Upgraded to 2.6.x from 1.6.x - Site functionality and styles all broken

Question

So after an entire laundry list of stuff that has gone wrong, I have finally “successfully” migrated a client’s old EE site to the latest version (at their insistence).

The most vexing problem, as of this moment, is that the entire site has imploded all over itself. Insofar as I can tell, functionality remains nominally intact. However, the CSS is now a complete train wreck in spite of the fact that all of the styles are seemingly being referenced and are intact. I can access them through the template manager and make changes just fine..

So why did this upgrade ruin everything? Is there a way to fix this?

The client is, naturally, wholly displeased with this in spite of advanced warnings rendered.

Some of the functionality is also broken, like drop down lists and so on. The site can be seen here:

http://lenoirmemorial.org/

Is there a fix for this, or am I really going to have to try and rebuild all of the styles and functionality for a website I did not help create? My employers do not have the original employee(s) or design templates for the site- so I do not even have a real reference to go off of in the hopes of rebuilding.

There's also instances of tags being used not supported by EE2, and I've not any idea where they originate from (google has not helped). Such as {exp:convert_to_title_case}:

<title>{if segment_2}{exp:convert_to_title_case}{segment_2} &raquo; {/exp:convert_to_title_case}{/if}{if segment_1}{exp:convert_to_title_case}{segment_1} | {/exp:convert_to_title_case}{/if}Lenoir Memorial Hospital, Kinston, North Carolina</title>

I've made database backups and retained all of the old EE files and folders.. Is there a viable way to rollback to an earlier version or am I stuck?

Answer 1

Good goddy lordy.

You should be able to roll back - I hope you have been! - but that's one heck of a huge jump. Note to anyone else considering a big EE upgrade like this, my advise would be rebuild the site in a new database, import your members and the simplest content piecemeal slowly, and then just quick-change the front-end files when you have everything all squared away. When I was just trying to upgrade from 1.6.9 to 2.1.0, there were enough kludgy problems (and the control panel ran SO SLOWLY!!!) that I decided, forget it, enough with the legacy crud, I'm starting fresh. It took some time (3K entries to import) but in the end I'm glad I went with that option. The site runs better, the control panel runs MUCH better, and I have no problems when I want to install new plugins. (The sheer number of steps is one factor in why this upgrade was so wobbly. The 1x -> 2x is another factor. If someone's going from 2.5.2 to 2.6.1, I wouldn't necessarily start over. But from 1.x to 2.6.1...yeah. Save yourself some pain and a goodly deal of headbeating.)

Answer 2

For the {exp:convert_to_title_case} you could install CE String http://www.causingeffect.com/software/expressionengine/ce-string/user-guide/custom_methods and use its to_title method - just switch out the tags in your templates.

Currently I'm seeing "The system path does not appear to be set correctly. Please open your path.php file and correct the path." at the mentioned URL so it's hard to say what's going on. I feel your pain bro, 1->2 updates can be a PITA.