PLUGIN AUTO INSTALLER

Hi Everyone

I have built a little auto installer for people to use for their plugins.

http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route ... ion_id=442

You simply place your plugin files (following the OpenCart directory structure) in to the folder "files" in the auto installer package.

Then upload the auto installer to your site's root and navigate to the auto installer's index file and click install.

All your files will then be moved automatically to the folder structure you specified. Cool eh?

Please note that this will replace any existing core files, so always back up!

Regards

Matt

Not sure i really understand. You upload the files to "your" folder structure first.. then load the page and it copies them to the correct path? Why not just copy them directly to the correct path?

Hi Q

This is for people who develop plugins. Just a nice way of packaging them up. The auto installer takes the structure it sees for the plugin and just moves it into the OC install.

We wanted a simple way to manage our plugins. We wrap our plugins up with this auto installer. Then we can download a fresh OC install and quickly add our custom files to it.

The real time saver for us is that we only have to work out where to put the files once (when we set up the installer) and then it does the rest.

Otherwise we'd have to find the right folder and replace each file manually every time we wanted to use the plugin.

I hope that makes some sense! Let me know if I'm not been clear.

Cheers

Matt

Yea, I would considered a developer who creates plugins.. but I'm still not sure I understand.

Instead of going from local to server
you are going from local to "server staging"... and then you click a button that copies them from "server staging" to actual "server" ?

Not really what I would call an autoinstaller. More like a staging area copier or something.

But I still don't see the usage... If I have to manually extract the files and then upload them to this "staging" area. How does that differ than me just uploading to the main area?

Hi Qphoria,

Matt's plugin is more like an installer that developers can add to their plugins before uploading.

Normally, plugins come with the file structure already in the package and then you must copy each file to the correct location manually.

With this plugin, either:

1. The plugin developer can place his files inside the installer before uploading the plugin. Then when the user downloads it they simply run the auto installer - e.g. no manual file placement

OR

2. The user downloads a plugin that doesn't have the auto installer already integrated but does have the folder structure already. Rather than copying every single file manually - they simply place the files in the autoinstaller and it writes every file to the correct location.

hope this helps!

First, if you are copying them 1 by 1 ..you'd still have to copy them 1 by 1 to the "staging" area.. so how does that change anything?

Second... please watch this video
This shows you how to upload files at the top level rather than copying them 1 by 1. You shouldn't have to do anything more than grab the "admin" and "catalog" folders and drag them into the ftp window. Thats it.

Hi Qphoria,

First - thanks very much for taking so much time to comment on the plugin! It's great to see a community so involved with it's product.

I can see from your video that you have your own techniques for managing the plugin installation process. I hope our plugins will help other people as well.

Q are you still working on your patcher? That's what I would really be interested in.

Yes I am