Updating CMS from 5.6.2.1 to the latest version

Installation
1

My site letsmarketinginc.com has not been updated since I launched it back in 2013/14, I do not even remember when I launched it!! I want to revive the site. I want to start blogging. So When i tried to access the site earlier this week, I was getting 500 server error. It turns out the latest PHP version is incompatible with my version of CMS.

Following is the System Details.

concrete5 Version

5.6.2.1

concrete5 Packages

Slate Theme (1.5.3.1).

concrete5 Overrides

js/responsive-nav.js, js/respond.js

Server Software

Apache

Server API

cgi-fcgi

PHP Version

5.6.40

PHP Extensions

bcmath, bz2, calendar, cgi-fcgi, Core, ctype, curl, date, dom, ereg, exif, fileinfo, filter, ftp, gd, gettext, gmp, hash, iconv, imagick, imap, intl, ionCube Loader, json, libxml, mbstring, mcrypt, mhash, mssql, mysql, mysqli, mysqlnd, odbc, openssl, pcntl, pcre, PDO, pdo_dblib, pdo_mysql, PDO_ODBC, pdo_pgsql, pdo_sqlite, pgsql, Phar, posix, pspell, readline, Reflection, session, SimpleXML, soap, sockets, SourceGuardian, SPL, sqlite3, standard, tidy, tokenizer, wddx, xml, xmlreader, xmlrpc, xmlwriter, xsl, Zend Guard Loader, Zend OPcache, zip, zlib.

PHP Settings

max_execution_time - 30
log_errors_max_len - 1024
max_file_uploads - 20
max_input_nesting_level - 64
max_input_time - 60
max_input_vars - 1000
memory_limit - 256M
post_max_size - 516M
sql.safe_mode - Off
upload_max_filesize - 512M
ic24.api.max_timeout - 7
mssql.max_links - Unlimited
mssql.max_persistent - Unlimited
mssql.max_procs - Unlimited
mssql.textlimit - Server default
mysql.max_links - Unlimited
mysql.max_persistent - Unlimited
mysqli.max_links - Unlimited
mysqli.max_persistent - Unlimited
odbc.max_links - Unlimited
odbc.max_persistent - Unlimited
pcre.backtrack_limit - 1000000
pcre.recursion_limit - 100000
pgsql.max_links - Unlimited
pgsql.max_persistent - Unlimited
session.cache_limiter - nocache
session.gc_maxlifetime - 7200
soap.wsdl_cache_limit - 5
opcache.max_accelerated_files - 2000
opcache.max_file_size - 0
opcache.max_wasted_percentage - 5
zend_optimizerplus.max_accelerated_files - 2000
zend_optimizerplus.max_file_size - 0
zend_optimizerplus.max_wasted_percentage - 5

I downgraded the PHP version for this domain to make the site operational again. But I want to make the site secure, so remaining in this version of PHP, and this version of CMS is not “IDEAL”.

My question is: Can I upgrade the CMS to the latest super latest version without loosing existing design and content? If there is a way, can someone show me a process i can follow? Thank you.

2

You can’t automatically update 5.6 version to 5.7.
There were too many changes in core code/api between those two version (many modern programming paradigms were introduced, like namespaces etc.).
Migration tool addon for both 5.6 and 5.7+ exists, but it will only export/import content (pages, attributes, etc.).
So for smaller sites it could be overkill.

5.6.4.0 is stable, but still legacy version of conrete5.
Even official marketplace for 5.6 was turned off some time ago.
Though, if you are concerned about security, there are still some updates on github 5.6 repository, that are not included in official 5.6.4.0 release.
I think c5.6 should run on max php 7.x (not sure which version exactly).

In my honest opinion, 5.6 is dead end, if you want to work actively on your site.
But if it is more legacy-like site, then I would just make sure it is working under php7, get latest fixes from GitHub - concrete5/concrete5-legacy: Legacy repository for concrete5 repository and do other fun stuff with your life:D