Hi all, when doing updates to your website using FTP of course, how do you make sure you
don't overwrite the last updater you installed?

In Filezilla that would be:
Edit ... Settings
Transfers ... File exists settings
Uploads ... Overwrite file if source file is newer (would be the recommended choice)

Gary

Hi Dano, the thing is, you should upload all files in the update package. Selecting overwrite is perfectly fine.
The files that should not be changed, or overwritten, are not included in the updater.

What Gary suggests would typically be fine, but it's also possible that a changed file might be the same filesize as the old file.
ABC may have changed to XYZ, resulting the the same file size, but a different file.

Andy used to have a video showing how to update. I'll see if I can locate it and post back here.

Thanks,
David

Hi, Video here should help - https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/tutorials/#update

David

Thanks David and Gary. I paid the extra service to have the updater done. I just want to make sure when
I make global changes to the whole site and then reload the whole site and all the files to it to the server
that im not overwriting the updater?? How would I know?

Dano

Ok, in that case when you upload changes to the site, you should not need to upload anything in the vsadmin folder.

As a matter of fact, it's best to keep your vsadmin out of your website in your local computer. Just put it somewhere else in your computer (separate folder).
This way, when you make changes to your wsebsite (design) you upload those pages and there is no way you can accidentally overwrite anything in the vsadmin.

Further, once the updater has been installed for you, you will want to download those new files to your local computer.
This gives you a current backup of your website on your local computer, which you should always have in case of disaster.

Thanks,
David

Great Idea David, thank you! that makes sense what you said to keep that file elsewhere on your local.

I just had the updater updated today. So the vsadmin folder on my local machine shows a last modified date
of today and the one on the server shows last updated 3/9. So is the one on my local the newest one and does
it need to be updated to the server?

Justy keep in mind that there are a few files that are in the update that are outside the vsadmin.
The is the ectcart.css file that's usually in the css folder and there is the ectcart.js file in the js folder.
You also have the emailafriend.php file, but that is rarely changed.

After the updater is installed for you, you want to pull down a copy of those files from the server as well, so you have the current versions there on your own computer.

Typically your host will always have a backup of your pages/files, but you would also protect yourself by taking a site backup from time to time.

I sometimes take a full backup of the site (without the images because that is a ton of data) and I drop these files in a folder on my PC with the folder name being the date of the backup.
I usually have several old copies like this. From time to time, I delete one of the oldest backups so I don't fill up hard drive space on my computer with stuff I'll never use.

Hope that helps.
Thanks,
David

quote:

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I just had the updater updated today. So the vsadmin folder on my local machine shows a last modified date
of today and the one on the server shows last updated 3/9. So is the one on my local the newest one and does
it need to be updated to the server?

---

If the updater was installed today, you can be the files on the server are the new ones and you want to download them to your local computer so you have a copy of those current files.
The date on the folder may not have changed, so you would want to check individual files in the folder.
But again, if the update was just installed, then the files on the server will be new.

David

I just checked the files inside the vsadmin on the server and they show a date of today.

Just one last couple questions:
1: I should download the vsadmin folder/files from the server and keep them on my machine
2: remove the vsadmin folder/files from my local website folder?
Do you mean to actually take that folder out of my website files on my machine correct?

quote:

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1: I should download the vsadmin folder/files from the server and keep them on my machine

---

Yes, for me, here is how I do it.
CREATE - folder named - WEBSITE
>1st subfolder inside = SITE (this is the entire website excluding the vsadmin folder)
>2nd subfolder inside = ADMIN (vsadmin folder in this folder)

quote:

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2: remove the vsadmin folder/files from my local website folder?
Do you mean to actually take that folder out of my website files on my machine correct?

---

Well, that is how I do it, so yes I recommend it personally. It will prevent several problems. One being that you might accidentally overwrite something that you didn't intend to, and second, I have seen where you change a few links in your site and inadvertently change the paths in the vsadmin too. Having it separate from the site in D/W will prevent that.
Also, for me, I use Microsoft expression (similar to D/W) and a lot of metadata gets added in the vsadmin folder that can be avoided be having that folder outside the site on your local computer.

Regardless if you follow my way of doing this, you need to pull down a copy of the changes that were made in the update so you don't accidentally upload old file and overwrite the updater that was applied.
This includes the following folders.
VSADMIN
CSS
JS


David

thanks David, that is a good plan, im going to try it..