Migrate Joomla! 10 (incl VirtueMart) to Joomla! 15¶

Why migrate instead of update?¶

• Joomla 1.5 uses UTF-8 for table collations, Joomla! 1.0 usually did not
• Links (especially SEF Links) have changed, so it's necessary to track legacy backlinks
• Database table structure has changed in many ways, so a simple update via SQL is not possible

Basic Steps for the Migration¶

• Upgrade to VirtueMart 1.1 (while you're still on VirtueMart 1.0, because VirtueMart 1.0 is NOT compatible with Joomla! 1.5)
• Let the "Migrator" Component generate an SQL dump of your Joomla! 1.0 tables
• Do a base Joomla! 1.5 install
• At the Migration Step, either upload via FTP or HTTP
• Run the Migration Wizard and finish Installation
• Copy your VirtueMart tables to the new Joomla! 1.5 Database
• Copy your VirtueMart files to the new J! 1.5 Site (for example, using eXtplorer)

Getting the Migrator Software¶

Download available on the web: mtwMigrator

Joomla! 1.5 Installation¶

• We now start creating a new Joomla! 1.5 installation.
• Create a new directory for J! 1.5 and upload a fresh J! 1.5 distribution
• Start the installation
• Don't upload an SQL-Dump/Migration package in Step 6

Install VirtueMart¶

• you need to install VirtueMart first, because so you have the component entry in the database
• install all the modules & plugins you need

ATTENTION! The following step requires that you already have VirtueMart 1.1. on your old Joomla! installation

• finally copy all files related to VirtueMart from your old Joomla! installation (except modules & mambots)
  o /administrator/components/com_virtuemart
  o /components/com_virtuemart

Copy the VirtueMart Files¶

• If the new J! 1.5 installation is on the same webspace as your old J! 1.0 installation, you can easily copy VirtueMart by using eXtplorer or joomlaXplorer or by using the file manager of your control panel (cPanel / Plesk).
• You need to copy the directories
  /administrator/components/com_virtuemart/ and /components/com_virtuemart/
• Copy all their directory contents to the new J! 1.5 directory
• If the new J! 1.5 installation resides on a different webspace, you might need to download the VirtueMart component directories via FTP and re-upload them to the new webspace

Copy the Modules and Mambots?¶

NO!

• The old modules and mambots don't work on J! 1.5, so they cannot be copied
• You must install the new modules and plugins from the VirtueMart distribution for Joomla! 1.5 (yes, there's a separate "Complete Package" available for Joomla! 1.5)

Install the mtwMigrator Component¶

• Install into the new Joomla! 1.5 site using the Extension Manager

Using mtwMigrator¶

• Now go to "mtwMigrator" in the Admin Section of your J! 1.5 site
• Click "Global Configuration"
• First of all fill in the Database Access information to your "old" Joomla! site
• Click on "Apply" to refresh the view
• Now the button for VirtueMart should be enabled, because mtwMigrator has detected VirtueMart tables in that database
• Finally check the other import options and click "Save" to leave the configuration form

Migration finished...?!¶

• All the necessary basic steps to migrate VirtueMart to Joomla! 1.5 are done now
• You might still need to fix some things in your new Joomla! 1.5 site
• You're probably using other extensions - those need to be migrated as well
• Is it worth it? Yes! Joomla! 1.5 is the future and all extensions and templates will be developed for J! 1.5 only, so you can't use them in J! 1.0