Upgrading Caribou CMS
Verify upgradability
As mentioned in the previous section, Receiving Software Updates, there are technical reasons that may prevent (or suggest not) upgrading your site’s version of Caribou CMS to the latest version. Please contact support if you are not sure about upgrading your instance of Caribou.
Backup files and database
For peace of mind, safety, and a million other reasons, backup all files to your hard drive (and/or another drive) and download an export of your MySQL database prior to uploading new version files or running the upgrade wizard.
To backup your files, simply connect to your web server via FTP and download all of the files in your instance’s folder to a new directory on your hard drive. This includes all uploaded files such as those in /uploads.
To backup your database, you have two choices. First, you can generate a backup SQL file through your Caribou Control Panel in Administration -> Backup/Restore. This file can then be downloaded via FTP from the /misc/backups directory. Second, you can login to phpMyAdmin or similar MySQL administration application and generate an Export of your entire database.
With these backups, the worst-case scenario for a botched upgrade is a few moments of downtime while you re-upload your old files and import the old database.
Upload all files to your web server
Connect to your server via FTP.
Set the file Transfer Mode to BINARY (Transfer > Transfer Type > Binary in FileZilla). Binary mode will keep the IonCube-encoded files from becoming corrupted during the upload.
Upload all files right over top of your existing files. Caribou will not overwrite your content.
Access the Upgrade Wizard
Access /install/upgrade.php in your web browser to begin the Upgrade Wizard. If your site is running at the root of a domain name, this folder will be at a location like http://www.example.com/install/upgrade.php. If it’s in a subdirectory, this folder will be at a location such as http://www.example.com/subdirectory/install/upgrade.php.
Delete the Installation directory
After the installation, all files in the /install directory must be deleted as they pose a serious security threat to your website and server. Caribou will allow you to access the control panel while these files still exist but an error will be displayed on your site’s frontend until they are deleted.
Upgrading your version of Caribou CMS will not overwrite your templates. New template files will be added to your install but changes made by the developers to the templates will not be transferred to your site. So, if you are experiencing a template-based problem, look at the new version’s template and copy over the fixes from the new templates.
