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Migrating to Joomla 2.5 Step by Step Tutorial

Upgrading / Migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5

This post presents a step by step tutorial showing how to migrate your Joomla 1.5 website to Joomla 2.5 using two methods, i.e. using SP Upgrade or JUpgrade. Instructions for JUpgrade follow afterwards. SP Upgrade is simpler as it ignores 3rd party extensions. JUpgrade tends to fail more and has limited error reporting, however if you do need to port items like Kunena or Community Builder do use JUpgrade as the manual migration of these is non-trivial.

Using SPUpgrade to Migrate to Joomla 2.5

Process Summary — A new installation of Joomla 2.5 is installed. The SP Upgrade component is installed on this system and configured to connect to the Joomla 1.5 database. SP Upgrade will copy and translate the data from j1.5 to the new installation.

Note1: If you want to port K2 featured websites use JUpgrade instead – it’s free. Download from here:

Note2: Both JUpgrade and SP Upgrade copy data only, you will need to copy your content/media files over to an appropriate location separately. The same applies for your template.

Note3: Ensure that your new installation does not have ANY articles in it.

 

  1. Download and install the latest 2.5x on your host. Do NOT install the sample data.
  2. Download and install SP Upgrade to this new Joomla installation  http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/migration-a-conversion/joomla-migration/15609
  3. JUpgrade Upgrade to Joomla 2.5
  4. Go to Components | SP Upgrade
  5. Fill in the database details of the Joomla 1.5 database (you need to be able to access the db from the 2.5 host)
  6. Configure SP Upgrade - Migrate to Joomla 2.5
  7. Choose the options you want ported — typically I would select all options except template
  8. Click the Migrate button
  9. A new window will open and show progress of each step of the conversion, including user migration, categories, sections, content, etc. Make note of any errors that appear. Don’t worry if the dialog stays blank for 30 seconds or so – this is normal. This will take some time, even on small websites.
  10. Migrating to Joomla 2.5 with SP Upgrade
  11. Copy over your image files, e.g. you may copy the images/stories folder into the J2.5 images folder so that you do not need to realign links in your content
  12. Choose and install a template (or port your existing template to J2.5)
  13. Go into the module manager and change positions to match those of the new template
  14. Make note of all extensions that need to be installed on the new 2.5 installation. Verify by looking in the Joomla 1.5 extension manager. Many extensions do have a Joomla 2.5 version available so these would be ones that you will want to procure and install. For those that don’t have a Joomla 2.5 version either decide upon an alternative or leave this functionality out of the mix for the moment.
  15. Install Akeeba Backup
  16. Install and configure relevant extensions
  17. Repopulate extensions, e.g. create galleries and upload pictures, for image galleries.
  18. Test installation

 

Using JUpgrade to Migrate to Joomla 2.5

Note: JUpgrade works in a different manner to SP Upgrade. It also only migrates data but instead of installing into a blank Joomla 2.5x installation one just installs JUpgrade into the old Joomla 1.5 website. Once run JUpgrade will download and unpack the latest Joomla and migrate the appropriate data.

You will need to use JUpgrade if you have problems with SP Upgrade or if you need to port any of the following 3rd party extensions:

  • Adminpraise
  • Kunena
  • K2
  • JoomComment
  • Virtuemart
  • redSHOP
  • CommunityBuilder
  • JCE
  • Contact Enhanced
  • JomSocial
  • redFORM
  • JEvents
  • Akeeba Backup
  • Jumi
  • redMEMBER

 

  1. Ensure you have CURL enabled
  2. Download the latest version of JUpgrade  http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/migration-a-conversion/joomla-migration/11658
  3. Install using the Extension Manager
  4. Install JUpgrade for Joomla 2.5 migration
  5. Go to Extensions | Plugin Manager
  6. Enable the “System – Mootools Upgrade” plugin
  7. Go to Components | JUpgrade
  8. Click on Parameters
  9. Make sure you have appropriate values in the settings and turn on the debug option
  10. Save
  11. Start the migration. JUpgrade essentially downloads the latest copy of Joomla and installs it in the cmsroot/jupgrade/ folder ready for your joomla 2.5 upgrade
  12. Jupgrade - upgrade to Joomla 2.5
  13. Jupgrade showing progress during Joomla 2.5 migration upgrade
  14. Wait for the completion message
  15. Jupgrade - Joomla 2.5 upgrade complete
  16. Use the links for Site and Administrator to test your installation.
  17. If you did port 3rd Party extensions you will need to install the Joomla 2.5 versions of these in your new installation (remember it was only data that was ported and the old extensions would not work on Joomla 2.5 anyway).
  18. Copy over your image files, e.g. you may copy the images/stories folder into the J2.5 images folder so that you do not need to realign links in your content
  19. Choose and install a template (or port your existing template to J2.5)
  20. Go into the module manager and change positions to match those of the new template
  21. Make note of all extensions that need to be installed on the new 2.5 installation, i.e. the ones not ported by JUpgrade. Verify by looking in the Joomla 1.5 extension manager. Many extensions do have a Joomla 2.5 version available so these would be ones that you will want to procure and install. For those that don’t have a Joomla 2.5 version either decide upon an alternative or leave this functionality out of the mix for the moment.
  22. Install Akeeba Backup
  23. Install and configure relevant extensions
  24. Repopulate extensions, e.g. create galleries and upload pictures, for image galleries.
  25. Test installation

Finalising your Upgrade to Joomla 2.5

So last steps is to go through your new site, verify that all extensions are working, that there are no broken links and images and that all of your users have been ported over successfully.

There you go. Hopefully this will help you to upgrade to Joomla 2.5.

9 thoughts on “Migrating to Joomla 2.5 Step by Step Tutorial

  1. Hi, thanks so much for this list, on jupgrade steps

    the step that I had missed in the official requirements was to “enable curl” .

    I was running it offline using xampp so a relatively easy fix, once I googled it.

    No curl prevented lots of things not working properly, like not passing check and cleanup, not downloading joomla 2.5, not unpacking, not installing etc etc.

    You can manually do these steps and It seems to do stuff, but fails.

    PS Phpinfo.php does not show curl at all, until it is enabled.

    appreciate the clear and detailed list. thanks

    1. Well components are a different matter I’m afraid. You will need to check with the extension developer to see if they have an udated version or find an alternative 2.5 compatible component that covers what you need.

  2. I read the upgrade directions for both applications. However, neither states how to move the 2.5 version folder up to the root site folder. I was able to do a successful upgrade using JUpgrade and the site displayed wonderfully using the additional path parameter (“/jupgrade”). However, I could not get the new site moved to my original site. I would appreciate some input.

    In addition, new table entries were added to mySQL database with “j25_” prefix. My 1.5 version uses “jos_” prefix. Should I be updating my configuration.php on my old site or just use the configuration.php file located under /jupgrade?

    Thank you.

    1. Hi Jeff,

      Re the DB. Yep that’s normal. Jupgrade works in that manner, i.e. it leaves all of your Joomla 1.5 tables intact and inserts Joomla 2.5 tables into the same database. The version of the website on /jupgrade reads the second set of tables. There is no need for you to edit any configurations.

      In relation to having two copies of the site, that is also normal. Once you have tested that the new version (/jupgrade/) is working fine the standard golive procedure would be:

      Take an archive of / (the old 1.5 website) — I usually just move all of the files for the old website into a folder called OLD
      Either take an Akeeba archive or /jupgrade/ and install in the root OR if you have the appropriate php permissions just move everything from /jupgrade/ to the root

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