Beta Question

Aesahaettr

If I install Flarum in beta and have a lot of discussions on my site, will it be hard to upgrade to the stable version once it is released? I'm not a dev, and the most experience I have with this stuff is doing WordPress installations.

I am just worried that if I install it now that maybe it won't be as clean on the back end in terms of databases or code or whatever else is going on.

Is that a viable concern, and I should wait for a stable release to start really using it? Or will I be able to easily upgrade to stable without any issues?

Thanks

Franz

Since we're using the Beta ourselves here, there will definitely be an ugrade path. It may not be as smooth as future upgrades, though, so a little bit of work on your part will be required.

Aesahaettr

Franz How do upgrades normally work? I couldn't find anything about them so far. Will it be like WordPress where you just click Install Update and we'll get it? Or will we have to install them manually?

Kulga

Aesahaettr Will it be like WordPress where you just click Install Update and we'll get it?

The thing is, there's never been a upgrade for flarum, ever (as of post).

WordPress started in 2003

.. which means it has a 12 year head start against flarum. Flarum is in beta. You should expect things to blow up in your face, upgrades to be irritating and confusing, regressions and impatient dev's when users expect things to be one-click and without error.
I'm not trying to be mean. I think the devs are very smart and their beta is exceptionally stable for a first release (if low on accessible, useful error messages 😉) But give them a little time before making everything extra streamlined as they figure things out with a lot of people trying different things with different skill levels.
First structural stability needs to exist, then polish will follow.

Nulled

Hum, @Franz, if we need to do some query to the database manualy you will write a little guide ? ^{^'}

Aesahaettr

Kulga Oh I definitely understand that. I'm just asking how they plan to implement updates in the very near future? Downloading Flarum 0.2 and installing manually over the current install? Adding a "Update Flarum" button in the settings?

Kulga

Aesahaettr Most likely #1.
Backing up would be wise.
I'm not a dev so I won't speculate further.
This is partially why I hope some kind of Kulga of data is implemented to make this less of an issue
(see what I did there? 🙂)

Toby

Yeah, beta upgrades will involve manually overwriting the files, then running an included upgrade script. Easy updates is on the wishlist.

Kulga An import/export feature would be nice way down the track, but it's low priority given you can just do a normal database backup (mysqldump or equivalent).

Kulga

Toby Ok. That makes the assumption that database structure will not change in upcoming updates?
Or - if there is, I assume there will be instructions on upgrading it.

I don't want to restore a backed up database with a new install and having it "not know" what to do with it.
As it is with (especially FOSS) software, user-data is of primary importance, the install isn't (ok - it is, but in a different, upgradeable way)

After thinking about it, some kind of xml output wouldn't even solve the problem if the new instance had a different method of importing data (so it wouldn't really even solve the problem)

Toby

The database contains information about the current "version" that it is – so if you drop an old database into a newer Flarum installation, Flarum will be able to run the appropriate queries to upgrade it automatically.

Kulga

Toby Wow - amazing! That's really cool.
That'll help with making consistent backups since I can just backup the database with cron and drop in a backup if something goes haywire on a upgrade.

Kulga

After Toby response I agree. A quick mysql dump will serve this purpose perfectly and can be used since old databases will work in newer flarum upgrades (very important part)
My test install will be stressing this since I have a database dump I will be constantly restoring with with future upgrades of flarum.
For those with less access, a http, extension based method may be better at some point for those who need it.