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Home > How to update your store

Updating your store

• How the updater works
• Updater wizard and tutorial
• Updater checklist
• Updater troubleshooting
• Advanced tips

How the updater works

The updaters are free for the first 6 months and will then cost an extra $29.95 if you wish to continue. There is no obligation to continue using the updaters but they will add extra functionality to your store. You can always pick up the latest updater here by adding the email address you originally purchased your store with to the field there. Should your email address have changed then please let us know so we can update your records. If you are not sure which version you are currently running then you can check the number on your main admin page. The updaters will not change anything in your design but will update your vsadmin and inc files. If you have made custom changes there, you are advised to make a copy of those files first as they may be overwritten. Updaters are cumulative so it is not necessary to update with each release.

Please follow the instructions very carefully as if you fail to copy over ALL the files in the updater your store is likely to throw up an error or two.

To receive automatic email notification of the latest updater releases, please subscribe to the ASP or PHP updater forum where you will also find the list of recent additions.

If you have previously applied a regional / language updater you must copy the languagefile.asp / languagefile.php once again to the vsadmin/inc directory as it will be overwritten by this updater. It is a good idea to pick up a new copy of the languagefile from our download page.

We recommend that you back up your site and database before running the updater or when making any major changes to your site.

Checklist

Make sure you run updatestore.asp or updatestore.php in your browser. (This can be done several times if necessary with no adverse effects).

Make sure ALL files have been copied from the updater download to the server. You can check yourself by comparing the dates of the files on the server with the date you carried out the update. Do use a FTP program rather than using Frontpage or Dreamweaver to upload the updater files. Also make sure you have your FTP program set to overwrite existing files or notify on overwriting existing files and agree to do so.

If you are using a regional updater then remember to copy over the relevant languagefile as these get overwritten by the update process.

If you are updating to v4.8.x or above from previous versions, after updating go to the countries admin page and check that the countries which are set as "Home Countries" are the ones to which your states apply.

Troubleshooting

If you experience errors after updating the most likely reason is because not ALL the files have been copied over from the updater to your server. A simple way to check is to login onto your site via FTP and check the dates on all the files in the vsadmin and inc folders. Updating the store a second or third time will do no harm at all.

Also make sure you have a copy of the two custompayproc files in the vsadmin/inc/ folder.

Make sure you have run updatestore.asp or updatestore.php in your browser.

Make sure that if you have a second vsadmin folder, either on the https connection or as a security precaution, that you have also updated that one as well to the latest version.

If your DHTML menu stops working correctly, make sure you have followed the instructions correctly for adding the menu include line (Updating from versions pre 3.0.6 only).

If you are using a regional updater then remember to copy over the relevant languagefile - the most recent is always available here.

Is there any way I can open files that have been blocked? (Windows XP SP2 users)

If you are certain that you trust this file and want to open it, follow the instructions below.

1. Save the file onto your computer.
2. Click Start, click My Computer, and navigate to the file that you saved.
3. Right-click the file that you saved, and then click Properties.
4. Click Unblock near the bottom of the dialog box.
5. After clicking "Unblock" select "Apply".

Advanced Tips

This is particularly relevant for users who have made custom modifications to the the vsadmin and inc files and are concerned about the effects of running an updater.

When an updater is released you can see if it's a major or minor update by the format of the update version number. The last digit changes it's a minor version update. For a minor version there are no changes to the database and the changes are normally localized to any one particular script. This means that (although not recommended) you can probably get away with just updating individual scripts if you really need to.

When the second number changes (for instance from v5.1.x to v5.2.x) then it's a major version update. Normally for these major updates there are changes to the database and changes in one file are dependant on changes in other files. So there is no way you are going to get away with just changing a few select files. If you regularly need to update around MODs we can recommend this software http://www.scootersoftware.com/ for making file comparisons.