Since deprecating bazaar, I have dedicated my evenings to build something that removes the need for composer on your server, grants increased simplicity with extension management and is integrated into the extiverse landscape.
I'm closing in on opening a closed beta feature on extiverse.com. One that allows you to use ftp or ssh credentials to install or update flarum and every single extension by building a list inside extiverse. This list will then be tested based on your PHP environment inside an isolated environment, with a fresh flarum installation. If this test succeeds your forum will be automatically upgraded.
Existing forums have nothing to fear in terms of losing their extensions. The list will be seeded with currently installed extensions and extension versions known to extiverse, custom ones will be ignored/kept intact.
There are still some knots to tie, but most of the logic is functional.
