I have used SMF before.
One Good feature it has is that when a new updated version of the script arrives the Forum Owners can upgrade the Forum to the New version with just click of a [ 'Upgrade' ] Button.
MyBB without any question has Excellent Features... But I would like to have This One too.
It may be initially a hard work.. But it would definitly Help :
1. Will Save Time For Admins
2. Less Forum Offline time
3. Less chances of errors during installation.
MyBB is surely the Best. But we can always make The Best Even Better.....
This is ok when it works...but what happens if a failure occurs, you have no idea where its failed so you can solve the error. I would prefer having the control of step by step
Sye Wrote:This is ok when it works...but what happens if a failure occurs, you have no idea where its failed so you can solve the error. I would prefer having the control of step by step
I dont really think so. Most of the Standard softwares Get updated in a similar fashion.
And apart from that ... The user will always have the option of manual Upgrade.
Mano Wrote:And apart from that ... The user will always have the option of manual Upgrade.
So it would be better to have this as a plugin and not a default feature
I don't like the idea of an automatic upgrade - what if the upgrade needs to change templates? It could ruin modifications.
Have this meagered so you can choose to install it manually or automaticly
I'm assuming you're referring to an automatic upgrade of MyBB. This may pose some problems if your code is modified. Even if it was automated, you would need some sort of human intervention in order to make sure what the upgrader is doing is correct.
You can only allow external upgrades if you have your files chmod 666 which is a security risk. It's not an intelligent thing to do for php files in general. Mybb has the minimum files chmoded config and settings.php. Config after install can be 644 once again and if you don't want to change your settings you can also do 644 for that too. Your suggestion is dangerous imho.
As others have pointed out that it can easily break mods or templates. Many have customized themes since mybb is strong in that regard. imho...SMF is a pile of junk. It's my least favorite forum software..even below phpbb. Mods and plugins have to be written in XML form which can be very difficult.
Actually an FTP interface could be used instead of a chmod permission system. Automatic upgrades can break plugins/modifications because the differential system is not as smart as human analysis and will probably stay that way for centuries to come. It is possible to post a list of 'changes going to be made' to each file and have the user approve the changes (So they know whats being changed) and they can manually apply patches that could interfere with plugins n' stuff
Last time this subject came up, I mentioned the way phpBB's "EasyMod" does this. It uses FTP and first checks every file to make sure it can find/replace/insert code properly BEFORE it ever does anything. A system like that, which will warn you that auto-upgrading could damage your forum, would be nice to have.