Templatic e-commerce themes have received many revisions over the years. Because of that upgrading can be a challenge, specially because different rules apply to different versions. We’ll try to outline (the best we can) exactly what you can expect while upgrading each of these older versions.

E-commerce theme variants (oldest first)

• Pre-framework version: As the name suggests, this version of the theme didn’t come powered by a framework; everything was inside one package. These are the themes released during 2010. and until around July 2011. In these themes products were utilized as regular posts. For updating instructions please click here
• Initial framework version: In this edition the framework was included, but products were still handled using the regular post taxonomy. You can spot this edition by it’s menus in back-end. For updating instructions please click here
• Second framework version: This version marks the use of a custom post type for handling products. You have the second framework version if your back-end section looks like this and you purchased the theme between January and September of 2012. For updating instructions please click here
• Third framework version: This is the latest version of Templatic framework-based themes. It was released in October 2012. Compared to the previous version this one has revamped attributes functionality and is WooCommerce compatible. That said, using WooCommerce will only be carefree if you’re starting fresh. If you want to use your existing products with WooCommerce click here

Updating a pre-framework / initial framework version

What will be lost during this upgrade? Product attributes, widget and theme settings, possibly product prices, all your customizations

What will be changed after upgrading? All your product URLs. The upgrade process will insert a “products” slug into all your product URLs

Instructions:

• Backup everything. What you’re doing is risky, you must have a backup ready in case things go south
• Activate the default TwentyTwelve theme in wp-admin -> Appearance -> Themes
• Download the latest theme and Ecommerce framework from member area and install it. A good way to backup the current theme (and framework – if you have it) folder is to rename it to something like ThemeName_old
• With the theme uploaded to the server, go to Appearance -> Themes and activate the newly uploaded theme
• Go to Theme Options -> Bulk Upload. You will see a message like this one, click on the button to initiate the transfer
• If you did everything correctly all your products should now be listed under wp-admin -> Products. In case they are not, contact us and we’ll help you out.
• Now, to turn these new products into WooCommerce products simply follow the procedure explained below.

Updating the second framework version

What will be lost during this upgrade? Product attributes, all your customizations

Instructions:

• Backup everything. What you’re doing is risky, you must have a backup ready in case things go south
• Download the latest theme and Ecommerce framework from member area and update both folders. Click here for updating instructions
• Now, to turn these new products into WooCommerce products simply follow the procedure explained below.

Updating framework products to WooCommerce products

What will be lost during this upgrade? Product attributes, product prices, tax and shipping settings, theme and widget settings (WooCommerce operates totally differently than the framework)

Instructions:

• Navigate to wp-admin -> Theme options -> Enable woocommerce -> Yes
• Download, install and activate the WooCommerce plugin
• If you go to wp-admin -> Products now you’ll notice that there aren’t any. To get them back we have to run an update query inside the database. So, connect to phpMyAdmin and open the wp_posts table. If you’re unsure on how to open phpMyAdmin please contact your hosting provider, they will explain it. With wp_posts table open, click on the SQL tab in the header and enter the following (delete the default query first):
  UPDATE wp_posts
SET post_type='product'
WHERE post_type='products'
• If you did everything correctly a message should show at the top looking like this (your number doesn’t have to match mine)
  
• Our job in phpMyAdmin is done. Return to your site, to wp-admin -> Products

Assuming everything went fine, the products should be showing inside wp-admin -> Products. But, they are far from perfect. The first thing you probably noticed is that the image isn’t showing and that there is no category assigned to the product. Even though we transferred products, we won’t be able to do the same for product categories. You will have to re-create them again. Please watch the video below and see the easiest way to do this. The video will also fix the image problem.
Please watch the video in full screen. Set the quality to 720p

Final touches…
It’s very likely that the update removed most widgets from the widget areas. Go to wp-admin -> Appearance -> Widgets and place them back in. Please use the T -> WooCommerce Latest Products widget for your homepage main/front content area.

To learn more about WooCommerce in Templatic themes visit this WooCommerce post.