So the old way of installing plugins and themes are very hard for a regular admin to do. Who wants to download the them/plugin from the mybb mods site then having to upload manualy ftp all the files to their specific directories, and then finally go back to the admin panel to activate them. Come on! Seriously its the 21'st Century! Not all admins of forums are php geeks. Normal users who are used to the GUI way of working with pc's want a simple easy way of installing themes and plugins in their forums. So why not create a repository for all mybb plugins and themes , then create a "Plugin & Themes Manager" in the admin panel that will show all of them grouped by catagories and version numbers. The best part with such a system is that an admin will only have to click "Install Plugin" or "Install Theme" ,and they will be immediatly downloaded from the repositories and installed in the forum, via php. This is the professional thing to do. Please get mybb out of the geek way of doing things.
At this time MyBB isn't in a position where something like this would be feasible. Perhaps we could look in to it for MyBB 2.0 but it won't be in the 1.x series. Realistically, every administrator should be able to upload a few files to their server. In my opinion it's important for them to have the experience by doing it themselves. If they're not comfortable with that then they probably should hire someone who knows what they're doing. Compared to the other tasks administrators are expected to do, uploading files is trivial.
Sure thats great if your changing files around in your ftp directories. No , people are generally wanting to get it done fast installing things and such. A misplace of a file in the wrong folder or not following the plugins upgrade procedure properly aint for normal admins of forums. PHP can do alot of things automatically, the @copy() function is an example of how a .zip file of a plugin/theme can be downloaded into a /temp directory in of the forum. Then a php script unpacks that file and via a configuration file from the plugin/theme's repository can move all the files to the places they belong in the forum directories. Sure this will require a new way of organising the plugins/themes system, but its totaly worth it! Know you guys are busy alot and cant do this easy new system now. So yes mybb 2.0 better have this then. Making life easier for the user/admin of a forum is what mybb should focus on.
This can also be done via a plugin for the 1x series, but the bottleneck is. Then the "Plugin & Theme Manager" in the admin panel wont have direct access to those files. Because of the dynamic download script thats generated at the mybb mods site.
Quote:Sure thats great if your changing files around in your ftp directories. No , people are generally wanting to get it done fast installing things and such. A misplace of a file in the wrong folder or not following the plugins upgrade procedure properly aint for normal admins of forums.
You can encounter the same issues with automation too. Manual uploads mean you know exactly what you're uploading and where you're uploading it to. It may be faster but there are significant risks with making it too easy to install third party content.
It's much better for admins to know nothing and spend time learning than expecting us to hold their hand. It means less support threads for us and better for the admins because they're learning skills which they will need as an administrator.
Uploading plugins and themes is very simple. Personally I see no reason to change it. If you don't know how to manage a forum, you shouldn't be running one.
That is true. But still having such an automated install option is worth it. The manual way can always stay for those that want to do it that way. If by some magic the automated system have issues, then the admin can revert to the manual installation of the plugin/theme. So no loss there. Having at least two ways to do one thing is always a plus+ . Hope you will do something like this for MyBB 2.0 , will be awesome!
I think if you are a webmaster you have to know what you're doing, if you install as windows GUI programs, then you have a really problem and more support threads.
When we upgrade some plugin then this have to be reviewed and then validated, many times are waiting for more than 6 months, so if you have a new patch and don't upgrade and install some old repository you have a serious problem, for that reason you have to know what kind of plugins you need and verify the code to can upload all content, if you know what you're doing you can put all content files on some directory, then only have to upload with filezilla or some FTP program, and all works is automatizated, finally you only have to go and install/configure plugins, that all. I don't see the problems you are talking about.
I am a webmaster and programmer and not only for me or to tell some people eey bro i am a webmaster, i have a website, no, it's because i have to learn much more than one thing, this rans is because you have some time to fix many problem you have.
All plugins and all themes are diferent on some ways, thats because you have problems with some of them, and it's only a task for a few minutes, i help many people and i told every one what have to do.
I know it's more easy to do it with automatizated proccess, but c'mon, then whit my experience i have to ask for proccess when i have nothing to do, so i told i want a script who knows where are a free domain, becasuse is a free script, and upgrade automatically, install all mods and plugins (i'm talking about the most used and better plugins and themes), i want 20 posts and 5 themes automatically created by some recent themes, hot themes for the web, and i don't want to do nothing, only sometimes when i want only see how it going xD.
But finally i thing a plugin do more things automatizated, on some sites many users want to do all by themselfs, but it's because they don't know how plugins or good mods works, so have a wrong idea of security risks, when if they put some codes, most of the time put wrong and mallicious code, when i help some users i see more than one security risks on some forums, and that because they want to do all.
I thing you have to do only the necesary to have a forum at a day and only with the necesary to bring a new experience to the users inside them.