Saoir,
Your articles and comments are contained within your database, not within the WordPress files.
Here is a link to some detailed information in Codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress
Read it through carefully. It gives detailed explanations of what to do.
Here is another source of upgrade information for you as well:
http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/upgrade/
Should you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to post them.
Thread Starter
saoir
(@saoir)
Thanks for that – I may be thick or something but having been a web designer for the last four years I expected to find this whole thing easier.
For example – the codex mentions erasing all the WordPress files… but surely this is the complete contents of my site ? I don’t have any non-wordPress files on my site…
It would be so much easier if someone created a set of instructions that mentions specific folders and files… ok you expert guys might think this is pedantic… but it’s a lot easier to follow instructions that list files and folders.
Also the Podz instructions use a phpMyAdmin script that I cannot find anywhere among the files. It also mentions backing up my database but there is no file called database that I can find……
Has anyone written some instructions for idiots that I can follow ?
LOL
If you have a 1.2.2 version running – it means you have
a) your WP files uploaded on the server of your host
b) a database where ALL your data (=posts, comments etc.) are stored
Does your host offere phpMyadmin to have access to your database? Or any other interface? The backup is a safety operation… well, as its name says: to backup your data before attempting the upgrade, in case something goes wrong.
When upgrading you have to delete the files under a)
and running the upgrade.php (as described in the guide) will take care of b) – and nothing will be lost.
I’d suggest setting up a local copy of WP on your PC using xampp as a learning/test environment. Podz has some good instructions here – http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/xampp/ You can dump the live blog db and restore it into the local copy – one way of making sure you’re taking good backups.
Thread Starter
saoir
(@saoir)
I’m really frustrated now. I managed to track down phpAdmin and completed the backup procedure.
So then I went to the instructions for upgrading at “http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrade_1.2_to_1.5”. However I also printed out the “http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/upgrade/upgrade_en.html” instructions.
In the first set of instructions it says ” Delete the old WordPress files from your web host, except wp-config.php” does that mean ALL files on the server..? including all the files in the wp-admin and wp-include folders etc ? I cannot tell what it means exactly.
Then it makes absolutely no mention of how I get my old databse of articles and comments back into the site… I can’t see it anywhere.
In the second method (tamba) it includes editing of the index.php file – including lines that don’t exist in my index.php file such as ‘@import…’ line which is nowhere in my index.php file. It also includes loads more detailed renaming procedures….
What am I to do ? Am i the only one that doesn’t understand this stuff ? I can’t believe that I am.
“Delete the old WordPress files from your web host, except wp-config.php”
This would be:
* WP-specific files in your weblog’s root directory.
* All files in wp-includes/
* All files in wp-admin/
You can replace those plugin files in wp-content/plugins/ that 1.5 updates (hello.php, markdown.php).
I believe there’s only one new image in wp-images/ (header-shadow.png).
Thread Starter
saoir
(@saoir)
huh …? and how do I get my database back into action and layout changes ? And why does one set of instructions have so many editing and renaming ?
I find this bewildering………………….:(
The information at tamba2.
It is there IF you want to keep your existing layout. If you do not want, and you would rather use one of the many new templates, then you do not need to edit / rename 🙂
You won’t need to reload your database if you follow the upgrade instructions and everything goes fine. And 99.9% of the time, everything does go fine, and you don’t need to tinker with your database at all. The backup procedure is just a precaution for the 0.1% when things do go wrong.
As Kaf said, you should delete all of the files that relate to WP from your server. New versions are included in the 1.5 package that you download from this site. This is because things have changed a lot from 1.2.2 to 1.5 and there’s no guarantee that the files you had with 1.2.2 will even work with 1.5.
The @import line is just one way of calling a stylesheet. Wherever you’ve been calling your stylesheet, whether it’s a <link> element or a @import inside a <style> block, change the URL from whatever it is to <?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>.
The rest of the renaming procedures that podz describes are just to accomodate 1.5’s new theme system. Follow them if you’d like to quickly have your old layout ported to 1.5. Otherwise, you’ll have to do some tinkering to find out what needs to be changed. I also suggest that you read the Codex link that was posted earlier in this thread.
Thread Starter
saoir
(@saoir)
Thanks to ALL you guys for taking time to reply to me…
“You won’t need to reload your database if you follow the upgrade instructions and everything goes fine.”
“As Kaf said, you should delete all of the files that relate to WP from your server. “
Please Avenir… could you just explain to me something ..? if I do what you say and delete ALL of the files.. how can my articles/comments be maintained in the update ?
Also could someone visit my site at http://www.opinioneight.com and tell me if I am using a normal standard layout that will appear with a 1.5 update automatically ? I’d appreciate it..thanks
saoir – all your posts and artciles and comments are stored in the database.
When I upgraded, I deleted everything – and I mean everything wordpress – from the server apart from the wp-config.php
The server does not contain your blog posts / comments – the database does.
Trust us 😉
And the layout ? Yes, that is the “Classic” template.
Thread Starter
saoir
(@saoir)
…..where is the database ? what’s the name of the file ? where can it be if it not on the server…?
The database is on the server (most likely), but is not part of WordPress and its files. To access it, most use an admin tool like phpMyAdmin. If your host provides cpanel or some other interface for admin’ing your site, look for a MySQL management tool there.
All of your posts are not actually contained in any files on your server. As we’ve been saying, they are in a MySQL database which is completely separate from your files. WordPress accesses this database every time it needs to display one of your pages and pulls the necessary information (posts, comments, titles, etc.) from the database and generates a page to be displayed by the browser. If you look in any of the WordPress files themselves with a text editor or something (not through your browser’s source function) you won’t see any of your posts, just the strucutral HTML and some PHP tags.
So, in short, WordPress separates your posts themselves from the structure. The files that you see on your server are just the strucutre of your blog. Your database is in a different part of your server and won’t be deleted when you delete these files.
Thread Starter
saoir
(@saoir)
Kafkaesqui and Avenir – now i get it. The database is kept in a completely different sector of the server by my ISP …? I understand.
I never realised this – I apologise for that, perhaps it is because I have never known anything about PhP etc.
I’ll work away now on the update… Thank for all your time.
