Every new version of the eZ Publish Extension for Oracle® Database comes with database upgrade scripts of the following two types:

• Scripts that make it possible for your current eZ Publish installation to use the latest version of the extension. These are located in the "update/database/ezoracle/" directory of the database extension.
• Scripts that make it possible to upgrade eZ Publish to the latest stable version. These are located in the "update/database/ezpublish/" directory of the extension.

Please note that as long as your site is already running on an Oracle database, the database extension makes it possible to upgrade the entire eZ Publish installation and not just the extension itself .

Consistency checks

Make sure that your eZ Publish site is in a consistent state. The administration interface allows you to quickly check whether the current installation is in a consistent state or not. This can be done using the "Upgrade check" section of the "Setup" part. Please refer to the eZ Publish Upgrading Manual for more information about consistency checks.

Backup

Make sure that you have a working backup of the site before you do the actual upgrade. You should create a copy of the entire eZ Publish directory and the database. Please refer to the Oracle backup and recovery documentation page and/or Oracle Backup and recovery FAQ for information about backing up the database.

Upgrading the database extension

Use this method if you only want to upgrade the extension itself but not eZ Publish. In this case, the upgrade procedure consists of the following steps:

1. Upgrading the extension files
2. Upgrading the database
3. Clearing the INI cache
4. Restarting Apache (optional)

Step 1. Upgrading the extension files

Download the distribution package and unpack it inside the "extension" directory. (Please refer to the "Installation" section for more information about how to download and unpack the eZ Publish Extension for Oracle® Database.)

Step 2. Upgrading the database

When a new version of the database extension is released, the database structure is usually changed/updated. In order for your eZ Publish installation to use the latest version of the database extension, you need to run the corresponding database upgrade script(s). These are located in the "extension/ezoracle/update/database/ezoracle/" directory. The following example demonstrates how this can be done when upgrading the eZ Publish Extension for Oracle® Database from version 1.3 to 1.4.

Example

Assuming that an Oracle instance called "ORCL" is running on your Oracle server and can be accessed using an Oracle account with username "scott" and password "tiger", you need to do the following:

1. Navigate into the "extension/ezoracle/" directory.
2. Run the script using the following shell command:

   $ sqlplus scott/tiger@ORCL @update/database/ezoracle/5.0/dbupdate-1.4-5.0.sql
   

Step 3. Clearing the INI cache

Upgrading the database extension requires the INI file caches to be cleared. This should be done from within a system shell: 

1. Navigate into the eZ Publish directory.
2. Run the clear cache script:

   $ bin/shell/clearcache.sh --clear-ini
   

Step 4. Restarting Apache (optional)

You may need to restart the Apache web server after upgrading, especially if your site is using a PHP accelerator. Restarting Apache is usually a good idea when it comes to getting rid of strange results and doubts. Please note that the Oracle environment variables must be set before Apache is restarted, otherwise the PHP Oracle functions will not work (please refer to the PHP Oracle functions documentation for more information).

Upgrading eZ Publish

Use this method if you are already running the latest version of the database extension and wish to upgrade your eZ Publish installation to a newer version. In this case, the upgrade procedure consists of the following steps:

1. Upgrade the eZ Publish distribution files
2. Upgrade the database
3. Run the system upgrade scripts
4. Update the system configuration
5. Clear the caches

Note that the upgrade procedure is basically the same as described in the eZ Publish Upgrading Manual. (Please read the upgrade instructions for your particular version of eZ Publish.) The only difference is related to the database upgrade under step 2. The database upgrade scripts are located inside the "ezoracle/update/database/ezpublish" directory (starting from 3.5, because eZ Publish versions prior to 3.5 can not be run on an Oracle database server).

The following example demonstrates how to upgrade the database assuming that an Oracle instance called "ORCL" is running on your Oracle server and can be accessed using an Oracle account with username "scott" and password "tiger".

Example

Let's say that you are using version 1.4 of the database extension and that you wish to upgrade eZ Publish from version 3.7.0 to 3.8.1. This means that you should follow the upgrade procedure described above. If you remembered to copy the "extension/ezoracle" directory while upgrading the eZ Publish distribution files during step 1, the "ezoracle/update/database/ezpublish/3.8" directory will contain the following database upgrade scripts:

• dbupdate-3.6.0-to-3.8.0.sql
• dbupdate-3.8.0-to-3.8.1.sql

During step 2, you need to upgrade the 3.7.0 database to 3.8.1 by running these two scripts (in the specified order) following the official upgrade path. In other words, you need to do the following:

1. Navigate into the "extension/ezoracle/" directory.
2. Run the following shell commands in the same order as specified:

   $ sqlplus scott/tiger@ORCL @update/database/ezpublish/3.8/dbupdate-3.6.0-to-3.8.0.sql
   $ sqlplus scott/tiger@ORCL @update/database/ezpublish/3.8/dbupdate-3.8.0-to-3.8.1.sql
   

The remaining three steps are described in the "Upgrading to 5.0" section of the eZ Publish Upgrading Manual.

Upgrading eZ Publish and the database extension

This method is a combination of the two upgrade procedures described above. Use it if you wish to upgrade both eZ Publish and the database extension at the same time. The upgrade procedure consists of the following steps:

1. Upgrade the eZ Publish distribution files and the database extension files
2. Upgrade the database
3. Run the system upgrade scripts
4. Update the system configuration
5. Clear the caches
6. Restart Apache (optional)

Example

Let's say that you are using eZ Publish 3.7.0 together with version 1.3 of the database extension and wish to upgrade to versions 3.8.1 and 1.4 accordingly. In this case, there is no need to copy the "extension/ezoracle/" directory from the existing installation to the eZ Publish 3.8.1 directory when upgrading the distribution files during step 1. Instead, you need to download version 1.4 of the database extension and unpack it inside the "extension" directory.

During step 2, you need to run the database upgrade scripts from both "extension/ezoracle/update/database/ezoracle/1.4/" and "extension/ezoracle/update/database/ezpublish/3.8/" subdirectories.

Steps 3-5 are described in the "Upgrading from 4.7 to 5.0" document.
Step 6 is already described in the "Upgrading the database extension" subsection of this manual.