Overview
Follow these steps to upgrade Vanilla when a new stable release is announced. These instructions assume you’re using SFTP to manually copy files to a server.
Please consider using maintenance mode before running database updates if your database is very large (millions of users or comments).
- Backup your database,
.htaccess and conf/config.php file somewhere safe. - Delete various files. This is necessary for the upgrade to go smoothly and to prevent clashes if your filesystem merges directories together. Delete the following files.
- All files in
/dist. - All files in
/cache (except .htaccess if you use Apache). - Any files listed in the version specific upgrade instructions. If you are upgrading past multiple versions, be sure to delete the files from all of the version steps your are skipping if they exist. For example, if updating from 2.6 to 3.1, upgrade steps for both 2.6 and 2.8 should be completed.
- Follow any other version specific upgrade instructions.
- Upload the new release’s files so they overwrite the old ones.
- Delete all files in
/cache (except .htaccess if you use Apache). - Follow all version-specific instructions below. It is critcal you delete the listed files.
- Go to
example.com/utility/update to run any database updates needed. (404? See next paragraph.) If it fails, try it a second time by refreshing the page.
If you run into a problem, see Getting Help below.
Update Token
On newer versions of Vanilla, your update will ask for an update token. To find your update token you must look in your config for:
$Configuration['Garden']['UpdateToken'] = '<your token will be here>';
If you don’t find the above in your config then you can add it manually. Use a strong random password generator to generate your update token.
From Vanilla 2.8 or earlier
- Delete
plugins/EmojiExtender. (Directory is now plugins/emojiextender). The addon key is still emojiextender. - Delete
container.html. - URL Rewriting is mandatory!! You’re site should not be using URLs like
?p=/somepath. See the 2.3 upgrade notes for more information. - Delete
/library/Vanilla/Formatting/Embeds/linkEmbed.twig
From Vanilla 2.6 or earlier
- Delete
plugins/Pockets. (This is now in core.) - Delete
plugins/akismet. (This is now in core.) - Delete
plugins/Debugger. (This is no longer maintained and no longer works. See Debug Bar instead. - Delete
applications/dashboard/models/class.assetmodel.php
A few addons have been moved out of core. These are no longer maintained and may represent security holes for your forum.
ButtonBar Use the built-in Rich Editor or Advanced Editor.OpenID
From Vanilla 2.5 or earlier:
- Delete
plugins/HtmLawed. (This is now in core.) - Delete
plugins/Tagging. (This is now in core.)
From Vanilla 2.3 or earlier:
- Delete
/applications/vanilla/controllers/class.settingscontroller.php.
If your forum still uses URLs including ?p=, support for this URL structure has ended. Follow these steps to switch to the simpler format:
- Confirm your server is setup to handle rewrites. On Apache, using the
.htaccess file provided will accomplish this. Additional setup is required on nginx and other platforms. - Test whether it is working by visiting
/discussions - if you see a discussions list (rather than a 404), it is likely setup correctly. - Open
/conf/config.php and find the line with $Configuration['Garden']['RewriteUrls'] = false; and delete the entire line.
Your site should immediately switch to “pretty” URL paths instead of using the ‘p’ parameter. If there is a problem, re-add the line to your config and do further troubleshooting.
From Vanilla 2.1 or earlier:
- Update ALL locales you have installed (in
/locales). - Apache users must update their
.htaccess file. - Delete
/themes/mobile/views/discussions/helper_functions.php - Delete
/applications/dashboard/views/default.master.php
From Vanilla 1.0:
Upgrading from 1.0 (any version) requires a full migration (see next section). Themes and plugins are not compatible. Backup your Vanilla 1 data and files completely, then delete them from your server before attempting to install Vanilla 2.