What about my customizations while looking at the beta?

Hello,
What would be a good way to code and making changes so that when v1.5 is released that we don't waste all the work we have done? Thanks.

Are you saying you're building a live store with the beta?

hi dr. byte,

thanks for reply. i'm only testing with beta. but was wondering if the work im putting into testing can be used for release whenever that may be.

ebaobao:

hi dr. byte,

thanks for reply. i'm only testing with beta. but was wondering if the work im putting into testing can be used for release whenever that may be.

When the development team agrees that no entirely new source code will be added to this release then I would say it is 100% safe to use your customizations there may still be source code changes to fix defects. There may still be changes to documentation and data files, and to the code for test cases or utilities. New code may be added in a future final release.

Your best bet is to test the store for functionality and find any possible bugs or breaks and save the modifications for future final open release to avoid triple your time in reworking your customizations.

how about the look of the site, stylesheets etc? Those most likely would not change much right?

ebaobao:

how about the look of the site, stylesheets etc? Those most likely would not change much right?

For the best answer you may want to subscribe to this thread http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183626 when new changes, additions and any type of revision you will be notified.

Beta is Beta anything can change but right now the look of the zencart install seems the same nevertheless this could change. Will it? No one knows this depends if it is necessary or a requirement but as far as we can tell the look of the default install looks the same as of right this moment. But the classes and ID's could change but core code has been changed and it could change again patience is a virtue on beta and as mentioned before it is just best to test for functionality until the final release.

hi knuckle,
thanks for reply. i'll just test functionality then and try to help that way.

ebaobao:

hi knuckle,
thanks for reply. i'll just test functionality then and try to help that way.

If you find something be sure to check this forum http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=156 for already reported issues this way the same problem is not reported twice.. For a tip be sure to report which version of the beta your using as of right now there has been a couple of new releases for the 1.5.0 Beta Version so be sure you have the latest installed. :wink:

hi knuckle,
the whole installation process took me a long time. Are we expected to update each time a new beta version comes out? if so, what is the easiest way to update? I hope it doesn't take as much time as the install process took.

ebaobao:

hi knuckle,
the whole installation process took me a long time. Are we expected to update each time a new beta version comes out? if so, what is the easiest way to update? I hope it doesn't take as much time as the install process took.

Once the files are installed and including your databases all you would have to do is upload "Files" only to get the changes. If it a database upgrade is mentioned then you would need to run the zc_install directory to update the tables inside the database, which will be clearly mentioned on the **Announcements **page.

But I noticed your earlier thread never use the Auto Installers they could insert damaged or corrupted files. As one poster of the forum once said doing is learning, auto installing is skipping whats important :)

do we have to redo file/folder permission changes once we upload like the ones in the install process?

ebaobao:

do we have to redo file/folder permission changes once we upload like the ones in the install process?

In short I would say no if the files already exists but some hosts / ftp clients may defer. Basically only permissions you need to change are listed in the installation files and the two most important never need changed to writable are located in

includes --> configure.php
``` and ```
admin --> includes --> configure.php
``` once the store and database are installed.

Upgrading the files is not a hard process. Take your time reading documentations and instructions learn the process well once mastered you will say wow that was easy enough... I can almost promise that

Learn your FTP Client / File Manager features and read your hosts file management documentations it is the best way to learn how and what to do and also most important do not forget to read the ZenCart install instructions 1000 times (not literally) before stopping :wink:

thank you for your help knuckle,
i will try my best.

ebaobao:

thank you for your help knuckle,
i will try my best.

Any time :thumbsup:

hi knuckle,
Something I want to point out. in the installation instructions it says admin/includes/configure.php can be set to 644 or 444. Since I can set either with my ftp, is 444 more preferable since its not writable at all?

Second question is since we are trying to hide our admin directory by renaming it, what good is that if we have to put the new name in admin/includes/configure.php and that file is readable? (444).

ebaobao:

hi knuckle,
Something I want to point out. in the installation instructions it says admin/includes/configure.php can be set to 644 or 444. Since I can set either with my ftp, is 444 more preferable since its not writable at all?

Second question is since we are trying to hide our admin directory by renaming it, what good is that if we have to put the new name in admin/includes/configure.php and that file is readable? (444).

If your web hosts allows the permissions 444 then you cannot edit this via FTP Client the permissions 444 is particularly targeted to edit within file manager (root) of the files to help protect against exploiting on fully writable files. Nevertheless you would be able to edit the file using the file manager in the back end such as cPanel, Plesk etc..

If you are only able to use 644 this is somewhat protection which is what we call "Old School" permissions then it is directly editable within the FTP Client which still allows writable permissions where 444 does not..

Examples below may help depending how technically inclined you are

Read and write permission for owner, read-only for group members and all others:
chmod 644 filename Read, write and execute for owner, no access permission for others:
chmod 700 filename Read only for owner and others:
chmod 444 filename If the owner turns off his/her own write permission, the file is protected from accidental or exploiting destruction.

Overall for the best protection against the two configure.php files it is best if allowed to set them 444. Hope this helps.. :cool:

ebaobao:

Second question is since we are trying to hide our admin directory by renaming it, what good is that if we have to put the new name in admin/includes/configure.php and that file is readable? (444).Simple: rename the folder first, then edit the file, and then set the file permissions to read-only.

Thanks Dr. Byte Somehow I missed that one :lookaroun

ebaobao:

hi knuckle,
Something I want to point out. in the installation instructions it says admin/includes/configure.php can be set to 644 or 444. Since I can set either with my ftp, is 444 more preferable since its not writable at all?
444 is more preferable.

Second question is since we are trying to hide our admin directory by renaming it, what good is that if we have to put the new name in admin/includes/configure.php and that file is readable? (444).
Configure files have to be read by the script itself, so it knows where things are.

DrByte:

Simple: rename the folder first, then edit the file, and then set the file permissions to read-only.
hi dr. byte. understood and that is what I did. but my question is that after you set it to read-only, can't someone read that file and find out what your admin folder is? according to filezilla ftp, 444 includes public permissions to read. maybe i just don't understand how people are able to read it or not. i just get scared when it says readable for public.