Update system is a mess – Trying to improve it

Open Classifieds update system probably is the worst part of the software.

Even though we do a lot of testing before each new release, We are still scared of doing new releases because of the amount of errors that face our users and that is terrible…we are doing releases every 2 months more or less when we should be able to do updates almost weekly. But we can not do that.

We do not do releases more often due to some issues we face on each release.

For each release

1. Huge amount of tickets opened and forum threads
2. People hating us because their sites are down
3. Test in at least 5 different hosting all the features
4. We need to communicate the release to everyone properly
5. Do release notes explaining how to update, newsletters, social networks etc.
6. Communicate with softaculous and installatron.. about the new release
7. Causes me huge headache to make everyone happy

The challenge

The update system is quite complex since it needs to perform different actions

1. Update files using the latest version
2. Update Database structure or new contents
3. Update languages
4. Update premium themes

It can get really complex

• What if we add new libraries that require some library of PHP that is not in your hosting?
• What if we need to update the updater?
• What if the update system gets interrupted? (timeout or connection lost)

What we did wrong

Call it lack of experience, but we mess up few times. We needed to update the updater since new libraries or the entire framework changed and the biggest problem was that you could just press the update button and god knows what will happen…

For example for release 2.2 we changed the framework and we needed to choose between offering really nice new features or breaking the update button…so I decided for the other….hate comments here xD and I fully understand the frustration of users and the experience they had.

We are trying to improve it

1. You only will be able to use the auto update if you are using the latest version. If not you will be referred to the manual update.
2. There’s going to be a confirmation page where you see what’s going to happen before you press the update button,
3. We will try to improve the update code so it doesn’t break anything.
4. We will provide an external updater for older versions so they can use that file.

Want to avoid all of this?

YES! I also want it!! For me it’s a terrible burden and I like to make everyone’s life easier therefore also mine!

Since some times having a classifieds site can get a bit technical, we have decided to create yclas.com, no technical knowledge needed nor updates required 100% worry free.

So now is your part, please share any suggestions, feedback, ideas, improvements? everything is welcome!

Thanks