Updating From Very Old JomSocial Versions

Overview

The time for an update will come sooner or later for most of the users. Some of you may tolerate the older version for a longer period of time than others; some of you just don't want to update the JomSocial installation because your client hasn't wanted to pay for an update. Nevertheless, sooner or later, the time for it will come, and here is the proper way to do it.

Downloading the Older version

Provided that your subscription is still active, you can use the link bellow to download all previous versions of JomSocial. Make sure that you're logged in with your account and click on the link bellow

Download link for previous versions

Tier Update

To properly update your JomSocial installation from older version, you MUST make a tier upgrade.
This simply means you need to make a step by step update from one version to another, gradually increasing by the time of release.
It is needed to ensure the proper database update of JomSocial-related tables.

For this example, we will asume that an individual has installed JomSocial 1.0.128 on Joomla! 1.5
All versions of JomSocial up to 2.6 can be installed on this version of Joomla and, really, this is the preferred version of Joomla you should be using if your site is running JomSocial versions over 2.6 or bellow
You can see the entire compatibility sheet here
JomSocial 1.0.128 is one of our first really stable releases published at the end of 2008, so this tutorial will cover all the possible scenarios of the update.

Update Progress

For this practice, our test site is running Joomla 1.5 and this wont change till we reach JomSocial version 2.6. We have JomSocial 1.0.128 installed
First, we need to download JomSocial version 1.1.145 and uninstall version 1.0.128. Once older version is uninstalled we can proceed installing the newer one.
Install the version 1.1.145 and go download version 1.2.206
Uninstall version 1.1.145 and install version 1.2.206. Go download version 1.5.248
Uninstall version 1.2.206 and install version 1.5.248. Go download version 1.6.290.
Uninstall version 1.5.248 and install version 1.6.290.
This is the moment when JomSocial version naming convention slightly change. With release of JomSocial 1.8, we switched to GPL and start following the kernel version numbering where odd version number stand for alpha/beta/RC release, while even number stands for stable release. Therefore, JomSocial 1.7 was beta version of 1.8. JomSocial 1.9 was beta version of 2.0. JomSocial 2.9 will be beta version of JomSocial 3.0 and so on..
You however, do not have to install these beta versions in the tier upgrade process.
We are currently at JomSocial 1.6.290 and we can proceed with download of version 1.8.11
Uninstall version 1.6.290 and install version 1.8.11. Go download version 2.0.6.
Uninstall version 1.8.11 and install version 2.0.6. Go download version 2.2.5.
Uninstall version 2.0.6 and install version 2.2.5. Go download version 2.4.3.
Uninstall version 2.2.5 and install version 2.4.3. Go download version 2.6.3.
Uninstall version 2.4.3 and install version 2.6.3.
This is the moment where we must stop because Joomla 1.5 migration to Joomla 2.5 is required in order to install next versions of JomSocial.

If Joomla migration went well, at this point of time you should have clean Joomla 2.5 installation with database transferred but no extensions installed.
Now install again JomSocial 2.6.3 just to make sure post-migration process went fine and your community is there
Once that is done, you can download the IJoomla Installer and continue doing the tier upgrade much more easier.

See Also