Telltale signs that you need to overhaul your website
How often should you update or rebuild your website?
Joomla version release dates
Calculating the Joomla “version gap”
The title of this article is a paraphrase of the thousands of questions posted on internet discussion forums about problems that people encounter before, during and after updating or upgrading from one version of Joomla to the next. I’ll use the term “updating” in this article even though it does not apply—in a strictly technical sense—when migrating between major releases of Joomla (i.e. J! 1.0 ? J! 1.5 ? J! 2.5 ? J! 3.x)
Here are a few examples of the questions, problems and issues (and complaints) on this subject:
- “I'm trying to upgrade from J! 3.2.7 to J! 3.7.4 but not getting very far, because neither the Joomla! Update component nor the update-Joomla-via-the-extension-manager “method” are working the way I understand they’re supposed to. My Joomla! Update component does not recognise that J! 3.7.4 exists; it displays No updates available. You already have the latest Joomla version, 3.2.7”.
- “I tried to upgrade from J! 3.2.7 to 3.5.1 using Extensions » Manage » Install but I ran into problems as I did when trying to use the Joomla! Update component to go to J! 3.7.4: The new error message reads Cannot find XML setup file. I feel like I must be doing one of the steps incorrectly.”{footnote"Source: ibid.
- “I ran into nasty problem with old Joomla 3.x install from an old server on a new one with PHP 7. The Joomla filesystem and MySQL database tables have been copied to the new location. However, my website is unusable because of some incompatibility with PHP 7
stderr: PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Cannot use Joomla\\String\\String as String because 'String' is a special class name in /libraries/vendor/joomla/registry/src/Format/Json.php on line 12.
My original server is no longer available to me anymore and therefore it’s not possible to upgrade Joomla there and do the move again; furthermore, the new server does not have PHP 5.5, so it’s a catch 22.”Source: Joomla forum, 16-Jan-2018. - “After a few years using Joomla 1.0.13, I get a blank page in my frontend all of sudden; the backend works OK and I haven’t made any changes at all. I enabled Joomla debug but I had no luck in discovering the cause of the problem. I’ve looked everywhere but can’t find the solution to my problem.”Source: Joomla forum, 26-Mar-2010.
- “I think I need to update my version of Joomla. I don’t know which version of Joomla I am currently using because I cannot access my backend. What is the best version of Joomla that I should use instead? I have not received any news about new versions of Joomla since I originally built my website about 10 years ago. I am very happy with Joomla except that I cannot login to my backend to update things. Can anyone give me pointers on what I should do next”.
Why does it take so long for people to realise that J! 3.2.7 is outdated—that the version of Joomla running their website is now over thirty-something releases behind a more recent version? It should also be noted that, when J! 3.7.4 was the latest version at the time, J! 3.2.7 was already more than 3½ years old. This means that, for 3½ years, this personSource: Joomla forum, 24-Aug-2017. had been unwilling or unable to update their version of Joomla.
Without putting too fine a point on it, yes, this person was not “doing one of the steps” correctly. Joomla extensions are installed (and updated) with Extensions » Manage » Install; the Joomla CMS—the core of Joomla—is updated with Components » Joomla! Update. These are two completely different processes. The Joomla! Update component was introduced with J! 3.0; before J! 3.5.0 it was possible to use the Extensions » Manage » Install method but, from J! 3.5.0 onwards, the only supported method was to use Components » Joomla! Update. Why people think they can use the “installation method via the extensions manager”, to workaround problems they were having with Joomla! Update, is a mystery that no-one can explain. Folklore is no substitute for science.
People should remember, when asking for help on a technical forum, that technical people—who offer their help—like to see technical details relating to problems. Terms, like “old Joomla install”, don’t convey any meaningful level of technicality. When someone uses the word “old” this will be interpreted in different ways by different people. In the world of website development, I happen to believe that software older than six months ago is old; some people put the figure at closer to 2½ years. Whatever definition you have for the word “old”, we can all agree that if someone states they’re currently using a specific version number of something (e.g. J! 3.4.8) then we all know what we’re discussing. So, while people seek advice about an unspecified version [number] of Joomla—about which we have no idea how “old” it may be—they’re customers of webhosting providers who, themselves, withdrew support for PHP 5.5. As more versions of PHP reach end-of-life, more webhosting providers will withdraw support for outdated versions of PHP with the result that a many more Joomla websites will eventually become unmaintainable unless they’re also updated; it’s as logical as night following day.
The operative words in this example are “after a few years” and “I haven’t made any changes”. In other words, this person has admitted they have not undertaken regular site maintenance over a number of years and now, “suddenly”, they’ve discovered problems.
If this sounds like you then I feel sorry for you. How would you react if someone asked you this question? I don’t think this kind of question needs deep analysis. If anyone can solve this kind of problem quickly, easily and at no financial cost, I would love to hear from you. However, there may be some useful tips in this article that will help.
A common element in the above examples is the increased risk that problems occur as websites age over time resulting in those site becoming no non-maintainable. We will see how the risk of non-maintainability increases with website age, how often people should be updating their Joomla software (in order to reduce that risk) and a ready-reckoner to show you how out of date your Joomla website may actually be.
