Hello. Please add an instant upgrade feature to the next update.
Let me explain. Why not make upgrading MyBB easier? SMF has something similar for plugins. Why not allow the administrator to click on one link to automatically download and install a patch or upgrade directly from the MyBB server to theirs. With a click of a link, MyBB will surely be the easiest forum to manage!
It would be really handy if there was a MyBB autoupdate feature. Basically it would work like such: go to the MyBB autoupdate admin page, which will then download the tar/gzip type file of the latest version of MyBB. The script will extract all the files over the current MyBB installation and run other necessary update scripts for that release.
It would require a php extension (for extracting the tar/gzip/whatever file.) But php extensions can be checked before the MyBB autoupdate admin page actually preforms the update actions required. Just display an error if the user does not have the extension.
I know, it's a lot of work, but it could be done. What do you think?
Only way I could see this possible is to set all files and folders to write permission which isn't really great.. MyBB mostly updates the files, not the mysql server.
The problem lies when there are modifications to the files. If you just extract over, then the modifications will be overwritten and be broken. So a workaround would be probably needed for that.
CraKteR Wrote:MyBB mostly updates the files, not the mysql server.
That's only true for the minor releases. The major releases will most likely have various changes in the databases.
Yea it was in my backmind when I posted it but forgot
What about something like EasyMod for phpBB? It reads the contents of a file and follows the instructions for "find xxxx, replace with xxx" or "find xxx, after add xxx" etc. With a system simliar to that, MyBB updates could consist of one file only which would contain the instructions telling the system what changes to make to the files. EasyMod, as I recall, requires your ftp username and password to do this, so it avoids the problems with write permissions. The auto-update could download just this one file and make the proper changes via ftp.
As I understand it though, EasyMod is a very complex program, so integrating something like that into MyBB would be a major project. It's something to think about though
EGS Wrote:I've already suggested this feature a while ago...
http://community.mybboard.net/showthread.php?tid=10159
I saw that just a couple of minutes ago.
Oh well. At least we know now for sure people have seen this idea.
The EasyMod type thing is certainly an idea. I would think it would be harder to use for major updates. So perhaps major updates will have to be a manual upgrade, whereas, if this EasyMod type updater thing were done, minor security updates could use it.
Chris has been looking at the possibility of this recently, but I don't think anything useful came out of it. We'll have to see.
I am simply not doing any mods that require core file changes. If it doesn't hook into the plugin system...I don't install it. I moved to mybb for this reason. I feel it has solid features already. I know I can write plugins eventually myself that follow this rule.
I think the idea is a good one but it does present it's own set of unique problems. I think the mybb staff should do this but it's very low on the priority list.