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Sorry I can't be more specific, but I'm so broken that I can't even find out my version numbers any more. I was following the instructions for upgrading from 2.5 to 3, and I had upgraded to the latest 2.5 release (2.5.28 or something like that, I think) and when I finally got to the point of telling it to install 3.x, it took some time downloading and extracting, then gave me an error. Now whenever I go to use the site, all I can get is: Fatal error: Class 'T3Path' not found in /home/myusername/sgdk2.enigmadream.com/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/core/common.php on line 68

I wasn't being particularly meticulous in following the instructions because the site was already broken, which was why I was upgrading in the first place. (My Jooma download component was just giving me an empty white page.) Nevertheless I have 2 backups I'm considering going back to, but wanted to check if this was a known problem or if there was some other solution here. I had left the site unattended for a couple years, so maybe some hacker got in and corrupted me while I wasn't paying attention. But the site was still operational before the upgrade; now I've got nothing.

Actually before I was getting the error above I had a different error that I tried to resolve by editing code. I should probably show that error too because it's more likely to be the one that someone would have seen first:

Warning: require_once(/home/myusername/sgdk2.enigmadream.com/plugins/system/jat3DSjat3DScoreDScommon.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/myusername/sgdk2.enigmadream.com/plugins/system/jat3/jat3.php on line 19 Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '/home/myusername/sgdk2.enigmadream.com/plugins/system/jat3DSjat3DScoreDScommon.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php:/usr/local/php5/lib/pear') in /home/myusername/sgdk2.enigmadream.com/plugins/system/jat3/jat3.php on line 19

If I rename my jat3 and jdownloads directories, then I think it skips the really bad errors and gets me to the following error:

1054 - Unknown column 'c.version' in 'field list' SQL=SELECT c.id, c.asset_id, c.access, c.alias, c.checked_out, c.checked_out_time, c.created_time, c.created_user_id, c.description, c.extension, c.hits, c.language, c.level, c.lft, c.metadata, c.metadesc, c.metakey, c.modified_time, c.note, c.params, c.parent_id, c.path, c.published, c.rgt, c.title, c.modified_user_id, c.version, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(c.alias) != 0 THEN CONCAT_WS(':', c.id, c.alias) ELSE c.id END as slug FROM j25_categories as c LEFT JOIN j25_categories AS s ON (s.lft <= c.lft AND s.rgt >= c.rgt) OR (s.lft > c.lft AND s.rgt < c.rgt) LEFT JOIN (SELECT cat.id as id FROM j25_categories AS cat JOIN j25_categories AS parent ON cat.lft BETWEEN parent.lft AND parent.rgt WHERE parent.extension = 'com_content' AND parent.published != 1 GROUP BY cat.id) AS badcats ON badcats.id = c.id WHERE (c.extension='com_content' OR c.extension='system') AND c.access IN (1,1) AND c.published = 1 AND s.id=8 AND badcats.id is null GROUP BY c.id, c.asset_id, c.access, c.alias, c.checked_out, c.checked_out_time, c.created_time, c.created_user_id, c.description, c.extension, c.hits, c.language, c.level, c.lft, c.metadata, c.metadesc, c.metakey, c.modified_time, c.note, c.params, c.parent_id, c.path, c.published, c.rgt, c.title, c.modified_user_id, c.version ORDER BY c.lft

After restorign from backup, all I get is a blank page on a front end and the following error on the back end:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method JAdministrator::setHeader() in /home/myusername/sgdk2.enigmadream.com/libraries/cms/html/behavior.php on line 765

