Thu

04

Sep

2008

Install from URL, JoomlaCode and 1.6

Written by Sam Moffatt

Today I was doing some work on JoomlaCode, looking at performance and logging to see what was happening and I noticed something really quite cool. Every week on average a little over 3600 extensions are installed into Joomla! 1.5 sites directly from JoomlaCode. You can do it yourself, navigate through JoomlaCode, find something you want to install but copy the URL of the download instead of downloading it to your computer. Then log into your Joomla! 1.5 site and paste the URL into the "Install from URL" box. Assuming you've got everything you need, it'll download and install the extension for you. Now it may not work properly in all hosting environments, especially ones who have disabled access to the web through either PHP or by blocking the actual connection at a firewall level.

Looking through the list of user agents we've got the usual selection of browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera), we've got tried and true downloader 'wget' grabbing files here and there, we even have some mobile browsers from DoCoMo flicking around the site and over 43k hits identifying as Google Chrome already. We've also got all of your friendly spiders floating about (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) as well as some language specific ones for languages like Chinese and Korean (e.g. Baidu). We've also got Feedreaders coming in and even some requests identifying themselves as various Java versions. Last but not least we've got Subversion clients coming in as well pulling up data from our various repositories.

So in 1.5 we added the ability to install from a URL, and it looks like people are using it. So what are we doing when we start looking at 1.6? Well we're going to start leveraging this to provide an update system that'll allow you to, within Joomla!, update your extensions. We're going to add some new extension types, such as libraries and packages. We've also done some work changing the way the installer system looks and we're unifying all of those extensions on under one 'manage' tab. Its not yet ready but its starting to take shape with little bits here and there coming together. We're nowhere near done with it but it is coming and we're hoping it'll have some really cool features for both developers and users.

To round up, Brad and Ron did some great work over the last few days upgrading JoomlaCode to the latest release of GForge and it seems to be running beautifully and has a new refreshing look. So we thank both GForge and Rochen for providing the application and hosting environment to keep JoomlaCode alive and the great resource it is for the community.

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29 Comments

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  1. avatar severdia makes this comment

    2008-09-04 05:28:54

    That's a great reminder for direct URL installations, Sam. Hopefully, there might be a way to update Joomla itself using a similarly easy method. :)

  2. avatar Mike makes this comment

    2008-09-04 05:45:53

    The news about the update system is great! The third party update component was featured in my last episode and I'm so excited to hear that something like it is going to be in the core.

    Mike Brogan
    www.thejoomlapodcast.com

  3. avatar Neri Valentin-Macias makes this comment

    2008-09-04 13:51:55

    I have used the install from url feature quite a bit and love the simplicity. I look forward to version 1.6 and further updates in this area. Thumbs up to all who support joomlacode.org and Joomla! development. Great job!

  4. avatar jaider bertoli makes this comment

    2008-09-04 14:13:46

    I can't wait to test drive joomla 1.6

  5. avatar Chad makes this comment

    2008-09-04 17:24:57

    Thanks for the update and the info on some of what's coming in 1.6. It's good to hear.

    Out of curiosity, is it still planned to include more granular access levels in version 1.6? That was one of the other things I was most excited about that I'd heard was in store for the future.

    Oh, is there any idea as to when 1.6 might be released or begin beta testing? I'm not asking for a release date, just wondering if there's something kind of ballpark-ish like "around the first of the year" or "sometime before the end of summer," etc.

  6. avatar Chad makes this comment

    2008-09-04 21:11:55

    What about installing Joomla! 1.6 patches via browser? No FTP or patches downloading/unzipping/uploading would be great for those of us who have to keep 80+ websites in a current point release.

  7. avatar gnuffmaster makes this comment

    2008-09-05 10:48:49

    That sounds quite good and it's what i have waited for a long time. Would be really nice to update within joomla and not have to look for every extension and update every single one.

    It would also be nice, to install new extensions within joomla directly not only to update existing ones. I mean, go to the installer and have some type of integrated extension dir, choose one and it installs.

  8. avatar Christophe Demko makes this comment

    2008-09-05 20:56:53

    Great Jon Sam, when version numbers goes up in Joomla, it means:
    - simplicity goes up for developer
    - quality goes up for developer
    ...

  9. avatar chrisyeung168 makes this comment

    2008-09-06 03:40:12

    This is a good news

  10. avatar alteiis makes this comment

    2008-09-07 11:08:38

    Great news but don't forget acl in 1.6

  11. avatar Sam.Moffatt makes this comment

    2008-09-09 09:12:56

    re: ACL - thats someones elses bucket but I believe it is going to come in.
    re: patches - that will come, we can do that already (even since 1.0 days); there are a few issues with our native tar library with the larger patch packages but smaller patches are fine even under both 1.0 and 1.5
    re: release date - I'm not sure when its going to go, even beta or anything. we've got a lot of svn merging to do before we think about it. acl is on the page as well as a few other projects that i'm hoping will get into 1.6 as well that we haven't done much with lately. my part isn't done yet either so we'll more than likely set a date once we've got the main features in

  12. avatar Krisstoffer makes this comment

    2008-09-11 15:39:41

    While the install from update is a novel idea and i have used in places where speeds are slow etc or im feeling lazy - the idea of an auto update system i cant honestly say appeals to me personally.

    of course its all dependant on how its done, no doubt on the J! end it will be secure, but i do wonder just how many authors on J!Code have secure passwords, how hard would be it be for someone to sneak something malicious in there and trigger an update..

