Blogging for fun and profit

Upgrading joomla to the latest version is very easy

1. Download the patch to the current stable version (joomla download page)
2. Unpack the patch
3. Upload the patch to your server overwriting old files

Few days ago Joomla has been updated to version 1.5.10 because of some security vulnerabilities.

Upgrading to Joomla 1.5.10 from Joomla 1.5.9 is straightforward, the required patch is 1.5.9 to 1.5.10 Upgrade Package

Upgrading Joomla 1.5 for multiple websites

My problem was upgrading 20 joomla installations automatically, not manually.

Each website has the Joomla SEO Patch, which has to be upgraded too, after the Joomla core upgrade.

I created a bash script to do everything automatically.

I use this directory structure for my websites: every domain is linked to a directory of my dedicated server, located in /var/www/websites

So I have

/var/www/websites/site1.com

/var/www/websites/site2.com

…

/var/www/websites/site20.com

I downloaded the 1.5.9 to 1.5.10 Upgrade Package to /root directory, I unpacked it using the command unzip Joomla_1.5.9_to_1.5.10-Stable-Patch_Package.zip in the directory /root/PATCH-1.5.9–1.5.10

I also downloaded the Joomla 1.5.10 SEO PATCH and unpacked it into the directory /root/PATCH-SEO

The script for a Joomla automatic upgrade is the following

cd /var/www/websites

for F in `ls -1`; do chattr +i $F/robots.txt; chattr +i $F/.htaccess; done

for D in `ls -1`; do cp -r /root/PATCH-1.5.9–1.5.10/* $D ; done

for D in `ls -1`; do cp -r /root/PATCH-SEO/* $D ; done

The first line changes your CWD (current working directory)

The second makes your robots.txt and .htacces immutable, thus avoiding overwriting.

The third line patches Joomla

The last line applies the Joomla Seo Patch

Have fun

BE CAREFUL, those commands worked for my dedicated server, your configuration and/or installation paths and versions will probably be different!!!

Using phpmyadmin frontend to manage your database is straightforward. Just put in the address bar of your browser your server ip address followed by /phpMyAdmin (for example: http://192.168.1.1/phpMyAdmin .

Using it on my Godaddy Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) showed a little warning: “cannot load mcrypt extension”

What is mcrypt?
Mcrypt is an encryption library which supports various algorithms like DES, TripleDES, Blowfish, TWOFISH, 3-WAY, SAFER-SK64, SAFER-SK128, TEA, RC2 and GOST in CBC, OFB, CFB and ECB cipher modes.

How to install mcrypt under Fedora Core 7 ?
Very easy, simply write these commands as root:

yum install libmcrypt
yum install php-mcrypt*
yum install php-mhash*
service httpd restart

Reload your phpMyAdmin page, and the warning won’t show again.

Like me, hundred of persons were wasting their money with 10 or 20 different shared hosting accounts at godaddy.
Once one figures out how much a VPS - Virtual Private Server (or VDS - Virtual Dedicated Server) costs, the following question arise: why am I paying $100 per month for 20 different shared hosting accounts when I can purchase a Virtual Dedicated Server for a cheap price?!?

The decision involves an analysis of dedicated server pros and cons.

VDS pro:
- unlimited website hosting (just realize how to use Apache Virtual Hosts - VHosts)
- very large bandwidth
- very large disk space
- ssh, ftp, mysql, phpmyadmin, … access
- unlimited root access
- no bad neighbours (spam, casino online or porn sites)

VDS cons:
- you must achieve security yourself
- you are responsible about all aspects of your server

I decided to switch from shared hosting to VDS and I am very happy with it!

If you need help in choosing your godaddy package or simply need additional informations, leave a comment!