22. MediaLibrary 3.5.x Shop upgrade instructions

In this article you will find the instructions about how to upgrade from a previous version of MediaLibrary with saving all your existing MediaLibrary data.

General Guidelines

  • Always test upgrades first in a test environment, never in your work environment.
  • Always make sure you have a good recent backup before making changes.
  • Always make backup for yours site files and database.
  • Make regular XML exports of all categories in your MediaLibrary installation (to preserve your Media entries).

Recommended Upgrade Shop procedure

New installation

  • Make XML exports of every category in your current installation, and save with the category name.
  • Copy your Media covers to a local directory from /components/com_MediaLibrary/covers.
  • Copy your eMedia files to a local directory from /components/com_MediaLibrary/emedia.
  • Install MediaLibrary Free Edition in a test environment.
  • Delete existing Medias and categories in the test environment.
  • Recreate each category, the same as in your work environment, in the test environment.
  • Import all XML exports made before into the appropriate categories.
  • Copy your Media covers from the local directory to /components/com_MediaLibrary/covers.
  • Copy your eMedia files from the local directory to /components/com_MediaLibrary/emedia.
  • Set the rights to 0644 on the covers.
  • Set all config settings as in your work environment.
  • TEST and TEST again.

If all is OK, then (and ONLY then) proceed to repeat the procedure in your work environment.

Replacing the files in your installation

If you decide to overwrite the files in your existing installation (not really recommended) follow the next guidelines.

If you DO NOT have shell access (command line) to your server through SSH (for example shared hosting):

  • Unzip the patchfiles somewhere.
  • Use Quixplorer, eXtplorer, Joomla 3.x internal FTP or similar inside Joomla.
  • Copy original files somewhere or rename them (e.g. with date behind them) using these tools.
  • Delete original files.
  • Upload the new files to the proper directories using Quixplorer, eXtplorer (or Joomla internal FTP).
  • File ownership for the new files is automatically set right because you work inside Joomla.
  • Set the filerights on the new files to 0644 (= read/write by owner, read by group, read by others).

ONLY use the method below if you have shell access to your server through SSH:

  • Unzip the patchfiles somewhere.
  • Copy original files somewhere or rename them (e.g. with date behind them).
  • Delete original files.
  • Upload the new files to the proper directories using an FTP client like FileZilla, CuteFTP or similar.
  • Set the file ownership for the newly uploaded files to the account your web server runs under (find out first!).
  • Set the filerights on the new files to 0644 (= read/write by owner, read by group, read by others).

      • Upgrade Instructions from previous MediaLibrary versions

      To keep your MediaLibrary Medias data in upgrading from a previous version (deinstall/reinstall), please follow the instructions below. This will restore all existing Media data (including descriptions and reviews) at your new MediaLibrary 3.5.x Shop installation.

      • Using an FTP client or similar, copy the Media covers from /components/com_MediaLibrary/covers/ somewhere safe.
      • Using an FTP client or similar, copy the eMedia files from /components/com_MediaLibrary/emedia/ somewhere safe.
      • Write down your category and subcategory names and structure.
      • IMPORTANT! To keep all your edited Media descriptions in the new MediaLibrary, make very sure you set Information from for EVERY single Media to "On your own".
      • Do XML exports from each of your Media categories. Right-click the XML-url and save with the category name.
      • Repeat the process until you have XML exports for all your categories somewhere safe.
      • Deinstall the old version of MediaLibrary.
      • Install MediaLibrary 3.5.x Shop with the Joomla component installer.
      • Recreate each of your categories and subcategories using the MediaLibrary Category Manager.
      • IMPORTANT! If you want to keep your original Media descriptions, please do the following. In Configuration Settings set the Default Host to "On your own".
      • Import each of the exports you made earlier into the proper Media categories.
      • Copy the previously saved Media covers to /components/com_MediaLibrary/covers/.
      • Copy the previously saved eMedia files to /components/com_MediaLibrary/emedia/.
      • Set the rights on the covers you just copied to 0644.
      • Set options in Configuration Settings. There are quite a few new options, so please check!
      • Publish the Medias in Media Manager.
      • Your frontend will now have all Categories and the Medias in them again with all the original data.

      IMPOTENT:
      As mentioned, now MediaLibrary 3.5.x Shop fetchesMedia Descriptions (Editorial Reviews) from Amazon also. It means that whenever you do Refetch Information for a Media from Amazon, your edited Media Description will get overwritten!

      To avoid this, set Medias (after edit your descriptions) to "On your own" for each Media in the Edit Media interface. This will prevent changes to your Media details.

      The current 3.5.x Shop versions of MediaLibrary supports full XML export also, so future upgrades will be relatively painless. Still, we recommend using the XML export / XML import method, as it gives you much greater control over what goes in your new installation. Full XML export are great for quick total backups within the same MediaLibrary version.

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