Do you run any kind of script on your website?  Form processors, blogs and forums or message boards are two types of web scripts that are commonly installed on websites and with cPanel software like Fantastico that allows for one click installation of scripts, life can’t get much easier.

But… is it worth it? 

I have always been a script junkie and yep, it’s gotten me into trouble at times.  Fantastico is an amazing tool to install your scripts but some scripts have ‘plugins’ or additional components that can be installed manually.  Wordpress is a good example of this with all its plugins and widgets.  The Joomla content management system is another culprit.  So what happens after you install these scripts via your Fantastico installer, upload a bunch of plugins and then realize that there’s a new version of your script available in Fantastico?

My best advice to you, coming from a voice of experience (believe me, a lot of learning lessons the hard way lol) is that if you’ve installed any plugins etc that weren’t included in the Fantastico installation, do NOT upgrade your script with the Fantastico updater.  The chances of it not breaking your site are slim!  I have had this happen to me several times with Wordpress, and I’ve had hosting clients with the same thing happen.

AND, another really important lesson – learn how to backup your site before attempting any upgrade!  If you have cPanel, backing up both your data and your databases is really easy.  In fact, cPanel now even has a backup wizard which makes it a snap.

Restoring your content if things go wrong can sometimes be a scary situation though.  This is my problem today :(

I went through a manual upgrade (not through Fantastico) on Wahms United, which is a Joomla site with numerous plugins.  Well, though I researched some of the plugins and made sure that they would work with the upgrade, I failed to check some of the additional modules.  Everything went fine with the upgrades of the plugins, but the entire thing messed up after doing the main Joomla upgrade.

The worst part of all was that due to the size of my database, I haven’t been able to restore it, so currently the site is still stuck in Maintenance Mode.  This is a first for me lol.  I’ve always been able to restore anything, but this time I had to send a panicked email to my host asking for help (which they are working on now *fingers crossed*).

The bottom line here is to use extreme caution when dealing with scripts.  Even with installation experience, things can go wrong.  Most Wahms don’t have sites anywhere near the size of WU which is currently over 600MB and climbing.  One of these days I’ll be looking at an upgrade to a dedicated server ;)  But… that’s another topic!

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