How to upgrade to Magento 1.9?

Question

I am in a project which is updating the my customer website from 1.5 to 1.9. I have already searched on the Internet but almost all of guides on there is lack of steps and information. I can't find any guide that helps me upgrade the system in a full and clear way. Please, any one, which has experience about of UPGRADE Magento from 1.5 to 1.9, gives me the full process of this case step-by-step.

Answer 1

There are a few ways in which you can do the upgrade.

1. Use Magento Connect
2. Start with a fresh code-base and the old database
3. Manually "merge" the new code-base into the old

NOTE: A version of option #3 is explained by Magento themselves here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/ee11302-ce18-install-upgrade

All upgrades start in the same way: backup your database!

1. Upgrade using Magento Connect

There is a way to do a core upgrade with Magento Connect from within Magento; however, I've never done it this way (even in a development environment) because I don't trust what it does (potentially deleting files I want to keep). You just upgrade each "core" module like you would any other extension from within Magento Connect.

2. Start Fresh

This is probably the easiest if you don't have many (or any) third-party or custom modules or themes installed. The basic idea is you download the latest version from magento.com, extract the folder, then just copy your app/etc/local.xml file from the old version to the new version and replace all the contents of the old version with the new. Example steps below:

1. Download latest version from magento.com
2. Extract files to some place on your computer (e.g. C:\temp or /tmp in Linux)
3. Copy local.xml from the current installation to C:\temp\magento-1.9\app\etc\local.xml or /tmp/magento-1.9/app/etc/local.xml
4. Move the current installation to a different place (or rename the base folder holding all Magento code)
5. Copy C:\temp\magento-1.9 (/tmp/magento-1.9) to where the old installation was
6. Optional for dev only: Copy any uploaded media from the old installation to the new

At this point Magento should be upgrading the database with any changes that are necessary.

3. Manually "merge" the new code-base into the old

This is the way I normally upgrade Magento because we use a version control system (Git) and it's much simpler this way (for me).

1. Download latest version of Magento
2. Extract files to temporary location
3. Open your favorite "diff" program (Meld, Beyond Compare, Kaleidoscope, etc.) and do a folder compare of the current installation to the newly extracted files

Assuming the new Magento code is on the "right" side of the compare, and the old installation is on the "left" side, it's generally safe to move all code from app/code/core and app/code/community to the left, as well as all the base and default theme files.

The next step after that is to go through all the themes and verify that any custom themes or customizations also get compared with the latest Magento theme it inherits from (e.g. if you base a theme on base/default, make sure you compare base/mytheme to base/default and bring over any changes like the formkey element now included in all forms).

All Installation Methods

The last few steps to do in any Magento installation is to clear all caches (manually deleting all files/folders in var/cache, as well as flushing any redis or memcache databases in use). Then finally just browse to your Magento installation. Magento will recognize there is new code and run database upgrades automatically.

Answer 2

5 Steps to Upgrade Magento to 1.9

As Magento 1.9 has more advantages as more necessary we have to upgrade our system to this version. Today, Magento tutorial helps you upgrade your Magento to version 1.9 within 5 steps below:

STEP 1: – Enabling the maintenance mode

It is important to create a testing or a parallel development system which is as same as the existing production system. Here’s how you can create the similar one.

1.cd /magento_folder

2.#for example: cd /var/www/magento

3.touch maintenance.flag

Once you’re done with creation of the testing system, ensure to follow all the upgrade steps in the same.

STEP 2- Backup of your database and directories

Here, you need to take a complete backup of your Magento e-store’s database and directories to prevent loss of important information during the upgrade process.

STEP 3- Ready to upgrade

As a step marking the initiation of Magento upgrade process, enter the following commands in the command prompt:

1.cd /magento_folder

2.cd /magento_folder

3.rm -rf var/cache/* var/session/*

4.chmod -R 777 /magento_folder

5.chmod 550 ./mage

6./mage mage-setup .

7./mage config-set preferred_state stable

8./mage list-installed

On clicking “Enter” key after inserting the command: ‘./mage list-installed’ in the command prompt, the Magento modules would be displayed in the manner as shown below:

Installed package for channel 'community' :

Lib_Js_Ext 1.8.1.0 stable

Lib_LinLibertineFont 2.8.14.1 stable

Lib_Js_TinyMCE 3.4.7.0 stable

Lib_Js_Calendar 1.51.1.1 stable

Lib_Phpseclib 1.5.0.0 stable

Lib_ZF 1.11.1.0 stable

Lib_Js_Prototype 1.8.0.0.4 stable

Lib_ZF_Locale 1.11.1.0 stable

Mage_All_Latest 1.8.1.0 stable

Interface_Adminhtml_Default 1.8.1.0 stable

Interface_Frontend_Default 1.8.1.0 stable

Interface_Install_Default 1.8.1.0 stable

Mage_Downloader 1.8.1.0 stable

Mage_Centinel 1.8.1.0 stable

Interface_Frontend_Base_Default 1.8.1.0 stable

Phoenix_Moneybookers 1.3.2 stable

Mage_Compiler 1.8.1.0 stable

Magento_Mobile 1.8.1.0.23.1 stable

Mage_Core_Adminhtml 1.8.1.0 stable

Mage_Core_Modules 1.8.1.0 stable

Lib_Varien 1.8.1.0 stable

Lib_Google_Checkout 1.8.1.0 stable

Lib_Js_Mage 1.8.1.0 stable

Mage_Locale_en_US 1.8.1.0 stable

Lib_Mage 1.8.1.0 stable

Under rare situations wherein the modules are not listed as per the above format, you may use the below command to initiate the upgrade process:

./mage install http://connect20.magentocommerce.com/community Mage_All_Latest – force

Once your Magento modules get listed in the desired manner, opt for using the following commands:

./mage list-upgrades

./mage upgrade-all

With the completion of the upgrade process, you’ll view a list of modules with tags viz: “already installed” and “package upgraded”. Here, you need to make sure that your permissions are set back to normal. For this, you need to enter the following commands in the command prompt:

php shell/indexer.php reindexall

chmod -R 644 ./*

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

chmod 550 ./mage

STEP 4- Compatibility your store with third-party extensions

Prior to migrating your Magento powered e-store to the all-new 1.9.0.1 version, make it a point to check for the compatibility of different third-party extensions on your e-commerce website.

STEP 5- Go online with Magento website

Remove any security flags and making the site available for the general public: cd /magento_folder

rm -f maintenance.flag

Enjoy, hope this guide help you to have up-to-date magento system Source: magentotutorial.net