Aliro beta 0

[counterpoint]

Well, at last there is another release of Aliro! This time it seemed appropriate to move it into beta. The code is in regular live use, most heavily at http://remository.com. The new release has many minor improvements.

There are two major changes. One is an excellent new admin side template, designed by Jim Galley. The new template is included in the beta downloads that are now available and will be automatically installed. (If you want to use the basic default template, just delete it from the extension menu). I think most people will be pleased by this slick template, although there is still plenty that could be improved in the core admin side applications. That could be a challenge for someone!

The other important change that I was very anxious to have working before making a beta release is an upgrade system. Although some CMS have introduced automatic software distribution, that seemed to me a step too far. It is impossible to totally eliminate the possibility that an automated system could be targeted by crackers as a ready made transport system for malware. Instead, if you go to the configuration option in the new release, it has support for manifests.

The first step in an upgrade is to obtain a manifest for the current site. This is actually an XML document that describes what core files are present, and includes MD5 signatures for each one. Then the manifest is taken to another Aliro site. There is a special site, http://upgrade.aliro.org, that will be kept up to date with new releases, so that would be the obvious place to go. But you are free to use the mechanism to keep a group of sites in step with each other, not necessarily on the very latest release. The manifest is uploaded, and in exchange an upgrade archive is sent to you. The upgrade archive contains all the instructions needed to delete, add, or upgrade core files along with the necessary files themselves. It can be installed into the target site, to bring it up to the desired level.

The process is far easier than simply unzipping a patch file, and also takes care of the problem of removing obsolete files, as these will be deleted by the upgrade package.

In the not too distant future, I'm hoping to further extend the process so that it will handle any necessary changes to core database tables as part of the same process. Aliro already provides exceptional support for extensions to query and update tables in the database, and these are made very efficient by the use of cache.