Pixie CMS - The Small, Simple, Site Maker

Overview :

Upgrading Pixie is an important part of maintaining a live user facing Pixie website.

It is important to ensure that your Pixie web site is powered using Pixie's latest released version, which can always be found on www.getpixie.co.uk. Doing so, will ensure that your site is safe, secure and running at optimum. Running the latest Pixie version on your site also helps Pixie forum members provide support for any queries you may have because providing support for older versions of Pixie isn't generally practical or simple.

As a precautionary measure before attempting a Pixie upgrade, you should back up your entire site along with Pixie's database and copy it from your web server to your local machine (Your computer.) You can obtain a database backup of your Pixie web site by visiting the backup link on the settings page of your Pixie web site's admin area.

Obtaining the latest release :

To begin the upgrade procedure of an existing Pixie website, you will need to download the latest version of Pixie from www.getpixie.co.uk.

Preparing the upgrade :

Once you have downloaded the latest Pixie release to use as your upgrade, you will first extract the archive on your computer. Once the files are extracted, you should delete the following files from the extracted new Pixie release :

Upgrading Pixie's core files using your prepared upgrade :

Now that you have the upgrade prepared, you can copy the upgrade straight over your existing Pixie install, overwriting all the existing files. Please take care when replacing files in this step, we recommend that you make a backup of your current Pixie web site before first; before changing anything.

Please note : Modifying any of Pixie's core files yourself is not at all recommended. Upgrading a Pixie web site which contains such modifications and expecting them to work after an upgrade is unrealistic. If you have modified the file admin/jscript/public.js or any other core files, please ensure that you have made a back up of them on your computer first; so that you can modify them to work with any new version made available. Core files do not include non-core themes or any modules or blocks you may have installed.

Upgrade the database :

To complete the main part of the upgrade procedure you must upgrade Pixie's database. Pixie 1.04 and above contains a new upgrade utility which will provide you with options to help you upgrade. Firstly you must ensure that :

Has the permission 777 on your web server. And that :

Has the permission 777 on your web server.

Then to upgrade your Pixie database visit :

(Obviously replacing "www.yoursite.com" With your web site's address. Before you proceed to upgrade using the upgrade utility, please read the Upgrade advisories to help you to decide on any options you may be presented and make informed choices.

The upgrade utility will guide you through the rest of the database upgrade process.

Cleanup :

Once you have completed the database upgrade without error, you can proceed to clean up the left over files no longer required. In all cases at this step, you must delete the folder :

On your upgraded Pixie web site for security. You must also ensure that :

Has the permission 644 on your web server. And that :

Has the permission 640 on your web server.

Once you have successfully reached this stage you have successfully upgraded your Pixie web site and you can now enjoy the benefits of improved or new features and bug fixes.

Please visit the Pixie forum and start a new thread if you have any support questions related to the upgrade process.

Thank You.