[General] Updating Fantastico scripts

We are seeing a lot of e-mails from users concerning the outdated Fantastico installed scripts that users have been receiving.

Users are receiving these notices because they at one time installed the stated script with Fantastico from within their control panel.

We are seeing a lot of e-mails from individuals who have upgraded their scripts manually and are wondering why they are still receiving these notices.

To explain this, you have to understand that Fantastico is a script library. It is an entity in itself. If you install a script with Fantastico, you are expected to keep the script updated through Fantastico. This is the only way that Fantastico can be made aware of what version of the script you have installed.

Fantastico keeps a database of what is installed, where it is installed, and what version is installed. When you use Fantastico to install a script, it adds this to its database.

WordPress was installed in /home/user/public_html/wordpress and is version 2.7.1

When you manually update one of these scripts, this internal database is not updated. If you update this WordPress install to version 2.8.4, but do it manually, then the Fantastico internal database still thinks you have version 2.7.1 installed.

When Fantastico runs its check and looks for outdated installs, it uses this internal database to determine the versions of the software installed. So even though you may have manually updated your script to the latest version, Fantastico is not going to know about this and is going to think that you still have an outdated script.

What can be done about this?

Contact support if this affects you. We can remove your script install from the Fantastico internal database so that you will not receive the notices any more. You won’t be able to update the script with Fantastico any more, but if you have already manually updated the script, it is likely that Fantastico will not be able to update your script, without messing something up. This is because of the version mismatch in its system.

PLEASE NOTE: It is highly recommended that if you install a script with Fantastico that you keep the script updated with Fantastico. This may mean that it takes a few days longer to get script updates applied to your script. If you are really into following the development of a script and wish to always have the latest version of the script installed we highly recommend that you manually install the script instead of using Fantastico for the initial install.

Steven