Joomla Installer Improvements

Here's a quick rundown of some ways in which Joomla and third-party developers are trying to make managing your Joomla site much easier:

Automatic Updates for the Joomla 1.5 Core

Joomla Magic Updater installs as a component and then allows you to update to the latest Joomla version with a simple button click. The files are taken directly from joomla.org. People seem to love it. In less than a month on the Joomla Extensions Directory its one of the top rated extensions with over 25 rave reviews.

Automatic Updates for Joomla 1.5 Extensions

Intellispire Software Installer installs a wide range of components with a single click. The files are taken from their servers and slightly modified to allow easy installation. We covered their launch back in August. The main version is free. They also have a commercial version that has just been made redundant by Joomla Magic Updater.

Sneek Peek at Joomla 1.6's Installer

Wilco Jansen has a great post about how Joomla 1.6 may have much improved installation process. The main change is that the installer may be divided by task rather than extension type. The tasks may be Update, Manage, Discover, Warnings:

• Update: Developers can provide small upgrade packages rather than requiring you to uninstall and reinstall the whole extension.
• Manage: A list of all the installed extensions.
• Discover: Upload large extensions via FTP.
• Warnings: The most hypothetical of all the tasks, this may provide warnings about extensions that don't work with your site setup and perhaps other goodies ...

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Your Comments (6)

Nick

November 19, 2008

Your newsletter alerted me to the Joomla Magic Updater.

It's a very, very cool component.

Nick

Stephen Moseley

November 20, 2008

This is something that is really needed in Joomla. Thanks for highlighting it Steve.

Steven Johnson

January 14, 2009

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this.

I have been installing the magic updater on my 1.5 sites
Now that 1.5.9 is out, it has made the upgrade a very easy process.

Thanks again!

Steve Burge

January 14, 2009

You're welcome Steven - be aware that there was a small security issue in the non-commercial version. It CHMOD'ed a couple of files to 777. The new version is $10 but fixes that.

Nick

January 14, 2009

It CHMOD'ed a couple of files to 777.

Steve, do you have details of which files get set to 777.
I have had a look in the Joomls forums but haven't found reference so far.
A bit of discussion over the switch from Non-Commercial to Commercial.

Nick

Steve Burge

January 14, 2009

These were the dangerous lines:

chmod(JPATH_SITE.DS.'administrator'.DS.'modules'.DS.'mod_quickicon',0777);
chmod(JPATH_SITE.DS.'administrator'.DS.'modules'.DS.'mod_quickicon'.DS.'mod_quickicon.php',0777);
chmod(JPATH_SITE.DS.'administrator'.DS.'templates'.DS.'khepri'.DS.'images'.DS.'header',0777);