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5
  • Ouch! The best course of action is probably to restore back to a working website and update Joomla and all third party extensions to the latest versions to stabilise the existing website before attempting the Joomla 2.5 to 3.x upgrade. You should also check that all the third party extensions are compatible with Joomla 3.x.
    – Neil Robertson
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:08
  • As I said, I just tried the restore and the site's still non-functional. So I'm trying a new Joomla 3.4 install. I cleaned out the directory, extracted the files, and am walking through the install process.
    – BlueMonkMN
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:10
  • 2
    If the old website is unrecoverable, you could build a new Joomla website in a sub directory and use SP Transfer or similar to migrate content from the old website to the new website.
    – Neil Robertson
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:17
  • Can you add an answer briefly explaining what SP transfer is. I will probably use Akeeba Kickstart to restore one of my backups to an offline directory and do something like that. Unless there's a way to "import" existing jDownload content from an existing old-format database. I still have all my old tables under the j25_ prefix. I think most of my content was in the database.
    – BlueMonkMN
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:21
  • @NeilRobertson I managed to get the restored site working in a subdirectory (sgdk2.enigmadream.com/old), so now I'm guessing I just need to understand how to transfer content from an old 2.5 site to a new 3.4 site.
    – BlueMonkMN
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:46

2 Answers 2

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The cause of my initial error messages was the failure to disable all the appropriate extensions before upgrating, namely the JA T3 Framework and both pieces of the jDownloads component. The way to get around this is to rename the directories listed in the error message -- the directories that represent these failing components after upgrade. Apparently Joomla is smart enough not to try to run code that it can't find. However, if the error was encountered in the middle of an upgrade, then the database schema still hasn't been upgraded because the failing components caused the upgrade process to stop before it's complete. A simple refresh of the finalize step page after correcting the component errors will allow the upgrade to complete, resolving the database schema-based errors, however, that requires that you remember the URL for that finalize step page, which I have lost at this point. I learned all this by re-attempting the upgrade and paying more attention.

However, since the upgrade process still didn't allow me to keep my jDownloads data (could not find a version of jDownloads that would accept the fact that my table was still named jdownloads_cats instead of jdownloads_categories), I am re-implementing as a new installation and just manually re-entering everything with much help from copy/paste functions. Hopefully next time I leave the site unattended for a couple years, the upgrade process will be smoother. Joomla seems pretty smart about some things, but it's quite a complex system and with all the third party pieces, something's bound to go wrong I guess. I was impressed and pleased that simply renaming the directory of a failing component was a step in the right direction.

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  • 3
    Minor updates should always be fine, however when migrating to a new major version, e.g 2.5 to 3.x, then always ensure you have a backup, take note of all 3rd party extensions you have, then make sure those AND your template are compatible with the Joomla version you're migrating to. Be sure to remember this for the next major update ;)
    – Lodder
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 19:20
  • 1
    Glad you figured it out... Yes, Joomla sometimes can be stubborn and pretty hard to tame, but she is still best looking girl on the block ;-)
    – Mikan
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 10:18
  • @Lodder I'm not sure that would've helped in this case because the only component I wanted to keep was jDownloads, which is available on the current version of Joomla, but the upgrade process seems broken. Fortunately I did have and use backups to recover data for manual re-implementation.
    – BlueMonkMN
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 12:15
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If the old website can't easily be recovered, one option may be to build a new Joomla website using the latest version (currently Joomla v3.4.8) in a sub directory and then use SP Transfer or Ji Migrator or similar to migrate content from the old website to the new website.

SP Transfer helps with transferring content from Joomla 2.5 to 3.x (and 2.5 to 2.5 and 3.x to 3.x and other combinations) including Users, Menus, Categories, Articles, Contacts and Modules etc.

Ji Migrator is similar.

For more information on SP Transfer, see: http://www.kainotomo.com/products/sp-transfer

For more information on Ji Migrator, see: http://www.jinfinity.com/our-extensions/migrator-for-joomla

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3
  • Do you know if there is anything that will help migrate content from jDownloads 1.9.0 to 3.2.41, assuming the components you mention only target Joomla itself and not add-on components?
    – BlueMonkMN
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:50
  • jdownloads.net/documentations/category/migration
    – Neil Robertson
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 1:59
  • 1
    jDownloads versions 3.2.41, 2.5.30, 1.9.2 and 1.9.1 are all failing to install because they are looking for a table called jdownloads_categories, but my 1.9.0 database is calling it jdownloads_cats. I only have about 20 downloads. Maybe it's time I cut and run, just manually recreate all the downloads content.
    – BlueMonkMN
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 3:12

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