Hello! Nirav Mehta here from Apps Magnet. Today, I will demonstrate a simple method to upgrade your activeCollab installation. If you’ve been looking for the simplest and best answer to “How to upgrade my activeCollab setup?”, this is the answer!
This method ensures minimal downtime and is also recommended by the activeCollab team.
activeCollab is a superb web based collaboration and project management system. Each new version packs useful features and bug fixes. But sometimes upgrades can be challenging. We will see how to avoid common problems in this video.
This video demonstrates downloading the latest activeCollab version, unzipping it, downloading your custom modules and themes from the server to your location installation, renaming local folders and uploading new files to the server. Then we rename the old folders – activecollab and public/assets for backup and make our newly uploaded folders live. Next step is clearing the cache and running the upgrade script.
These steps are documented on activeCollab site: the usual upgrade method and the minimal downtime upgrade method. This video uses the minimal downtime method.
This method will work with any recent activeCollab version, and future versions too!
These upgrade methods do not preserve any hacks you may have done to activeCollab.
BTW, we use this method when we upgrade and manage activeCollab for our acGarage customers. But we also maintain custom hacks that we support.
If your server has cPanel or similar web based control panel, you can upload the activeCollab zip file on the server and unzip it there. Then copy over files using web file manager. This cuts down the FTP process – the most boring and error prone step in the whole upgrade process.
acGarage is designed to simplify upgrades and system administration with activeCollab. We want you to focus on managing projects, not activeCollab!
acGarage is the managed expert service for continuous improvement of your activeCollab setup. It includes upgrades, hacks and housekeeping. You can sign up for an annual plan for only $199.
I hope this tutorial was helpful. We’ll look forward to your feedback. And if you want to sign up for acGarage, here’s the link.
You can watch this video tutorial on right or on Vimeo.
Very nice job taking this through beta and now production. I upgraded by beta instance to 1.0 and it really looks good. It appears that the Gantt Chart displays and outline views look great. Very impressive!!
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Wow – awesome video Nirav!
I also use this ‘minimal downtime method’ of upgrading activecollab. Another bonus of this method is that you can easily revert back to the previous installed version of activecollab if something does go wrong during the upgrade. (providing you backed up your database ofcourse!).
Thanks Leon!
ActiveCollab upgrade scripts do take a database backup. They keep this in the “work” folder. So if something goes wrong, you can revert the DB too.
This method is surely the most solid upgrade method as of date!