Hi there,

If I upgrade from version 2.0.0 to version 2.0.3, do I lose the contents of the whitelist of email domains? If so, how can I easily preserve that? I have a ton of email domains added to my whitelist and would like to know how to avoid retyping everything in again each time I update this excellent plugin.

Thanks!

You can do an in-place upgrade and all the settings will be retained (though you'll have to check any new features, as they will be set to default values).

Just to make sure, it is worth doing a database backup first.

Next on the feature-list is an import/export function, so that the settings can be saved from the plugin itself. This will mean that you can move settings easily from one site to another, and also backup just in case (though it is always better to backup the whole Joomla! database than just the plugin!).

By in place upgrade, do you mean: 1. uninstall the old plugin and then install the new one, or 2. install the new one WITHOUT uninstalling the old one?

You do not need to uninstall. In fact, do NOT uninstall as this will remove your settings.

RV will upgrade the existing component on install, and retain the settings.

Ahh I see. Just do an install in place over the top of the old version without uninstalling the old version. It makes sense.

A lot of other Joomla components require an uninstall then reinstall to do an upgrade. The preserve their settings in the DB instead of in XML files. Either way is good, I just couldn't tell from the plug-in which way to go.

FYI - In future releases, you may want to put in the description of the plugin something like this:

"To upgrade to a newer version of this plugin, you can choose to preserve your settings, including your entered white and blacklist email domains. If you would like to preserve your settings, do NOT uninstall your current version of this plugin first. Instead, merely install the newer version over the top of the old version without uninstalling your existing version first.

If you do not want to preserve your settings, please uninstall your current version first, then install the newer version."

Thanks!

-Eric

Thanks - I will probably copy and paste your exact text!

Plugins can't store their data in the database as such. The parameters are held in a single field in the plugins table, so this is uninstalled when the plugin is uninstalled. Joomla offers an upgrade option for plugins, which is enabled in RV, that allows a later version of the plugin to simply overwrite the files of the original.

I'll also add an install/upgrade guide at some point soon.

One thing I discovered today is that the Akismet protection can be a little overzealous - I got a false positive. I will be monitoring this closely, but you may want to watch that. Fortunately RV can be configured to send an email if an account is blocked due to spam, so if a false positive is processed, then it can be rectified pretty quickly.

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

I will look out for the Akismet stuff. Fortunately, with the registration protections in place, and since only registered persons can post, I think it will be good even if I decide to turn it off. however, defense in depth is a good thing, so I will leave it on for a while and see what happens. Thanks again!