IPS 4.3.4 again giving wrong MySQL recommendation

[RevengeFNF]

My server is running MariaDB 10.3.7 and the last IPS version is recommending me to update to at least MySQL 5.6.2.

I have a feeling someday IPS upgrader will say i can't upgrade to the new version without updating MySQL to at least 5.6...

[Stuart Silvester]

8 minutes ago, RevengeFNF said:

My server is running MariaDB 10.3.7 and the last IPS version is recommending me to update to at least MySQL 5.6.2.

I have a feeling someday IPS upgrader will say i can't upgrade to the new version without updating MySQL to at least 5.6...

 

[SJ77]

I got the error too

MySQL Version Recommendation

You are running MySQL version 5.5.5-10.2.15-MariaDB. While this version is compatible, future releases of our software will require version 5.6.2 or above.

[Teddy Rogers]

I am getting a similar message. Came here to report the same problem...

Ted.

[Charles]

If you run the support tool in the AdminCP you will get a patch to remove the message.

[bearback]

2 hours ago, Charles said:

If you run the support tool in the AdminCP you will get a patch to remove the message.

For future reference, how do I get the patches/files without  running the support tool in the AdminCP ?

I don't want to download the full set of files and replace my current ones each time there's a patch released.

Thank you

[Jim M]

12 minutes ago, bearback said:

For future reference, how do I get the patches/files without  running the support tool in the AdminCP ?

I don't want to download the full set of files and replace my current ones each time there's a patch released.

The two current options for obtaining patches are:

1. Running the Support Tool in the ACP then click "Apply Patch" and it will auto-apply the files needed.
2. Obtaining all files from your Client Area.

 

[Charles]

20 minutes ago, bearback said:

For future reference, how do I get the patches/files without  running the support tool in the AdminCP ?

I don't want to download the full set of files and replace my current ones each time there's a patch released.

Thank you

The support tool is the only way to get changed files only as it’s how the system knows what you need. 

Why would you not want to run support tool?

[CheersnGears]

56 minutes ago, bearback said:

For future reference, how do I get the patches/files without  running the support tool in the AdminCP ?

I don't want to download the full set of files and replace my current ones each time there's a patch released.

Thank you

It only replaces the files that need to be replaced.

Edit: I just did this patch via the support tool. It took less than 30 second to complete.

[bearback]

30 minutes ago, Charles said:

The support tool is the only way to get changed files only as it’s how the system knows what you need. 

Why would you not want to run support tool?

Just a personal preference

would sooner manually apply the patch files, same way I upgrade when needed. more control and I know what's been applied and what files have been changed. 

[bearback]

1 hour ago, Charles said:

The support tool is the only way to get changed files only as it’s how the system knows what you need. 

Why would you not want to run support tool?

Why are we not notified that patches are available in the AdminCP to fix various issues?  the only way to know there's a patch available is to run the support tool or read about it on these forums when there's an issue.

It would save people posting on these forums with issues or creating a support ticket

[Mark]

4 hours ago, bearback said:

Why are we not notified that patches are available in the AdminCP to fix various issues?  the only way to know there's a patch available is to run the support tool or read about it on these forums when there's an issue.

It would save people posting on these forums with issues or creating a support ticket

We usually use patches if it's something most people aren't impacted by, but is annoying/confusing enough to those that do we don't want to wait until the next release. Like this, it only affects people using Maria, which is a very low percentage of communities, but was confusing people who are.

We could do a new release version (like 4.3.4.1), which would notify people in the ACP and by email, but when we used to do this more often in the past we would get complaints that releases were happening too often.

The support tool in the AdminCP does lots of checks for things which often come up, including stuff we've patched (and then, if it doesn't fix your problem, gives you the option to create a support request at the end) so we hope that people run it if something seems amiss - that's why it's there!

5 hours ago, bearback said:

Just a personal preference

would sooner manually apply the patch files, same way I upgrade when needed. more control and I know what's been applied and what files have been changed. 

