Joomla Templates Club 406,261 posts

[seaneo Friend seaneoJoin date: December 2009Posts: 421Downloads:4Uploads:49 Thanks: 244 Thanked: 12 times in 1 posts]

#183428

Hello,

Being that I am only halfway literate in coding, file and folder structures, and often rely on verbatim code suggestions from developer and other users,I worry often about pending upgrades to the JA WALL (right now I am on 1.05) and I was wondering…:

What is the most effective way to track one’s custom changes, so as to know whether a new version install of JA WALL will blow those changes out of the water or not, and how to deal with that respectively.

Thanks in advance!

[arucardx Friend arucardxJoin date: July 2010Posts: 346Downloads:0Uploads:10 Thanks: 21 Thanked: 138 times in 104 posts]

#477591

Hi Sean,

That is a great question when it comes down to Joomla development. When we look at Joomla & Component customization, there is always the option of template overwrite which while not perfect, at least still allows for keeping of changes alongside updates. Unfortunately, when it comes down to template customization itself, there is no such option given than you are already doing template overwrite.

The best attempts I have seen so far to attempt to resolve this issue is from this developer,
Girolamo Tomaselli who developed Joverrider & Jhacks Pro component for Joomla.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/style-a-design/templating/22441
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/style-a-design/templating/22429

You can give that a try and see if it helps. Personally for me, I find it easier to simply create a folder and keep track of different file revisions that I have modified so I can always easily compare the codes later with a new/updated version thanks to JA Extension Manager + WinMerge. But ultimately, you really need to remember what changes have been made and where.

[seaneo Friend seaneoJoin date: December 2009Posts: 421Downloads:4Uploads:49 Thanks: 244 Thanked: 12 times in 1 posts]

#477639

Thanks for the input @arucardx , and I know this must be much easier for people who spend a lot of time in code, etc….

You wrote:
But ultimately, you really need to remember what changes have been made and where.

..so important!

I’m interested in feedback from Joomlart staff also, about which methods they their customers use, especially as they dole out so much custom code (thankfully!)

Any commnets/suggestions from Joomlart staff?

[Saguaros Moderator SaguarosJoin date: September 2014Posts: 31405Downloads:237Uploads:471 Thanks: 845 Thanked: 5346 times in 4964 posts]

#477746

Hi seaneo,

With JA Extension Manager component (JAEM), you can also find out which files are modified/changed. Please take a look at wiki document of this JAEM to know how it works

You should back-up your website and to make sure you cover all files not covered by JA Extensions Manager such as language files or user created files

After upgrading, you can check the History part. Here, you could see the notice of conflict files that have been modified by both User and Developer.

Then you view these conflict files, compare and apply the change/modification to the files in new version.

For example: http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/763/9860618156.png

1 user says Thank You to Saguaros for this useful post

1. seaneo

[Author]

Posts