D4.6.8 to D6.10: Upgrading to PHP5.2

When I started the process of upgrading my site, I assumed I might have an issue with MySQL and PHP versions. In fact, it was this concern that slowed my initial start. After reading the varies INSTALL.txt files, I saw that upgrades shouldn't be an issue. So, I upgraded and as it turns out, both sites run ok on PHP 4.4.0 and MySQL distribution 3.25.

Knowing, however, that there were modules in D6 that needed PHP5.2, I ventured forward and upgraded both MySQL and PHP to their latest stable versions. I assumed I would be okay with the upgrade because the INSTALL.txt in D4.6.8 says "Drupal requires a web server, PHP4 (4.3.3 or greater) or PHP5 (http://www.php.net/) and either MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/) or PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org/)."

Well, the MySQL upgrade went okay but not the PHP upgrade. My D4 site bugged out. I honestly don't recall the error but it was fatal. My host provided quickly backed me down to PHP4.4.7 and my D4 site came back. Obviously, if I wanted to continue to have access to the D4 site (for quick references to old data), I would need to do one of three things:

• Stay at PHP4.4.7 and forgo the PHP5.2 modules that I wanted
• Say good bye to my old site
• Move my old site to another server configured to run it

I chose the last option. After I got my D6 dev site to the point where I didn't mind the public seeing it, I started the launch process. These are the steps I took.

• I create d4.idcminnovations.com and moved the D4 site from idcminnovations.com to d4. D4 doesn't have an option to put the site into maintenance mode (from what I can see) so I went to access control and said that anonymous couldn't see the site anymore. That way, visitors would accidentally find my old content.
• I copied the dev D6 site from cindymccourt.com to idcminnovations.com and allowed both domain to link to the same database.
• I started the process of setting up a local host on one of my pc's at home. I have two (one that has a local setup for D6 and now the second has a setup that will run D4).
• I used FTP and copied Drupal to the D4 localhost. I exported the database using phpmyadmin.
• On my localhost, I used a local version of phpmyadmin and created a database. Unfortunately, there is a 2mg limit on the file size you can upload using phpmyadmin. Not knowing if or how I could increase that limit, I proceed to manually upload the D4 database. I simply open the sql export in Notepad and copied the sql statements, a few at a time, to the SQL window in phpmyadmin and clicked GO.
• I changed the settings.php file to point to the new database and updated the userID and password. I also changed the url setting to be http://localhost/drupal.
• At first the login page didn't work. I looked for solutions, could find them, and closed the browser out of frustration. I came back a few minutes later, reopened the browser and launched the site. Tada! login worked. Don't ask me why. So, the lesson here is, trying closing and opening the browser.

The next step is to remove the D4 site completely from my server and request my provider upgrade server to PHP5.2. Of course, I still need to disconnect cindymccourt.com from the idcminnovations.com database AND I need to make a new dev site for my current D6 site but I will do that tomorrow.