Suggestion: Auto-upgrade tool?

[AndrewRH]

Hi,

I'm new to Coppermine after having used dAlbums for a number of years.  One thing that dAlbums does nicely is upgrades.  There is a handy little program which you can run that will check your server to see what version of dAlbums is on it and then compare it to what the dAlbums latest version is.  If there is a new version then you are informed and can click a single button to have the tool download and upgrade your dAlbum installation.

There is no need for fiddly backing up, lengthy uploads, etc.  The tool is smart enough to know when to upgrade and what.

I noticed that to upgrade from 1.4.9 to 1.4.10 for example, that I must upload everything (except albums, and this file and that file...).  This takes considerable time on an ADSL line where upload speed is much less than download speed.

So, any chance of spending a bit of energy on writing a smart upgrade tool?

(by the way, I did search just subject lines for upgrade and didn't see anything related -- but upgrade seems to be a too-generic of a term)

Thanks,

~Andrew~

[Joachim Müller]

We're aware that other apps try to perform auto-updates/upgrades. However, this will undo all customizations users have made. As there are many who do so, we're goingto change one bad thing (manual upgrades) with another bad thing (people complaining that their customization got lost).
Additionally, to change files, you need to give write access to the script for the entire folder your app resides in.
We have discussed auto-installers/upgraders in the past and haven't come to a conclusion. Coppermine is aimed at medium-skilled webmaster who know their way around using their FTP app. Users who just want it simple (and subsequently use third-party auto-installers like Fantastico) don't read the docs...

[AndrewRH]

Hi,

Here's info about how dAlbum does it (it too is aimed at medium skilled webmasters).   It, like Coppermine, is PHP based. 

http://www.dalbum.org/index.php?go=upgrade

Here's the key steps for it...note the comment in step 4 about not touching customizations!

1. Download and extract DAlbum update utility (Win32, 110Kb) to your harddrive. Do not run the utility directly out of the updalbum.zip file!
2. Run the utility, press Add button and add your DAlbum FTP site to the list.
3. Select sites to be updated and press Update button. You can select more than one site at once.
4. Press 'Update' button. Update utility will automatically connect to www.delx.ca/dalbum and download the latest DAlbum build. If your site is running an older version it will be updated automatically. Your configuration files will remain untouched.