For Installs and Upgrades... Alternatives for Us Modders!

I use a forum system, and I just got one of those Important Security Update notices. Those get your attention, don’t they?

I downloaded it, and there were the usual instructions, back up database, upload this into that folder, all the usual crud. But here was the great part.. they had directions that you could use to make a manual change instead of the upload - "change these lines here to blah blah" and so on. They instructions were short and sweet.

Man, I could have used this the last time I tried updating ModX. Yes, I know that if you have tons of changes, this may not be efficient. But when it’s feasible, I would love this, simply because I’ve done a lot of my own mods and fixes to the code, and obviously the upload will blast them. Even if you remember to back up all your mods elsewhere (I did), when you move your stuff back in, you run the risk that some other change will break your stuff. At least if you know what’s being changed, you have a fighting chance of "fixing the fix".

Even a list of what’s changing would be somewhat helpful, if not as good as details. Maybe nobody feels they have the time to do this, and I would understand - I’m busy too. But for, say, a small security fix where just one or two files are messed up, why not? I don’t think brute force "update every file" updates are always necessary. My two cents.

Thanks for all your hard work!

There is a changelog included with each release and there is public SVN access so you can compare the changes between releases. If you are fixing the code, let us know so we can include the patches in the release. On a sidenote, what types of modifications have you made to the core.

Quote from: Mark at Apr 05, 2007, 03:44 PM

There is a changelog included with each release and there is public SVN access so you can compare the changes between releases. If you are fixing the code, let us know so we can include the patches in the release. On a sidenote, what types of modifications have you made to the core.

Mark,
Thanks for the info. I will just have to pore through that material very carefully before the next upgrade. I also have started reading the bug logs! If I had done all that, I would have known to wait.

Most of my mods have been in Datagrid. Some could be used by regular humans, others are hard-coded for various reasons and really shouldn’t be distributed. Ignorant of the bug submission stuff, I just published fixes in the forums. I know better now. I could be wrong, but I’m getting the impression that not many people are using the Datagrid anyway; there are things in the bug log that "sound like" what I’m finding, and they’ve been there for months, so rather than pile on, I just fix them myself. I really like the grid, and I can’t wait for Raymond or whoever. The other day I got that sucker to produce valid XHTML pages with a couple tweaks.

Yes, I know there’s MakeTable, but I’ve found that very hard to work with, despite its outstanding features. Things like I change one line here, and that clobbers me somewhere else hundreds of lines away, and so on, long wack-a-mole sessions.

Thanks.

The time between official releases typically makes a changelog impractical ... as there’s usually hundreds of commits affecting far more than that files (maybe thousands of files).

That’s one of the very cool things that will come with future versions (past 0.9.6) the ability to change the core behavior without hacking it.

Quote from: rthrash at Apr 05, 2007, 04:51 PM

The time between official releases typically makes a changelog impractical ... as there’s usually hundreds of commits affecting far more than that files (maybe thousands of files).

That’s one of the very cool things that will come with future versions (past 0.9.6) the ability to change the core behavior without hacking it.

Thanks, Ryan.
Of course, that assumes that the core elements all work.
But seriously, I know that some of this is just the nature of the gigantic beast. It’s a little scary to know that along with the new features I’m missing out on, I’m also missing out on security fixes. I’ll just have to live with it, as the Datagrid is a key part of what I’m doing. It’s either that, or upgrade absolutely everything, and run into more unexpected bugs that I don’t have time to fix. It’s just my luck to pick a component whose writer has lots more critical things to do than work on it, and I don’t have time either right now.

You could say that this is the Human Condition. I think you folks are doing the best you can.

Having said all that, I was able to get the Datagrid to work with 9.6 for a couple other widgets, so maybe if I have a few moments sometime (yeah right) I’ll try to see if I can make that work.