Live Update

[Davidcopperfield]

Hello Everyone

I would like to suggest that we should possess an implemented function live-update, when your board goes out-of-date your are asked for automatic updates like in Windows XP & Vista. How do you think is it worth- while to have such feature, hassle-free instalation, you would only have to download the upgrade and in the board click the "UPDATE" button and the board would upload files by itself without you having to upload them "by hands"? :thumbsup:

[.John.]

Not everyone wants to be upgraded, and in addition - Automatic Updates wouldn't be so good - cause when updating, the entire board goes offline.

Therefore, the board would go offline without notice to do it's "patching"

[Blue Mary Ryan]

Not everyone wants to be upgraded, and in addition - Automatic Updates wouldn't be so good - cause when updating, the entire board goes offline.

Therefore, the board would go offline without notice to do it's "patching"

Hes's right!

Plus, some people like me, we have our forums fully modded and a live update will screw up the whole forum by overwriting or replacing the files that have been edited to install a mod.

[Kilobright]

Not everyone wants to be upgraded, and in addition - Automatic Updates wouldn't be so good - cause when updating, the entire board goes offline.

Therefore, the board would go offline without notice to do it's "patching"

The upgrade script could first download the new software, notify an admin by pm/acp and (if enabled in the acp) post a global announcement to tell the members the exact date and time when the board will be upgraded and go offline. When the upgrade starts, the script can first check if anyone is creating a new post or reply so they can finish it while anyone else see the board offline message. When they don't finish the new topic or reply within the set inactivity period they can be considered as 'gone' and the upgrade will start. :)

For modders there should be a switch in the ACP to completely enable/disable the auto-upgrade.

[Davidcopperfield]

I completely agree with Franklin- that is what I intended to say. it's natural and obvious no-one would be treated unfair- it is you that will choose to use that feature. It oughto to bring advantages not hassle. :)
Thank You Franklin ;)

[Quillz]

How would the auto updater be able to tell the difference between boards that have a legit license key, and boards that were downloaded and installed illegally?

[.Justin]

I for one am against any type of auto installed or upgrade that overwrites, does it automatically and such.

One of the main problems of this would be the file permissions system, every file that would need to be upgraded needs to have a correct chmod value to be written over by the upgrader.

Not only this, but not everyone wants to upgrade, either right away or ever.

[Davidcopperfield]

One of the main problems of this would be the file permissions system, every file that would need to be upgraded needs to have a correct chmod value to be written over by the upgrader.

Not only this, but not everyone wants to upgrade, either right away or ever.

In this feature you automatically set CHMOD, and as Franklin already said you could completely turn off that feature with a view not to losing your Moded Board. This is simple, It is not compulsory. As far as illlegality is concxerned if you run an illegal board you would get illegal update form a hacker anyway, thus there is not difference.

[bart5986]

it would never work since most boards have at least 1 mod installed.

[UBERHOST.NET]

I for one am against any type of auto installed or upgrade that overwrites, does it automatically and such.

Same here. :thumbsup:

Not only this, but not everyone wants to upgrade, either right away or ever.

Yes, in the case of all product upgrades I want to handle it manually, and usually wait until I've read some industry pubs to make sure that I know what I'm getting into.

[Davidcopperfield]

Yes, in the case of all product upgrades I want to handle it manually, and usually wait until I've read some industry pubs to make sure that I know what I'm getting into.

So, you could turn it off completely in ACP if you don't fell like using it, nevertheless the are plenty of customers seeing the point in having it.

[UBERHOST.NET]

So, you could turn it off completely in ACP if you don't fell like using it, nevertheless the are plenty of customers seeing the point in having it.

Right, and it wouldn't bother me as long as it could be disabled. :cool:

[Davidcopperfield]

For modders there should be a switch in the ACP to completely enable/disable the auto-upgrade.

