September 21, 2014 – I spent the last two days trying to figure out if I could update my two ExpressionEngine 2.2.2. websites to the current version 2.9. ExpressionEnigne has changed in the last few years. In changing ownership, the new management has created a free Core version and a much more expensive full featured version. To make things worst, they no longer take care of developers, ExpressionEngine website creators. The sense of community that once greeted me when first using ExpressionEngine was gone. In it’s place was a pay per incident system which the ExpressionEngine community riled against to no effect. I guess many have left ExpressionEngine. And I too will as soon as I find a viable alternative.
How does this figure in my websites update research? It meant I had to look hard to find the answer. The answer came when I logged into my ExpressionEngine account and saw that I was allowed to download the lastest versions for all my websites. I have two that use 2.2.2 and two that use 1.69.
The instructions was a bit confusing in that they ask that you rename files and directories with the prefix ‘old_’ and then re upload them later on. So I took a chance and purchased Dev Demon’s Updater. It took some figuring out, nothing too hard, but I was guessing at what settings to point things too. The instructions were minimal. But I was able to update my N2LRB website on my second attempt (after creating a directory that the wanted and could not create itself). The program cost $25 per website one is going to use it on. I did not dare update the St Miachaels Academy website as the Sol Space User module may not work with ExpressionEngine 2.9. I did some asking on the StackExchange board and it seems that I’d have to spend $90 to update User if I wanted it to work with version 2.9 of ExpressionEngine.
Lately, I have been getting a lot of spam registrations on the St Michaels website to the tune of 20 a day. It is annoying in that I have to basically look at each registration to ensure it is a real alumni. I did figure out that all real alumni use their full name as their screen names and spammers robots use the user name as the screen name. Still I could be taking a chance on not looking at all the pending registrations. I was puzzled at all the spam registration getting past the Capatcha. So I did some research and found newer Capatcha add on. I added one where a question must be answered. And it seems to have worked. The registration robots can’t get around it. So far, no new spam registrations. I will probably update the Sol Space User module in a few months and pass the costs to Alumni Association.
