Updater for the Joomla! Update Component

[Nick Savov]

Hi all,

At the Joomla World Conference, Nicholas from AkeebaBackup mentioned to me that we should consider having the Joomla! Update component available to be updated in Extensions >> Extension Manager >> Update, as a regular extension is.  This would allow us to update the core updater without having to release a new Joomla version.

For example, if we had this mechanism during 3.0.0, we wouldn't have had to create a hotpatch, but rather could have just released a new version of Joomla! Update via Extension Manager.  Or if we want to improve the updater around the time 3.1 is released to make it more specific for STS versions, we wouldn't have to release a new 3.0.x version.

Your thoughts?

Kind regards,
Nick

[Matt Thomas]

Hi Nick,

That's a great idea. In fact, why not do that for all core components?

Best,

Matt

Sent from my phone that uses an open source operating system.

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[Nick Savov]

Hi Matt,

That's what I was thinking too, especially if and when we went to a
lighter Joomla where you could choose which core extensions to install.
But for now, it would just be the Joomla! Update component, that way we
can take baby steps, get feedback from users, streamline the process, etc.

Kind regards,
Nick

[Matt Thomas]

Nick,

I agree about baby steps. Nice to see a grander vision. Maybe looking at what Jeremy did with https://github.com/square-one/square-one-cms will help. He's essentially done this ;-)

Best,

Matt

Sent from my phone that uses an open source operating system.

[Nick Savov]

+1 . I still have to test that puppy out. I'll have to play around with
it this weekend when I have some more time.

Kind regards,
Nick

[reynaldo celaya III]

+1 on all of this -  I like the idea of a naked Joomla...... I pick how to dress it up! I find myself stripping it more often than not. Installation could give the good ole  standard install or an advanced option that resembles the custom install screens of most mac/win/lnx native apps.

The update-able Joomla Update makes sense, unless it was broken to begin with. ha ha ok its late good night. Great ideas guys.

[Nick Savov]

Hi Reynaldo,

Cool, I'm glad you like the idea!

The Extension Manager updater (used for extensions mostly) is actually
independent of the Joomla! Update component (used for the core). So if
the Joomla! Update component broke, the Extensions Manager updater could
still work. Thus, if we made the Joomla! Update component available as an
"extension", and it happened to break, we could just update it via the
Extension Manager Updater :) So that's one of the great parts about
having an updater for the Joomla! Update component.

On the other hand, if the Extension Manager updater broke, then we could
just release a new Joomla version via the Joomla! Update component with
the respective fixes.

So it's a win-win situation if we had an updater for the Joomla! Update
component. They would cover each others' backs.

Kind regards,
Nick

> --

[elin]

We can already update core components as long as the updater is working, that's what we do in a release, the problem is that if we need a change in the updater to address something needed in a release we essentially would have to do two releases, one just doing the updater and the other a full release. 

Honestly in 7 years I can't think of a time when it would have made sense to release any other extension independently. We always have dozens of changes across the whole CMS. Further, in my opinion, the last thing we need is a schedule with weekly updates of different pieces, even Microsoft only pushes once a month. Each time we push something out it is essentially 4 full days of work for members of the team that handles release plus a full day at least of people doing testing of the packages in different environments. People may not be aware that there is a lot more do doing a release than zip up the files and upload them. Though I'm sure the fact that you don't see extension many developers on a 6-8 week release cycle the way the core is tells you something about how simple it is.

Elin

[Nick Savov]

Thanks for everyone's feedback!  I submitted the code for this feature in the feature tracker:

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&tracker_item_id=30112

Cheers,

Nick