Kier
Wed 1st Aug '01, 2:01pm
To upgrade your vBulletin installation to the latest version, firstly, go to the members' area (http://vbulletin.com/members/) and enter your customer number and password, then download the latest version of vBulletin.
Next, open your board's admin control panel and set the Bulletin Board Active option to NO. This will temporarily turn off your forums to all users except you and any other administrators you have.
Next, unzip the file you downloaded from the members' area, and upload all the files to your site via FTP, overwriting the old versions. You will probably not need to re-upload the images, but check the announcement in the Announcements Forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=1) to see if any of the image files have been changed and need to be re-uploaded.
Note that it is very important that you upload vbulletin.style to your forums, as this file will contain the latest set of master templates. Uploading vbulletin.style will not overwrite any templates that you have customized through the control panel.
Let's imagine that you are going to upgrade your board from 2.0.0 to 2.0.3. vBulletin upgrades are incremental, so in order to perform the upgrade, you will need to run the upgrade scripts for 2.0.0->2.0.1, then the script for 2.0.1->2.0.2, then finally the upgrade script for 2.0.2->2.0.3.
The upgrade files are numbered sequentially, and each time you run an upgrade, it is a good idea to note down somewhere what the number of the last upgrade script you ran was. The announcement in the Announcements Forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=1) will tell you which scripts you need to run to upgrade your board.
When you have found out which upgrade scripts you need to run, you should open the first script in the list in your web browser. The script will be located at www.yoursite.com/forum/admin/upgradex.php, where www.yoursite.com/forums/ is the address of your board, and x is the number of the first script you need to run.
Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed through the various steps of the upgrade script, and when the script is finished, proceed to the next script in the list if necessary.
After you have finished running the scripts, check the announcement in the Announcements Forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=1) once again, and look to see if you need to revert/modify any of your customized templates. From time to time, changes are made to the templates to fix bugs or add new functionality. You should carefully check through the list of changes to make sure that your board will function correctly after the upgrade, if you have customized any of the templates mentioned in the announcement.
Finally, after you have checked your board to see that all is well, return to your admin control panel, and turn the board back on for your users by changing the Bulletin Board Active option back to Yes, and hopefully, you will now have a fully functioning and up-to-date installation of vBulletin.
Next, open your board's admin control panel and set the Bulletin Board Active option to NO. This will temporarily turn off your forums to all users except you and any other administrators you have.
Next, unzip the file you downloaded from the members' area, and upload all the files to your site via FTP, overwriting the old versions. You will probably not need to re-upload the images, but check the announcement in the Announcements Forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=1) to see if any of the image files have been changed and need to be re-uploaded.
Note that it is very important that you upload vbulletin.style to your forums, as this file will contain the latest set of master templates. Uploading vbulletin.style will not overwrite any templates that you have customized through the control panel.
Let's imagine that you are going to upgrade your board from 2.0.0 to 2.0.3. vBulletin upgrades are incremental, so in order to perform the upgrade, you will need to run the upgrade scripts for 2.0.0->2.0.1, then the script for 2.0.1->2.0.2, then finally the upgrade script for 2.0.2->2.0.3.
The upgrade files are numbered sequentially, and each time you run an upgrade, it is a good idea to note down somewhere what the number of the last upgrade script you ran was. The announcement in the Announcements Forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=1) will tell you which scripts you need to run to upgrade your board.
When you have found out which upgrade scripts you need to run, you should open the first script in the list in your web browser. The script will be located at www.yoursite.com/forum/admin/upgradex.php, where www.yoursite.com/forums/ is the address of your board, and x is the number of the first script you need to run.
Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed through the various steps of the upgrade script, and when the script is finished, proceed to the next script in the list if necessary.
After you have finished running the scripts, check the announcement in the Announcements Forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=1) once again, and look to see if you need to revert/modify any of your customized templates. From time to time, changes are made to the templates to fix bugs or add new functionality. You should carefully check through the list of changes to make sure that your board will function correctly after the upgrade, if you have customized any of the templates mentioned in the announcement.
Finally, after you have checked your board to see that all is well, return to your admin control panel, and turn the board back on for your users by changing the Bulletin Board Active option back to Yes, and hopefully, you will now have a fully functioning and up-to-date installation of vBulletin.