Sugar Update

[Chris_C]

Sugar Update needs to be improved so that it's mostly automatic, self-updating with just a few clicks, and extremely user friendly - like other major PHP web application frameworks: Joomla 1.7, Wordpress 3, and Drupal.

Sugar should automatically go online and check for updates every 24 hours - not only for Sugar itself, but also for ALL installed 3rd party modules - whether they came from Sugarforge, SugarExchange, or were developed by an independent Sugar developer.

The web address for Sugar to check for updates for each module, should be made part of the spec for the XML manifest that comes with each module. Same for Sugar itself.

Sugar Update should notify the Admin by email that updates are available, what they are, and what each one brings: new features, and fixes.

The Admin should simply check which modules they want to update, and click Go.

Dependencies on other components should also be handled properly - and should be specified in each module's manifest, or be able to be determined by auto-scanning the code - so that Sugar can keep itself, and the Admin, out of "dependency hell".

If the update doesn't work for any reason, Sugar has be equipped to perform a foolproof, perfect "undo" - a rollback of all changes.

Your thoughts ?

[sts]

Nice idea, but I'm not sure if this could work, because each single row of the code could have been changed manually for whatever reason (bugfix, customization, ...). How would you handle this?

[jmertic]

This is definitely something on our radar. Thanks for your feedback!

[Chris_C]

Nice idea, but I'm not sure if this could work, because each single row of the code could have been changed manually for whatever reason (bugfix, customization, ...). How would you handle this?

Use the SHA1 fingerprints, and diffs, to detect changes in the core files.

Sugar can automatically wget its own fingerprints from the main sugarcrm.com site.

Use them to scan the core files and when the fingerprints mismatch, the file has been changed.

It can also do change detection by diffing against the known untouched source code files.

Same change-detection method should be done with the modules.

Sugar should flag changed files against the known untouched base version of the module.

Sugar could either generate fingerprints when the module is unzipped and installed the first time - or wget the fingerprints from a URL the developers specify in the XML manifest.

Obviously, a untouched original code base is totally safe to upgrade - no changes will be lost because none were made.

For the times when Sugar auto-update finds changes, it should at least flag the files or modules it finds them in, and give the admin the opportunity to save the diffs, and/or save off the full code files, with just a few clicks.

But then we're getting into a developer role - it can be some work to reintegrate the changes - there's a better way to it - and that's with overrides.

Sugar needs to evolve to a model like Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, and other PHP web app frameworks use - overrides.

The new override code goes in separate files, in separate folders related to the original but in a standard folder hierarchy, and the new code just overrides the behavior of the core dynamically.

Also, "template overrides" to the Smarty visual template/layout of the application in the browser.