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Make sure you backup both your files and database. While we don’t anticipate any problems, if something does happen you’ll be glad you have a recent backup of your site to restore from. Not sure how to do that? Check out our guide on backing up Nova.

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What you’ll need

Before you get started updating Nova, make sure you have the following things ready to go:
  • An FTP client for accessing your server
  • The latest copy of Nova downloaded from the Anodyne site and unzipped
  • A solid, recent backup of your site

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Updating Nova

If you are upgrading from a version of Nova prior to 2.7.0, you will need to use the upgrade guide. For all other future updates to Nova 2.7, you will be able to use the below process.
1

Rename the Nova directory

Once you’ve finished backing up your site (because you already did that, right?), rename the nova directory to nova_old on your server. (This ensures that if the update goes awry you still have a copy of the working Nova core from before you attempted the update.)
Over the years we’ve seen countless problems with simply trying to overwrite the directory. The surest way to avoid those issues is to rename the directory and upload a new copy.
2

Upload Nova

With the nova directory renamed to nova_old, you can now upload the nova directory from the zip archive you downloaded from the Anodyne site. (This will give you the code for the latest version.)
3

Run the update

Navigate to {your-site}/index.php/update in your browser and you’ll be guided through the update process. Once the update process is complete, you’ll be directed back to your site and will be ready to use Nova again.
4

Remove the backup Nova directory

With the update complete and your site back up and running, you can now delete the nova_old directory from your server.

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Updating from previous versions

Nova currently offers three stable releases for download, the latest current version, v2.6.2 for legacy systems using PHP 7, and v2.3.2 for legacy systems using PHP 5. If you are updating from version 2.3.2 or higher to any version above, please follow all steps in each of the upgrade guides. All files are provided for you in the latest current version download, but you will still need to walk through each version one at a time. If you are upgrading from a version of Nova prior to 2.3.2, please reach out to our support team on Discord.
If you are upgrading from a version of Nova prior to 2.7.0, you will need to use the upgrade guide. For all other future updates to Nova 2.7, you will be able to use the above process.
Nova 2.6 introduced Events and Extensions, two powerful features that unlock easier ways to modify a Nova site as well as several incredibly powerful ways to expand upon the base installation. In addition to following the normal update process, Nova 2.6 includes additional changes you’ll need to make for the new event and extension systems to work correctly.

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Config file

Copy the contents of this file into a new file called extensions.php and place it in the application/config directory on your server.

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Helper

Copy the contents of this file into a new file called extension_helper.php and place it in the application/helpers directory on your server.

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Libraries

Copy the contents of this file into a new file called Extension.php and place it in the application/libraries directory on your server. (Note: this filename is case-sensitive.)Copy the contents of this file into a new file called Event.php and place it in the application/libraries directory on your server. (Note: this filename is case-sensitive.)
Nova 2.5 introduced easy ways to add privacy policies to your site, the ability for users to delete their own accounts and personal information, and some compatibility updates for PHP 7. In addition to following the normal update process, Nova 2.5 includes two additional changes that you’ll need to make.

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Privacy policies

Nova 2.5 includes default privacy, cookie, do not track, and California privacy rights policies. Those policies are stored in Site Messages under the Messages tab. You can edit those as you see fit.Any of the privacy policies can be enhanced with one of several variables available to them:
  • #sim_name#: The name of the sim
  • #admin_email#: The email addresses of any system admins
  • #hosting_company#: The name of your hosting company, pulled from Site Settings
  • #access_log_purge#: The timeframe of the access log purge, pulled from Site Settings
Finally, if you haven’t made any changes to the default or titan skins, you can replace those folders in application/views with the versions in the Nova 2.5 zip archive. Those skins include a link in the footer to the privacy policy page.If you have made changes to those skins or have your own skins that need to be updated, you can add the following line anywhere in your template files to provide a link to the privacy policy pages:
<?php echo anchor('main/policies', 'Privacy Policy');?>
You’ll need to make this change in every skin and every template on your site.

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PHP 7 Update

If you have the ability to change the PHP version running on your server and decide to make the jump up to PHP 7, you’ll need to edit the application/config/database.php file to account for PHP’s removal of the mysql functions. You can do that by changing $db['default']['dbdriver'] config item to be mysqli.
Nova 2.4 introduced some major changes to how Nova sends email to all players. In addition to following the normal update process, there’s one additional change you’ll need to make. In the zip archive you downloaded, you’ll need to copy the Mail.php file from application/libraries to the application/libraries directory on your server. This will allow the new email class to work as expected.
If you are upgrading from a version of Nova before 2.3.2, please reach out to our support team on Discord.

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Common issue with updating

If, when starting to update, your installer won’t work, this may be because your database is not registering the correct version of your Nova install (or any version whatsoever). You can verify your version by logging into your Nova site, accessing Nova’s control panel, and selecting System & Versions from the bottom of the page.
If your database version is 0.0.0 or otherwise doesn’t match your Files Version, you may need to update your database to match the version of Nova you are upgrading from. In order to update that, you’ll need to login to your database with phpMyAdmin (via your web host’s control panel).
  1. Find the table nova_system_info.
  2. Click Edit on the only row in the table.
  3. Update sys_version_major, sys_version_minor, and sys_version_update to your Nova’s current version numbers.
For example, a site running Nova version 2.3.2 would read:
  • sys_version_major: 2
  • sys_version_minor: 3
  • sys_version_update: 2
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