XF 1.2 Installing and uninstalling add-ons: Can they mess up xenforo?

[jauburn]

Some of the add-ons available for xenforo are super; some you install and find that they don't meet your purposes.

Regardless of suitability, though, every time I install or uninstall an add-on, I hold my breath a little bit, hoping that the process won't blow up my forum.

The questions: Is it possible for the forum to become inoperable as a result of installing or uninstalling an add-on? Is xenforo somehow protected from the code of add-ons? Can I breathe freely when installing or uninstalling?

Thanks.

 

[Paul B]

By definition add-ons can affect the core code.
Nothing can be done to stop that as they are interacting with and extending it.

Some poorly written add-ons can cause failures and uninstalling may not always remove everything.
These add-ons should always be reported to the respective developers.

I would highly recommend using a test installation, separate from your live site, for testing, checking, installing, and uninstalling add-ons.

 

[Liam W]

Some addons don't prefix table/template/phrase names they use, so they may end up overlapping those that will be used by a newer version of xenForo.

Also, some addons don't remove tables they created when they're uninstalled - this can cause a very large database to be kept large, if unneeded tables are there.

Like Brogan said, use a test install first, however all addons I've used haven't broken things completely (yet)

Liam

 

[Paul B]

To follow up, even the worst situations can be recovered from, as we saw when some tried to upgrade to 1.2 and there were conflicting tables from add-ons.

Unless the add-on removes content, which none should other than the content associated with the add-on, then most if not all situations can be handled without loss of data.

In the worst cases a backup may need to be restored.
Which is why regular backups need to be taken, including before installing or uninstalling anything.

 

[Mouth]

It's quite disappointing that we cannot search or filter resources by minimum rating.

 

[TPerry]

Some addons don't prefix table/template/phrase names they use, so they may end up overlapping those that will be used by a newer version of xenForo.

And some add-ons stomp on other add-ons routes (as I just found out).. and then when you uninstall the poor stomped on add-on doesn't recover and has to be reinstalled.

 

[jauburn]

By definition add-ons can affect the core code.
Nothing can be done to stop that as they are interacting with and extending it.

Some poorly written add-ons can cause failures and uninstalling may not always remove everything.
These add-ons should always be reported to the respective developers.

I would highly recommend using a test installation, separate from your live site, for testing, checking, installing, and uninstalling add-ons.

Bummer. That's what I thought. I have a test installation, but then you never really know with the "live" installation whether things will go the same as on the test because the "live" installation is not an exact replica and there are other add-ons there that aren't on test.

 

[jauburn]

And some add-ons stomp on other add-ons routes (as I just found out).. and then when you uninstall the poor stomped on add-on doesn't recover and has to be reinstalled.

Ugh, and thing things just get too complicated.

 

[Paul B]

because the "live" installation is not an exact replica and there are other add-ons there that aren't on test.

It should be an exact replica.
That is the point of it.

 

[Alpha1]

Tables can be dropped. But how about addons doing template edits? What about the risk /solution in regard to addons messing up xf template.

 

[Alpha1]

It's quite disappointing that we cannot search or filter resources by minimum rating.

Good point but I would much rather have a list of outstanding bugs for each addon as that would give a better indication of quality.

 

[Paul B]

Add-ons modify templates via hooks or template modifications.
The originals are never directly modified.

Even if they are via manual edits, they can just be reverted.