In addition to what the others said, here's a secret we haven't mentioned before: In 4.3.4 we added the ability for the patch system to make HTML and CSS changes, and used it in this patch. So this is another reason it we don't provide the files separately - the system needs to do some stuff after the files have been applied.

If you want to be sneaky though - enable the DELTA_FORCE_FTP constant, or make the init.php file not writeable to PHP. If you do this, it'll see it can't apply the files automatically and ask FTP details - at that point there is the option to download a zip with just the files it intends to apply. You'll still need to initiate it from the ACP though and make sure you click "Continue" after uploading the files (rather than just abandoning it) so it does the stuff it needs to do next... so at that point you really might as well just let it do it ?

[Aiwa]

9 hours ago, bearback said:

I know what's been applied and what files have been changed.

That's what git is for... If you REALLY want to know this, set up a git repo for your site, with some directory ignores so you don't get cache data, uploads, etc... And commit before and after you apply the patch.  Then run a difference report.

But, it seems they've given the system the ability to change templates... So you'll only get part of the picture anyway.

[bearback]

10 hours ago, Mark said:

We usually use patches if it's something most people aren't impacted by, but is annoying/confusing enough to those that do we don't want to wait until the next release. Like this, it only affects people using Maria, which is a very low percentage of communities, but was confusing people who are.

We could do a new release version (like 4.3.4.1), which would notify people in the ACP and by email, but when we used to do this more often in the past we would get complaints that releases were happening too often.

The support tool in the AdminCP does lots of checks for things which often come up, including stuff we've patched (and then, if it doesn't fix your problem, gives you the option to create a support request at the end) so we hope that people run it if something seems amiss - that's why it's there!

In addition to what the others said, here's a secret we haven't mentioned before: In 4.3.4 we added the ability for the patch system to make HTML and CSS changes, and used it in this patch. So this is another reason it we don't provide the files separately - the system needs to do some stuff after the files have been applied.

If you want to be sneaky though - enable the DELTA_FORCE_FTP constant, or make the init.php file not writeable to PHP. If you do this, it'll see it can't apply the files automatically and ask FTP details - at that point there is the option to download a zip with just the files it intends to apply. You'll still need to initiate it from the ACP though and make sure you click "Continue" after uploading the files (rather than just abandoning it) so it does the stuff it needs to do next... so at that point you really might as well just let it do it ?

Thank you for a detailed and informative reply, I didn't take into account any HTML/CSS changes when applying patches.

Fully appreciate that we don't want another new release straight after the current one as that would be quite annoying (to some) and as you state only effects some customers. Instead of hiding future patches away in the ACP support as there only shown when running the support tool, it might be useful to show the available patches in the dashboard and if a customer has an issue with there install they can clearly see a patch needs to be applied to fix there issue.  

Thanks again 

 

     

[Joel R]

On 6/19/2018 at 5:01 PM, Mark said:

We could do a new release version (like 4.3.4.1), which would notify people in the ACP and by email, but when we used to do this more often in the past we would get complaints that releases were happening too often.

I just want to make fun of IPS for a moment.  Their solution for too many releases was to still have the same number of releases, but just not tell anyone about them. Problem solved!

I'm pretty sure I also made fun of IPS for having release after release after release in the early wild days of 4.0. So I'll readily accept the karma.  But somehow, I find not notifying clients of critical patches to be worse than over-informing users. 

In any case, the real moral of the story is that every IPS client should run the support tool every week to see what new magic patches might appear, since nobody ever knows when they come out and for what reason.  Trust me, it'll fun.  So fun.  

[Mark]

5 hours ago, Joel R said:

I just want to make fun of IPS for a moment.  Their solution for too many releases was to still have the same number of releases, but just not tell anyone about them. Problem solved!

I'm pretty sure I also made fun of IPS for having release after release after release in the early wild days of 4.0. So I'll readily accept the karma.  But somehow, I find not notifying clients of critical patches to be worse than over-informing users. 

In any case, the real moral of the story is that every IPS client should run the support tool every week to see what new magic patches might appear, since nobody ever knows when they come out and for what reason.  Trust me, it'll fun.  So fun.  

