Migrating to Joomla

This is copied directly from joomla.org

The following instructions outline a few ways to migrate your existing Mambo 4.5.2 site to Joomla! 1.0.

If you need to migrate to Joomla! from an earlier version of Mambo, you will need to follow the Mambo upgrade path to at least Mambo 4.5.2 and then migrate to Joomla!

Migration or upgrading of any system is all about change management.

Before you start you should:

* Consult with your stakeholders about the migration or change (your clients, your work group, etc).
* Test the migration of a copy of your site in a sandpit that is not on your production server (if that is available to you). Get your stakeholders involved in the test plan also.
* Backup all files, systems, and databases prior to migration.
* Determine a time that least impacts your business for the migration. Then inform your stakeholders when the migration will occur and how long systems will be out of action.
* Prepare a roll back plan so that in the event of a disastrous roll out, you can restore the system to a "last known stable" condition.

So you've got your change management plan worked out and signed-off? Good. Here is a fairly safe option for upgrading:

* Copy the Joomla! files (e.g., via FTP) to a new directory under your web root.
* Remove the Joomla /installation folder
* Copy your Mambo configuration.php file to your Joomla! site. Change the $mosConfig_absolute_path and $mosConfig_live_site variables to suit the new location.
* Copy your Mambo templates, components, modules, mambots and languages to the same relative locations in the new Joomla! directory.
* Apply the patch (see below) to all your administrator templates.
* Load the new site in your browser.

When you are satisfied that all is working well, archive your existing site and move the Joomla! directory to the location of the original site (or use web server alias, etc, there are many options here).

Database Updates

While there are no "critical" database updates that are required, we have included a script (/installation/sql/migrate_Mambo4523_to_Joomla_100.sql) that will update the default template for the administrator, and unpublish a module that relates to MamboForge.

Please note that you will need to either run the migrate sql or apply the template patch (see below) for the Administrator to work correctly.
Administrator Template Patch

Because we have introduced output buffering in the Administrator, any existing Administator templates need to be modified slightly to correctly work in Joomla!.

Load the template's index.php file into an editor. Find the lines that look like this:

<?php
// Show list of items to edit or delete or create new
if ($path = $mainframe->getPath( 'admin' )) {
require $path;
} else {
echo "<img src=\"images/logo.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Mambo Logo\" />\r\n
\r\n";
}
?>

Then replace it with this code:

<?php mosMainBody_Admin(); ?>

Save the file.