Mentioned by Franklin. There still exist a problem with heavily moded boards- perhaps there will be auto-update feature allowing mods. The IPB auto update feature could detect your implemented mods and then whilst updating it could rewrite the mods and changes introduced by them. ;) Some buffer for contents of modifications (pictures, database, data itc.) would be necessary. The whole data which is odd- beyond standard IPB would be copied to buffer file- selectable either on the server HD or your computer HD. That is all. Dear IPS you may start to work on this :thumbsup:

[Dlf]

Mentioned by Franklin. There still exist a problem with heavily moded boards- perhaps there will be auto-update feature allowing mods. The IPB auto update feature could detect your implemented mods and then whilst updating it could rewrite the mods and changes introduced by them. ;) Some buffer for contents of modifications (pictures, database, data itc.) would be necessary. The whole data which is odd- beyond standard IPB would be copied to buffer file- selectable either on the server HD or your computer HD. That is all. Dear IPS you may start to work on this :thumbsup:

That wouldn't always work probley. You may have a mod for say a Shop code then when the forum updates the shop feature is "standard" so the mod would be useless. Now if you could choose what mods would "update" along with the board and the others get "uninstalled" that may be nice.

[Alpha2.X]

Noooooooooo yuk evil, it would screw alot of things up, mods to start with.

[wisper]

So, you could turn it off completely in ACP if you don't fell like using it, nevertheless the are plenty of customers seeing the point in having it.

Have a section in ACP devoted to the live update feature with the ability to disable it or not.
That would work with me.

[Davidcopperfield]

That would work with me.

And with many others, I would like to see the feature with the list of supported mods at IPS site. One could know the for the mod, which a person uses, if a folder/file could be created (with cointents of this particular mod) to be reimplemented afer live-update proccess. How do you feel about it? The feature is hassle-free and seemless and makes the IPS unrivalled :thumbsup: It is like security suite package update (anti: spyware, malware thiefware, trojan, keylogger itp.)
ps. If you want to assess my other ideas see here:
http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=173089

[FCB-Mo]

would it even be possible for someone/something from IPS to get into our FTP accounts, change our files, correctly chmod them and then run the upgrade script without messing everything up (im not talking about mods cos they should plugin in 2.1)? i highly doubt its possible and even if it is, i dont want to provide my FTP access to anyone or anything

[UBERHOST.NET]

i highly doubt its possible and even if it is, i dont want to provide my FTP access to anyone or anything

Right, and I'm sure IPS wouldn't want that access information either.

[CheetahShrk]

Right, and I'm sure IPS wouldn't want that access information either.

Actually since PHP operates at server level so it doesnt need ftp info, it can just use some functions to open a connection to a server, download patch files for the next version straight onto the server the ipb install is running on and then overwriting existing files with the code from the other files.

[Davidcopperfield]

Actually since PHP operates at server level so it doesnt need ftp info, it can just use some functions to open a connection to a server, download patch files for the next version straight onto the server

It is like Windows update or sever software update. Can anyone of us draw IPS attention to this thread?

[Davidcopperfield]

Refreshment

[andyjamison]

As mentioned earlier it would cause a lot of problems however i can see the merit for this feature as long as it can be disabled and infact came disabled by default.

Also maybe if IPS wanted to test this feature then all IPS hosted forums could have an upgrade to include this feature. If the consinses is that this is a cool and well working feature they could then think of makeing it mainstream.

This is just my view on it. You may share different views.

[Davidcopperfield]

As mentioned earlier it would cause a lot of problems however i can see the merit for this feature as long as it can be disabled and infact came disabled by default.

We all agreed that it should be handled tihis way. If you do (not) need this feature just turn it on/off

Also maybe if IPS wanted to test this feature.

They have to read it first :)

[Tim Dorr]

This would be very bad for security. Most hosts have PHP compiled into the webserver, meaning it runs under a common, low-privilege user (commonly 'nobody'). In order to modify the source files to patch and auto-update them, they would need to be writeable by the webserver user. This means the can be written by any script that is run through the webserver, which is *really* bad on shared hosting where another customer could overwrite the files of another user. Or, if a security hole existed in IPB or another script on the server, the IPB install could be erased by a third-party hacker.

Basically, short of adding an FTP module to do this (which would probably not reliably run on most webservers), it's really unrealistic to have a feature like this.