I wouldn't call an update to remove a notice showing in the AdminCP (i.e. to admins only), with no other negative side effects, on sites running a specific version of MariaDB (which is a single-digit % of communities) a "critical patch" ?

Do you think we should have released a full-fledged update for that?

[Adriano Faria]

11 minutes ago, Mark said:

Do you think we should have released a full-fledged update for that?

The idea is probably notify users, via ACP or a “blog” entry here on this forum, about this unknown patches: 

5 hours ago, Joel R said:

...every IPS client should run the support tool every week to see what new magic patches might appear

That would probably reduce tickets or topics like that: 

 

[Joel R]

4 hours ago, Mark said:

I wouldn't call an update to remove a notice showing in the AdminCP (i.e. to admins only), with no other negative side effects, on sites running a specific version of MariaDB (which is a single-digit % of communities) a "critical patch" ?

Do you think we should have released a full-fledged update for that?

Was this the same patch that corrected the calendar being a day off and correctly resizing attachments in posts? It was a pretty big patch.  

My point was not so much the extent of the corrections but about informing users in some manner of an optional patch without being overwhelming.  

Also, since you're cute, yes I'll take as many full fledged updates from you.  

[bearback]

8 hours ago, Mark said:

I wouldn't call an update to remove a notice showing in the AdminCP (i.e. to admins only), with no other negative side effects, on sites running a specific version of MariaDB (which is a single-digit % of communities) a "critical patch" ?

Do you think we should have released a full-fledged update for that?

With respect I am sure you know full well the point people are trying to make, although this topic started pointing out one issue with MariaDB and fixed with a patch that's only shown when running the support tool.  The topic has gone off topic slightly to discuss clearer notification of other available patches. 

If your read the comments no one was asking for a full-fledged update to fix minor issues, just let people know these patches are available. Why hide them away?  How many times have I read a support topic with a response/reply "there's a patch for that, run the support tool"

thanks for listening ?

 

[Mark]

6 hours ago, Joel R said:

Also, since you're cute, yes I'll take as many full fledged updates from you.  

?

1 hour ago, bearback said:

With respect I am sure you know full well the point people are trying to make, although this topic started pointing out one issue with MariaDB and fixed with a patch that's only shown when running the support tool.  The topic has gone off topic slightly to discuss clearer notification of other available patches. 

If your read the comments no one was asking for a full-fledged update to fix minor issues, just let people know these patches are available. Why hide them away?  How many times have I read a support topic with a response/reply "there's a patch for that, run the support tool"

thanks for listening ?

 

I guess my point is: for a release, we put up an ACP notice and (if you've enabled it) send out an email. If we do the same for a patch, that is effectively the same as doing a release and we know (including from people in this topic!) doing that too often is undesirable.

But it sounds like maybe we still haven't quite found the balance between making it noisy enough to be noticed by the people who want to know about everything versus but not noisy enough to annoy those who only care about the important stuff (which is hard, as people differ in their definitions of important stuff!).

[Chris Anderson]

Even a person that spends a fair amount of time here on the forums can easily miss a conversation about an issue as people tend to talk about multiple issues under one topic.  For example I entirely missed the fact that there seems to be problems with "custom fields not being saved during registration".  I just ran the " Something isn't working correctly" wizard in my ACP and find that you have released an optional update fixing the custom fields problem.

Custom fields are a great value-add to any community and having blank custom fields could cause untold problems for a forum administrator.  So this particular optional update "could" be a big deal for some folks.  Every hour a site remains unpatched the more cleanup an administrator may have to deal with.

Maybe you could add an ACP switch that an admin could toggle (on or off) to be immediately alerted to any new updates or optional updates.  When a new update is available an Alert message is posted in the Dashboard and an email is sent.

Those that don't enable that toggle have to click on the "Check for Updates" button in the Applications tab or run the Support wizard to learn about anything new.

You already have a "Release Notes" page on your website that people can follow, it would be helpful to include another one for Optional Updates that people can follow as well. 

