Thread

I am about to upgrade a site from 1.6.8 to 2.1.3.  I read through the update instructions, but there are a few points that are not completely clear to me, with particular regard to template flat files.

The instructions say to “upload” the flat files to “system/expressionengine/templates/<site_short_name>/”. 

First question: since the files for 2.x have not yet been uploaded to the server at this point in the instructions, I assume “upload” should read “download” or copy;

Second question: what is <site_short_name>?  Can I just make this up?  On my existing 2.x sites I see that this folder is named “default_site” - is that what I should use?

Thanks!

Are you currently saving templates as files at all? Yes, “default_site” would be such a short name.

Yes, I am saving templates as flat files.  My assumption is that I should copy those from the old EE installation to the 2.x EE folder “system/expressionengine/templates/default_site/” before the upgrade process.  Is that correct?

And one other question - when I create subdirectories for my different template groups in the folder “system/expressionengine/templates/<site_short_name>/” do I need to append “.group” the way EE2x does by default?

Hi, roi.agneta. To be honest, I’d have to test this myself. I don’t normally use saved templates on 1.x sites. Let me find out what I can over the weekend.

Thanks, Sue.  I think I am going to set up an experimental site on my local server to see what happens.

Roi

Hi Roi Agneta,

The installer should sort out the renaming of the templates for you so you shouldn’t need to do that. Just copy/upload the old 1.x templates to the system/expressionengine/templates/default_site directory.

Cheers

Greg

Thanks Greg and Sue.  Everything worked out fine once I created the “default_site” directory.  I ran a trial on my local server and it does not seem to like anything other than “default_site”.  I think an update to the documentation is in order - it should also mention that the modified template files do not get saved as flat files, so you have to go back and re save each one from the database.

I see from another post that I am not the only one confused by the upgrade documentation.  I also see that Sue will be rewriting it to provide some clarity.  Sue, I would be happy to “test drive” your revisions if you like.

One more thing to mention.  After the upgrade, I went to Synchronize Template in the CP and saw a bunch of warning messages that said “No File Exists”.  At first I was really freaked out, thinking that all of my templates had be lost (although I did have multiple backup copies), then I figured out that the upgrade process does not resave the new templates as flat files.  That is fine, but it is a bit confusing, since the “Allow Templates to be Saved as Files” is checked in the Preferences panel, the directory path is set, and, although terribly confusing, the documentation seems to suggest they will be.

If the upgrade is not going to resave Templates as flat files, then the system should go to its default in the CP, i.e. No set for Saving.  Better yet, since it seems to most of the way there, why not just save the files?

What I did was create a local install with my templates in a folder called /edit. (I kept it out of the /system folder since I didn’t want to have to remember to put it back in again after I updated.)

The update for EE2.x wanted me to put the files in a folder called default_site in /system/expressionengine/templates folder.

After the upgrade finished, there was a 1_x folder created (going from memory since I was on another computer than this one.) and my old templates ended up there.

However, in my /edit folder, the new templates showed up there, so making a modification to an existing template that had been saved earlier was done in the /edit folder.

Does that help?

Sue, thanks for the follow up.  As I indicated in my earlier post, I got through it OK after going through a process similar to the one you describe.  My point is that the documentation is ambiguous and incomplete regarding saved template files.  I have it figured out at this point - although I am too not happy about having had to spend so much time playing detective for something that should be well-documented - but I am sure others will be equally confused, so I would urge you to revise the docs to clarify the points we have been discussing.

Roi

Roi,

Thanks for following up and apologies if the documentation made the process longer than intended. It is something under review at the moment so expect improvements in the future. Feel free to start a new thread if you have any more questions.