28. Upgrade instructions for Book Library, Joomla elibrary solution

In this article you will find the instructions on how to upgrade from a previous version of Book Library (Joomla elibrary solution) while still preserving all your existing Book Library data.

When you make Full export, all lend record can be lost. Please save them.

General Guidelines (common sense)

  1. Always test upgrades first in a test environment, never in your live environment
  2. Always make sure you have a good, recent backup before making changes
  3. Make regular XML exports of all categories in your Book Library installation (to preserve your book entries)

Recommended Upgrade Procedure of Book Library, Joomla elibrary solution

Fresh installation

  1. Make XML exports of every category in your current live installation, and save with the category name
  2. Copy your book covers, ebooks, media to a local directory from
    /components/com_booklibrary/covers
    /components/com_booklibrary/ebooks
    /components/com_booklibrary/media
  3. Install Book Library Free Edition in a test environment
  4. Delete existing books and categories in the test environment
  5. Recreate each category, the same as in your live environment, in the test environment
  6. Import all XML exports made earlier into the appropriate categories
  7. Copy your book covers, ebooks, media from the local directory to
    /components/com_booklibrary/covers
    /components/com_booklibrary/ebooks
    /components/com_booklibrary/media
  8. Set the rights on the covers to 0644
  9. Set all config settings as in your live environment
  10. TEST and TEST again

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

Replacing the files in your installation

If you decide to overwrite the files in your existing installation instead (not really recommended), then follow the guidelines below.

If you DO NOT have shell access (command line) to your server through SSH (e.g. shared hosting):

  1. unzip the patch files somewhere
  2. use Quixplorer, eXtplorer, Joomla internal FTP, or similar inside Joomla
  3. using these tools, copy the original files somewhere or rename them (e.g. with date behind them)
  4. delete the original files
  5. upload the new files to the proper directories using Quixplorer, eXtplorer (or Joomla internal FTP)
  6. file ownership for the new files is automatically set right because you work inside Joomla
  7. set the file rights 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:

  1. unzip the patch files somewhere
  2. copy the original files somewhere or rename them (e.g. with date behind them)
  3. delete the original files
  4. upload the new files to the proper directories using an FTP client like FileZilla or CuteFTP or similar
  5. set the file ownership for the newly uploaded files to the account your web server runs under (find out first!)
  6. set the file rights on the new files to 0644 (= read/write by owner, read by group, read by others)

For upgrade from yours Book Library 2.x version to Book Library version without lost data you need: 

  1. full save the files and folders:
    {yours site}/administrator/components/com_booklibrary
    {yours site}/administrator/com_booklibrary
  2. do full books export
  3. remove the files and folders:
    {yours site}/administrator/components/com_booklibrary
    {yours site}/administrator/com_booklibrary
    and do install components from Book Library.
  4. then recover folders:
    {yours site}/administrator/com_booklibrary/ebooks
    {yours site}/administrator/com_booklibrary/covers
    {yours site}/administrator/com_booklibrary/media

Also you will need upgrade all plugin and modules.


For upgrade from Book Library Basic 2.x version to Book Library Pro without lost data you need:

  1. full save the files and folders:
    {yours site}/administrator/components/com_booklibrary {yours site}/administrator/com_booklibrary
     
  2. do full books export.
  3. go to [Book Library] [Settings Backend] and set [Update] to “YES”
  4. Then uninstall Basic component and install Pro version.

Upgrade Instructions from previous Book Library versions

To keep your Book Library books data when upgrading from a previous version (deinstall-reinstall), please follow the instructions below. This will restore all existing book data (including descriptions and reviews) to your new Book Library installation.

  1. Using FTP client or similar, copy the book covers from /components/com_booklibrary/covers/ somewhere safe.
  2. Write down your category and subcategory names and structure.
  3. IMPORTANT! To keep all your edited book descriptions in the new Book Library, make very sure you set [Information from] for EVERY single book to "On your own".
  4. Do XML exports (do NOT use CSV for this!) from each of your book categories. Right-click the XML-url and save with the category name.
  5. Repeat the process until you have XML exports for all your categories somewhere safe.
  6. Deinstall the old version of Book Library.
  7. Install Book Library with the Joomla component installer.
  8. Recreate each of your categories and subcategories using the Book Library Category Manager.

  9. IMPORTANT! If you want to keep your original book descriptions, please do the following. In Configuration Backend set the Default Host to "On your own".

  10. Import each of the exports you made earlier into the proper book categories.
  11. Copy the previously saved book covers to /components/com_booklibrary/covers/
  12. Set the rights on the covers you just copied to 0644
  13. Set options in Settings Backend and Settings Frontend. There are quite a few new options, so please check them.
  14. Publish the books in Book Manager.
  15. Your frontend will now have all Categories and the books in them again with all the original data.

WARNING / IMPORTANT: As mentioned, Book Library Shop now also fetches Book Descriptions (Editorial Reviews) from Amazon. This means that whenever you do Refetch Information for a book from Amazon, your edited Book Description will get overwritten! To avoid this, set books (after editing your descriptions) to "On your own" in the Edit Book interface for each book. This will prevent changes to your book details.
The current versions of Book Library, Joomla elibrary solution, also supports Full XML exports, so future upgrades will be relatively painless. Still, we recommend using the XML export-import method, as it gives you much greater control over what goes where in your new installation.
Total backups within the same Book Library version


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