Maybe you could add a "Known Issues" page as well that people could follow. 

You could list status for each:

*Investigating - Please submit trouble ticket if you are experiencing this issue yourself

                      - We have all of the information we need and will provide a workaround or update soon

*Fixed in version 4.x.x or via upcoming optional update that is targeted for release on (date given)

Once an Admin applies an optional update there is no visible record that the patch was applied.  It would be helpful to create an update log file in the ACP listing the issues being corrected in patch.

 

[Charles]

I guess the way I look at it is:

If you are having a problem, you run support tool. There may be a patch for the problem, great you apply and it's fixed. There may not be a patch so you submit a support ticket. Either way you get your problem addressed.

If you are not experience a problem then you do not do any of that as you do not need a patch nor do you need a support ticket. Everything is fine. You don't need to worry. You are happy. Patches are irrelevant to you.

[Chris Anderson]

1 hour ago, Charles said:

I guess the way I look at it is:

If you are having a problem, you run support tool. There may be a patch for the problem, great you apply and it's fixed. There may not be a patch so you submit a support ticket. Either way you get your problem addressed. 

If you are not experience a problem then you do not do any of that as you do not need a patch nor do you need a support ticket. Everything is fine. You don't need to worry. You are happy. Patches are irrelevant to you.

I hate to be the one to point out (excepting user error) but Updates, Optional Updates, Bugs, workarounds, trouble tickets, whatever you might define as a "problem" are of your company's making.  If you can release several updates in a row without any "problems" to fix than "Everything will indeed be fine.  We can put our worries behind us, We will all be HAPPY!   Until such a happy day comes there is room for improvement on your company's part. 

A "problem" may not actually be a problem for some sites but could be a real "PROBLEM" for a handful.  There is no telling on any particular day what "problem" will be discovered and whether it will have a meaningful impact on your customer base or not.  So every "problem" should be treated equally, that is they should be considered a "PROBLEM".  If we're going to experience a "PROBLEM" today (or are already experiencing it but don't know it) why wouldn't your company want to let us know as soon as possible?

 

[Joel R]

When I saw this specific message in my dashboard, running the IPS magic patch was the last thing on my mind.  This was the priority in my mind:

• Check database myself
• Contact server admin 
• Work-out and ignore the problem for a day
• Watch Netflix and ignore the problem for a day
• IPS Client Area

And that's how I approached the problem.  How was I supposed to know that IPS was giving me #fakenews on my ACP Dashboard?  Historically, running the IPS support tool doesn't solve many problems for me.  It's purpose in my eyes is to clear the cache, disable my third-party files, and upgrade to specific versions.  I don't even like submitting tickets through the IPS support tool because I can't add attachments, which are very useful in clearly identifying problems to Support.  I especially don't like running the support tool to upgrade to versions I don't want.  

So just because there's "a problem" doesn't mean that problem is isolated, relevant, or trusted to the IPS Support tool.  Proactive and astute admins want to see a clear link between your solution and their problem, not just blindly run a generic tool every time that historically hasn't solved many things.    

  

 

[Aiwa]

I've read this topic multiple times, including others about silent patching, and there is a trend... 

In this one particular instance, yes... An admin will know they have an issue, and can run the support tool or submit a ticket for help.  At which point they would find out about the patch.  I agree 100% with IPS' statement here.  

Where I think many disagree with IPS' blanket statement... Some of these silent patches impact parts of the community the Administrator isn't aware are broken.  For example, registration... How many times have you actually TESTED the registration system on your community?  Only when you, directly, make changes to it, right?  How would we know that custom profile fields on the registration page aren't saving properly if we're not testing that functionality at that particular time? 

Ultimately I think it boils down to understanding of what determines a patch vs a release? Is there auditing done for patches to ensure the lack of applying them won't cause further harm to a community if unapplied? A little transparency here might not be a bad thing.  But I do agree that the patching system for minor issues is better than a full point release that disturbs all administrators that don't want to see that noise.