpfx1_") -- 8 occurrences 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 INSERT INTO 
      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments 
      ( 
           id, parent, thread_id, path, level, object_id, object_group, object_params, lang, 
           userid, name, username, email, homepage, title, comment, ip, DATE, isgood, ispoor, 
           published, subscribe, SOURCE, source_id, checked_out, checked_out_time, editor 
      ) 
 SELECT 
      id, parent, 
      CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(path, LOCATE(',', path)+1, LOCATE(',', path, 2))='' THEN 0 
      ELSE SUBSTRING(path, LOCATE(',', path)+1, LOCATE(',', path, 2)) END AS thread_id, 
      path, level, object_id, object_group, object_params, lang, 
      userid, name, username, email, homepage, title, comment, ip, DATE, isgood, ispoor, 
      published, subscribe, SOURCE, source_id, checked_out, checked_out_time, editor 
 FROM 
      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments; 
 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_custom_bbcodes 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 -- NOTE: This is disabled as the new version includes the old bbcodes setup (no change) 
 
 -- INSERT INTO 
 --      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments_custom_bbcodes 
 --      ( 
 --           id, `name`, simple_pattern, simple_replacement_html, simple_replacement_text, pattern, 
 --           replacement_html, replacement_text, button_acl, button_open_tag, button_close_tag, 
 --           button_title, button_prompt, button_image, button_css, button_enabled, ordering, 
 --           published 
 --      ) 
 -- SELECT 
 --      id, `name`, simple_pattern, simple_replacement_html, simple_replacement_text, pattern, 
 --      replacement_html, replacement_text, button_acl, button_open_tag, button_close_tag, 
 --      button_title, button_prompt, button_image, button_css, button_enabled, ordering, 
 --      published 
 -- FROM 
 --      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments_custom_bbcodes; 
 
 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_reports 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 INSERT INTO 
      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments_reports 
      ( 
           id, commentid, userid, name, ip, DATE, reason, STATUS 
      ) 
 SELECT 
      id, commentid, userid, name, ip, DATE, reason, STATUS 
 FROM 
      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments_reports; 
 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_settings -- ignored as this will load factory settings 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 /* 
 INSERT INTO 
      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments_settings 
      ( 
           component, lang, name, value 
      ) 
 SELECT 
      component, lang, name, value 
 FROM 
      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments_settings; 
 */ 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_subscriptions 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 INSERT INTO 
      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments_subscriptions 
      ( 
           id, object_id, object_group, lang, userid, name, email, hash, published 
      ) 
 SELECT 
      id, object_id, object_group, lang, userid, name, email, hash, published 
 FROM 
      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments_subscriptions; 
 
 
 -- source=??? 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_version 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 INSERT INTO 
      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments_version 
      ( 
           version, previous, installed, updated 
      ) 
 SELECT 
      version, previous, installed, updated 
 FROM 
      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments_version; 
 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_votes 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
 INSERT INTO 
      mydb_upgrade_j25.myprefix_jcomments_votes 
      ( 
           id, commentid, userid, ip, DATE, VALUE 
      ) 
 SELECT 
      id, commentid, userid, ip, DATE, VALUE 
 FROM 
      mydb_livecopy_j15.myprefix_jcomments_votes; 
 
 
 
 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 -- _jcomments_objects  *** NEW FOR JOOMLA 2.5.X 
 -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 

end faq

There are also a competent instructions for its use. I will try to outline them here in a little more detail and with a visualization.

Install the latest release of jComments (still 2.3.0) on a new site (in my case - Joomla 2.5.9).
Copy the script into a text file. You can save it with the extension .sql.
Open the file in Notepad++ and make 4 group replacements (again, using the same Replace all) of both old and new databases names and prefixes to our values. Open the panel with screenshots, all of them are very clear.

Screenshots

end faq

Now we go to a database manager (it did not yet invented better one than phpMyAdmin). There, not opening any database, go to the Import tab, select our SQL-file, and run the script contained therein.
After receiving message of a successful working off the script, get back to the new 2.5 site's admin, open the tab Comments of the component, and make sure that the list now contains comments from the old site.
Last steps: open the tab Settings. Since the script does not restore binding comments to the categories, rebuild manually the list Choose categories for JComments to work in as it was on the old site. Check other settings, and edit them if necessary.

This is how two powerful components with all data and files are cloned from the old site to the new one. In the next article we will discuss the transfer of template, editor, and the essential set of other third-party extensions.

Comments

0 # Chris 2014-03-06 16:33

Will this apply the same way for migrating Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3?

0 # Ogri 2014-03-07 01:00

I don't think so. Still never tried Joomla 3, have been waiting for 3.5. But as I know, migration from 2.5 to 3.x is much easier. Joomla developers affirm that it's even not upgrade, but just update. Users nevertheless found some problems in this process. My advice for now is to transfer your website top 2.5. It's stable and will have full support by at least the end of 2014. All the issues of 2.5 to 3.x update I'll describe here in the near future.

0 # Chris 2014-03-07 13:51

I tried it for Joomla 3.2.3 and it worked great.

0 # Ogri 2014-03-07 14:24

Thanks for the info, Chris! I'll check it soon and will possibly update these articles in accordance with the result.

0 # Fillip Cornor 2014-07-27 10:10

my installation was gone away after migration from 1.5.1 to 2.5.3 and i have move jdownloads as per your screenshot. But whole website gone so now running on static website. Let see if i can install it on demo server and check properly with your instructions.

0 # Ogri 2014-07-31 17:24

I'm sorry about that. But I and many others successfully went through the migration process using these instructions. I wonder why you've chosen that old 2.5.3 rather than the latest stable release which is now 2.5.24. Maybe that's the reason why your website has gone? And you definitely should've first done the process and test results on demo server. Local server is the best choice.

0 # quotes 2020-08-21 13:11

you are in point of fact a excellent webmaster.
The site loading pace is amazing. It seems that
you're doing any unique trick. Furthermore, The contents are masterwork.
you've done a excellent task on this matter!

0 # motivational quotes 2020-08-21 13:12

Hi, all is going perfectly here and ofcourse every
one is sharing information, that's really excellent,
keep up writing.

0 # Voucher Sort 2020-09-30 12:58

Is commenting still open?

0 # Vouchersort 2020-10-30 15:43

Once again, great resource for us newbs.

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Migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5

jDownloads

jComments

Script

end faq

Screenshots

end faq

Comments

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