J2.5:Migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5 Part 1

This guide will take you step-by-step through the general procedure of how to migrate from Joomla 1.5 to later versions such as Joomla 2.5. Please read through all the material as this is not a light undertaking.

Before Upgrading

Joomla 2.5 is the stable release that is based on the development version that was called "1.6". Don't let the numerical closeness of 1.5 and 1.6, mislead you. Joomla 1.6 took three years to develop and has been a major undertaking. Countless hours have been spent by many volunteers from around the world to put it all together. Although much of the code is the same from Joomla 1.5, much of it has been written from the ground up, and the changes between 1.5 and 2.5 are comparable in size and complexity to the changes from Joomla 1.0 to 1.5. Because the changes from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5 are so large and because of the massive effort put into getting Joomla 2.5 to where it is today, there is no core upgrade path. This is indeed a migration. In planned future releases of Joomla, such as Joomla 3.0, 3.5 and so on, the changes from version to version will be more incremental and a core upgrade path is planned.

Now that Joomla 2.5 is finally here and stable, a community initiative led by the developers of Joomla is turning towardsjUpgrade (a 3rd party Joomla extension on the JED originally developed by Matias Aguirre) for help and to help. Many of Joomla's developers (who are all volunteers that freely contribute their time) are volunteering to put the finishing touches onjUpgrade.

jUpgrade allows you to migrate from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5.

Other migration solutions including commercial solutions are listed on the Joomla Extensions Directory and should be considered as well. Other tools are not included in this tutorial but should be given consideration before you use jUpgrade if your time is highly valuable and limited.

Let's get started!

Review the Requirements

Please, please save yourself (and possibly your clients) a lot of headaches and make sure that your server (and in the case of jUpgrade, your browser too) is up for the task. Please review the technical requirements for Joomla! 2.5. Please review therequirements for jUpgrade as well.

Before You Get Started

Before you get started, there are a few things that you are going to have to check and/or think about:

1. Is your Joomla 1.5 version up to date? The most up-to-date version of Joomla 1.5 is 1.5.26. If your version is not up-to-date, upgrade to 1.5.26 before migrating, especially if you are running Joomla 1.5.19 or lower, as JUpgrade does not support older versions. Read how to download older releases of Joomla!. You will need the Joomla! 1.5.0 to Joomla! 1.5.26 package with file name: Joomla_1.5.0_to_1.5.26-Stable-Patch_Package.zip < direct download link. Read how to update from Joomla! 1.5.x to the latest version how to update from Joomla! 1.5.x to the latest version.
2. Do all your extensions have Joomla 2.5 native versions? You can use Advanced Search on the Joomla! Extensions Directory to see what extensions support 2.5. Please note that jUpgrade is not currently able to upgrade all Joomla 3rd party extensions, so those will have to be done via their respective upgrade procedures. Supported by jUpgrade on January 2012 are AdminPraise, Kunena, K2, JoomComment, Virtuemart, redSHOP, CommunityBuilder, JCE, Contact Enhanced, JomSocial, redForm, JEvents, Akeeba Backup, Jumi and redMEMBER.
3. Have you modified any core files? Any changes that you have made to core files in Joomla will be lost so please be forewarned.
4. Is there a Joomla 2.5 compatible template available from your template provider? If not, do you feel comfortable making the changes yourself? There are a couple good resources:
   1. Chad Windnagle's Joomla Community blog
   2. Chris Davenport's "Template Changes for Joomla 1.6" presentation
   3. Joomla's Docs Template Tutorial Please note that although jUpgrade is not able to currently upgrade templates, the developers are working hard at implementing the feature.
5. Is your language pack available in Joomla 2.5? Find your Joomla 2.5 Translation.
6. Do you have folder or file permissions issues in your Joomla 1.5 installation?
7. For a massive list of changes from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 1.6, please see What's new in Joomla 1.6.