Suggestion for updater

[tomsterritt]

(In case the forum topic was missed)

So I was thinking, seeing as phpVMS is hosted on github, we could get around the whole downloading a zip, uploading, etc etc etc.

How easy would it be to set up a "stable" branch of phpVMS on github, which the updater can pull a zip of and install itself?

(Also if it's not that easy, having a "stable" branch alone would be super handy as the master is not always error-free, and there aren't any historic downloads in the downloads tab on github)

[nabeelio]

Where's the thread?

Setting up branch, etc is no big deal. The problem is the actual install itself. I've thought of doing this before, but hadn't had the time to research it. The problem ends up being the code to unzip/untar, extractions, permissions, etc. I think Wordpress has solved this problem, so someone needs to look at their code and just see the general way they've done it, or just research on ways to unzip/untar in place.

If someone wants to code this, I will participate and guide in the process. I can create a new branch for this and merge it into the mainline. Can you code? Do you want to take a crack at it? I will definitely help out, but I don't have the time to dedicate solely to this.

[tomsterritt]

Sorry, thread is here: http://forum.phpvms.net/topic/7583-suggestion-for-auto-updater/

I can code but I'm not familiar with forking/keeping said fork up to date with master code, etc etc - I tried it the other day and failed epically.

I'm looking to make something that does this kind of thing with plugins so either way I'm going to have to figure it out :)

[nabeelio]

Are you familiar with git at all? What you can do is this - don't work about branches and stuff, I'll take care of that.

Go to the main phpVMS repository, hit Fork up top, it'll create that repository in your account. Then you can clone that, and commit to it. And then, you can do a pull request, and I can pull your code in. Or, I can add you as a committer here, create a new branch and commit against that branch, with "refs #73" (this ticket) in the commit log.

Here's what I propose:

1. Add an option under maintenance in the Admin Panel for "auto-update"
2. Add a link to the auto-update in the admin panel dashboard where it checks the version (using the CHECK_RELEASE_VERSION/CHECK_BETA_VERSION settings that are there)
3. On the auto-update page, check for a newer version according to the above settings
4. Have it be a two-step thing, a ?page=1 and ?page=2, though page 1 is default
5. Page 1 checks the permissions of files, whether they have the proper zip extensions and other requirements
6. There's a link on page 1 that says "update now", and it will forward to page 2
7. Page 2 downloads the zip or tarball from github for the appropriate version and then extracts it
8. Page 2 has a link to forward to the install/update.php file to complete the update

[tomsterritt]

Yeah I can use git, it's the getting code back up into here I've never done before... I've always been committing straight to repos.

I will take a look soon then :)

[nabeelio]

If it's cloned from here, it's just

git commit -am "commit message"
git push origin [branch]

Then a pull request through the UI here. If you're on Windows, you can use the new github windows app too.

[tomsterritt]

Yeah I use GitHub for Mac. I didn't know whether or not I needed to pull updates down from here though, didn't work out well when I tried...

I'll do that though, thanks :)

[nabeelio]

From github you mean? You'd pull changes when there are changes, but I'd do it before you start working. I think phpVMS would be set as a parent if you fork it, there's a command to "fast-forward" changes, though it escapes me right now

[tomsterritt]

Ah ok, did a little googling and followed the instructions more closely than last time.

I added this repo as remote upstream to my fork, and then used: git pull --ff-only upstream master

Cool, all set up now :P

[nabeelio]

Ah great. Just create a new branch called "updater", and then commit that, then push that to me. We can see if that works.

[tomsterritt]

Branches is effort... i.e. I can't do it from the GitHub for Mac client... can I not leave it on master? D:

[nabeelio]

That's fine, I'll merge it on my end then, no worries
Just in the commit, do "refs #73" as the first bit