Upcoming 1.2.0 Beta 2

I don't have PHP 8 installed but I can install it and test.  The server I am testing on is running Nginx with PHP-FPM.

When i release this next beta, there is something else i need tested for those that have the ability to do so. I have been working on correcting problems with cheetah running on PHP 8 and i believe i have found a fixed them.

So anyone that has the ability to easily switch PHP versions, i would like some help testing cheetah under PHP 8. I would need detailed error messages as well as what page in the site the error occurred on.

If switching PHP versions is not easy for you, then don't bother. This one is not a urgent issue. PHP 7 will be around for quite a while so there is plenty of time.

Awesome!!

Sounds good, I will be testing it as well.

Thanks Deano. The Photo Cropper will be a very handy feature.

The second beta will most likely be released this weekend. Sun or Mon. Then about of week of testing it, and i should be able to release the final.

All the bugs reported in beta 1 have been fixed, so this second beta should go smooth.

The second beta will also contain the new photo cropper that i was working on. It should have been in the first beta, but it seems i did not push it to github.

I've learnt over the years that the script often requires fine tuning on the server side. An automatic or semi-automatic installer would also need to check all server settings first to be entirely successful. I'm not sure if you plan to go down that path, so right now I'm suggesting you use your valuable time on other things.

I'm able to install cheetah in about five minutes because I've installed the script so many times before. To me, installing it is the least of my worries but I realise installation problems do lose customers. I also have no problems uploading files like FFmeg, but being able to install it automatically still only benefits the die-hard users. I think newbies would be a little confused by having to go here, there and everywhere.

As I have mixed feelings or no view at all, I can't really offer any input.

For the install using a kickstart file, I was thinking along the lines of reinstalling over the existing site. I do that all the time as i code to get the site back to scratch. In that case the database info would be in that kickstart file.

I could also just prompt for database info only for those installing into a different database.

As for the online installer, That will install the same way as it does now. Prompting for all the info. The only difference is it starts with just one file, and it downloads and extracts the cheetah zip file for you before it begins the normal install.

I am guessing that you do have to  put in the basic information of database name, user, and password into an online form, click start and then sit back while it does its magic?  I have seen something similar.  That might be useful and a good selling point.

Or, is this similar to what Softaculous does?  Would it create a database with user and password and then install?  If so, then yes, that would be a very good selling point.

I still have a share hosting account with IONOS; so I could test it with them.  I keep meaning to drop IONOS as they are getting crappier all the time.  I have been with them a long time; back when I first got into internet stuff.  I am just wasting money with them at this point.

How would this handle the database name, user, and password?  My workflow is to create a virtual server (I use Virtualmin) which creates the database with name, user, and password and sets up either Apache vhost or Nginx server block.  I then copy the cheetah zip file to the root of the virtual server, unzip, then rename it to public_html.  Then I run the install.  Similar process if I am cloning a site.

I have added a FFmpeg/FFprobe download step to the Cheetah installer that will be in the upcoming Beta 2 of Cheetah 1.2.0.

For this test, i uploaded the FFmpeg and FFprobe binaries to GitHub so they were not on my server for a fair test.

Testing this on my server, it downloaded both of those files from GitHub in 4 seconds.

That's far faster then downloading them to your desktop and uploading them to the server by hand. The big question is, will this work on all hosting companies. So it will need to be tested to determine if i keep it in the final.

Also i wanted to ask. Would anyone be interested in a online installer? That is basically a tiny file. index.php which would only be about 1k in size. That could be uploaded to the server where you would normally upload the Cheetah files to. Go to your sites URL and it loads index.php which will in-turn start the download and install process. So basically this one script downloads the cheetah zip file, unpacks it and then starts the normal install process. This method could prove to be an extremely fast way of getting cheetah installed on a new site.

Another thing i am also considering doing which would mostly benefit developers and others that are reinstalling cheetah over and over again is a installer with a optional kickstart file. That is a file that the installer would read to get all of the answers to the questions cheetah asks during install. With a kickstart file, the install would be automatic from the moment the install button is clicked. No questions asked. This of course would only work on servers where php is running as a FPM application where you normally don't need to change tons of permissions.