Upgrading your EZ Autos installation from an older 5.x version to the new 6.x version isn't difficult - but you MUST take your time - and you MUST make sure you understand and follow every step very carefully.

Step 1

Backup your site's files and database. This is always the first thing to do, as you will need these in case something goes wrong and you need to restore your site. You will also need the vehicle listing images, associated PDF files that were uploaded and any seller profile images - so it is absolutely important that you've downloaded all of your site files to your local computor's hard drive.

Step 2

FTP into your site - and the first place you'll be is the Joomla root directory. From there you need to follow the administrator/components directory path - and once there you'll see the com_ezautos directory. Rename that directory to com_autos-orig. Once that's done - return to the root Joomla directory - and then go into the components directory. You'll see the frontend component directories there - so rename the com_ezautos directory in that particular directory to com_ezautos-orig. Now that you've got the EZ Autos directories for the current installation renamed so they don't have any files accidentally overwritten - it's time to move on to getting the new files uploaded.

Step 3

Before you begin uploading the new files and directories - there are two directories of files that you do NOT need to upload as part of step 3. Those directories are the "lang" and "sql" directories - as the sql directory is only used during the new installation process, and if doing an upgrade - then the language files need to be uploaded separately. Remain where you are in the frontend components directory - which should be viewable in the main right window of your FTP programme. Use the left window of your FTP programme to browse through your local file structure. Locate the directory that contains the contents of the com_ezautos_6.x_new_installation.zip package - and you should see directories called "admin" and "component", and a file called com_ezautos.xml. We'll just deal with the directory called "component" at this stage - as it contains the files needed for the frontend of your site. Return to the FTP browser window for your site - and remember you should be in the frontend components directory. Create a new directory called com_ezautos and then open up that directory. Also open the "components" directory located in your left FTP browser window - and upload the contents of that directory to the site's new com_ezautos directory. Once those files have been uploaded - return to your site's root directory - and then FTP into the administrator/components directory. Create a new com_ezautos directory once you get there - and then use your local files browser window to open up the "admin" directory of the zip package you opened earlier. That directory contains the contents of the admin side of EZ Autos - so upload the contents of that directory to the administrator/components/com_ezautos directory. Once you've uploaded the files - upload the com_autos.xml file which was outside of the "admin" and "components" directory - and upload it to the administrator/components/com_ezautos directory. This takes care of the actual system files - now it's time to deal with the images and pdf files etc.

Step 4

Return to your site's root directory - and then go into the components/com_ezautos directory. You will see directories called "ezautos", "pdfs", "profiles" - and inside the "ezautos" directory is the thumbnails directory called "th". The site files that you downloaded also contain those directories - so upload the image and PDF contents of those directories up to the new directories - so your data will have the required images. Alternatively - you can move the images and pdf files located within the renamed com_ezrealty-orig directory across to the new directory.

Step 5

Running version 6 of EZ Autos on Joomla 1.5x also means that the language files are located in a different place. You'll see the unzipped EZ Autos package contains a directory called "lang" inside both the admin and components directories. These two directories contain the EZ Autos language files - and they need to be uploaded to the administrator/language/language type directory and the root language/language type directory. Remember - each language has its own directory on Joomla 1.5x.

Step 6

once the new files have been uploaded, log into the admin area and follow the "components"->"EZ Autos" menu link.

Step 7

when the page opens, you'll now be in the EZ Autos admin cPanel. First up click on the "Migrate version 5 data to version 6" link. Only click this link once. This will make the necessary changes to your database structure to work on the new version of EZ Autos.

Step 8

Next, you may need to sync your site members with the EZ Autos profiles database. You only need to do this if you're upgrading from one of the older 4.x versions, and it only requires you to click on the "Synch" button.

Step 9

Now it's time to go and update the configuration area - so click on the "Configuration Settings" button and update the settings. There have been a number of changes - so make sure you read through everything - configure the settings to the way you need them - and then click the "save" button.

Step 10

Return to the EZ Autos admin cPanel and click on the "Vehicle Manager" button. Once you've reached the list of vehicles - check through your listings and update any information fields that require updating.