  13. avatar Rajeev makes this comment

    2008-09-12 10:32:34

    hi,
    I ma waiting for JSST.

  14. avatar redivide makes this comment

    2008-09-12 17:35:35

    That would be great! It would also be nice to update Joomla itself this way. I recently updated one of my wordpress installs with just a few clicks, and this involved backup and a database upgrade as well.

    I also look forward to a better Joomla backend interface that minimized clicks and allowed one to create sections, categories, menus, while writing a new article.

  15. avatar Jaider Bertoli makes this comment

    2008-09-12 20:43:18

    This is great news

  16. avatar Alfred makes this comment

    2008-09-16 19:45:48

    A Component update system sounds good to me, but don't forget to implement some kind of system able to install and uninstall language packs for components.

  17. avatar Mon makes this comment

    2008-09-17 19:02:03

    Quote:
    Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 4864 bytes) in /home/philsen/public_html/home/libraries/joomla/utilities/simplexml.php(301) : eval()'d code on line 1


    sir can you please help me on this i dont know where to put this or should i ask to. Joomla Version 1.5.6

    when i use the Joomla v1.5.5 it install with no hassle including the previous version but now when i install it on this version 1.5.6 it runs on that error.

    Please help

  18. avatar shinkendo makes this comment

    2008-09-19 14:12:20

    I totally agree on the Joomla updater concept. Not sure what script/app they use to keep Joomla installs up to date over at Godaddy.com, but usually a few weeks after Joomla version is released, you can always just click "update" in the godaddy app console and you will have the latest Joomla version upgraded automatically.

  19. avatar stfu makes this comment

    2008-09-23 19:37:18

    More info about Joomla 1.6 would be great :)

  20. avatar MLG4035 makes this comment

    2008-09-24 05:34:01

    Something along the lines of PEAR's "list available upgrades" functionality would be GREAT!

    Ideally, I want to be able to go to a screen in Administrator and see all the upgrades that are available for the coms/mods/plugins/templates I have installed. Then have an icon/link I can click to run the upgrade.

    The Joomla!1.5 series is really, really great: I've already voted for it as Best Overall Open Source CMS over at Packt Publishing...

  21. avatar Red makes this comment

    2008-09-24 20:33:06

    I think that is a great idea! I use systems like this in the Fedora OS! Great step in the right direction....

  22. avatar Bezworks makes this comment

    2008-09-26 21:01:48

    Awesome.

  23. avatar Mike Hamanaka makes this comment

    2008-10-01 08:12:10

    The URL install feature is mighty fine! I look forward to more integrated installation features in 1.6

  24. avatar Harry makes this comment

    2008-10-01 11:58:35

    I read "Well we're going to start leveraging this to provide an update system that'll allow you to, within Joomla!, update your extensions." Where is the roadmap? Is ACL still on that roadmap, why is the focus on these minor "nice to haves" as there still is a "must have" not implemented (ACL).

  25. avatar amy.stephen makes this comment

    2008-10-02 00:19:52

    Trust me, Harry, no one has or will forget about the ACL. That's hot - and it's on course - and it's coming soon.

  26. avatar john emisyl paler makes this comment

    2008-10-02 08:20:41

    Hi im john 22 years old from phillipines i am a I.T instructori am also a programmer but not totaly a web programmer... your opensource program is so cool i love it..thank you for your time and effort building this kind of web site 'JOOMLA'... many small programmer will enhance there program ability.. KEEP IT UP!

  27. avatar Sam.Moffatt makes this comment

    2008-10-08 00:27:50

    re Krisstoffer: The choice to update is purely your own. If you choose not to update then you're not going to get hit. If someone hacks their account today and you install the extension you're no worse off anyway. We'll be hooking it into the JED once we get things stable and that'll mean that all of the JED functionality will be available, such as reporting extensions. If an extension does get hijacked then a JED moderator could merely disable its listing and the update won't appear.

  28. avatar Sam.Moffatt makes this comment

    2008-10-08 00:28:57

    re Harry: "must have" and "nice to have" are two incredibly subjective statements. To be honest, none of my many sites require ACL, so it isn't a "must have" because well, they don't need it. However, since I have so many sites, it is often hard to keep them up to date, so having an update system built in that would do it for me is more of a "must have" because it'll save me time - ACL doesn't personally earn me anything. But ACL is on the board, its not on mine but it is there. When those people are happy to make noise about it they will.

  29. avatar Jimmy Smith makes this comment

    2008-11-13 17:55:05

    I manage a church system of sites. each department with its own needs to manage their content. addign editing deleting approving, component access etc.

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