[plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

linguist · 2010-09-25 19:22:06

This is a very serious plugin and surely a great help to a web developer. I’m not a web developer at all. (Just write my linguistic files and publish them.) Yet, cnk_versioning is in my TxP 4.2 Admin, and I’d like to uninstall it, but after I read this thread, I’m afraid to touch it. (The plugin is inactive now.) Can I just uninstall it like any other plugin? Is it necessary to do something else before I unistall it? I mean, so that no files of my site get deleted in the process of plugin de-installation? Thank you.

maniqui · 2010-09-25 19:34:04

linguist:

I would suggest you this:

1. Disable the plugin (already done, you said)
2. Make a backup of the /forms/ and /pages/ folders (you will need to access via FTP to do so).
3. Delete the plugin.
4. Make sure everything is working as expected, and that you can edit pages and forms from tabs “Presentation -> Pages” and “Presentation -> Forms”.
5. Feel free to delete your back up of the /forms/ and /pages/ folders.

linguist · 2010-09-25 21:19:16

Thank you for your answer, maniqui. Do you mean that forms and pages folders can be deleted or changed during plugin de-installation? And I should then replace these folders with backups? What about css folder? Can it be also affected?

maniqui · 2010-09-25 22:18:33

cnk_versioning is a plugin that creates editable text files for pages, forms and css. It works this way: it creates the files, and if you edit one of this files (using a text editor), then cnk_verioning fetches the file and saves it back to the database.
That’s why, while the plugin is enabled, if you delete a file (a form, a page or a css), it is going to also be deleted from the database. But with the plugin disabled, you shouldn’t be on the risk of deleting anything. But if, during the time the plugin is disabled, you edit a page/form/css directly thru TXP admin interface, and then you re-enable the plugin, there is a big chance that your changes will be overwritten by cnk_versioning doing its job.

During plugin de-installation nothing should happen at all.
Anyway, my advice is that you have a back up of forms, pages and css folder (btw, yes, you are right, CSS folder could be affected), so if something goes wrong, then you at least have a backup of those folders.
Even better, I would suggest you do to a full database backup (you can usually do a full db backup thru your hosting control panel or thru phpMyAdmin, on even there is a TXP plugin, rss_admin_db_manager, that will let you create database backups directly from TXP admin).

So, once you de-installed cnk_versioning and you confirm that your site is still working OK, and that you can see/edit your pages, forms and CSS directly at the “Presentation” tabs, you are free to get rid of the pages, forms and CSS folders you backed up.

Let me know if this make sense or if I make it sound even more complex?

linguist · 2010-09-25 22:44:14

Thank you very much for a great answer, maniqui. The whole process seems much clearer now. I will uninstall when my courage builds up a little. One more question, if you wouldn’t mind. Are you sure that it won’t be necessary to change anything in the database tables through phpMyAdmin after de-installation?

maniqui · 2010-09-26 02:40:34

Linguist, now that you asked that question, I take the time to take a look at cnk_versioning and you may find this interesting: if you re-enable the plugin and visit the tab “Presentation -> Versioning”, you will see that there is a De-install link there.
You may want to put aside everything I said before, and try that link.
Again, I suggest you to do a database backup, and also to back up the forms, pages and css folders, just in case.

So, the steps:

0. Backup database (thru control panel, or phpMyAdmin or rss_db_admin_manager) and/or folders (forms, pages and css)
1. Re-enable cnk_versioning
2. Visit the “Presentation -> Versioning” tab.
3. Click on the “De-install” link
4. See what happens :)

linguist · 2010-09-26 15:18:03

Maniqui, cnk_versioning has been inactive for some time in my Admin. Meanwhile, I have made several changes in Presentation pages and forms. If I understood correctly what you said before, if I enable the plugin now (with the aim to uninstall it), the plugin will delete or change my previous changes or even whole files. Maybe it is better for me to uninstall according to the first variant that you suggested? What do people do if the plugin deletes files, forms, pages, css? (Looks like a major crisis and definitely more than I can handle.) Restoring the site from backup db will take me back to the same situation, with inactive cnk_versioning in my Admin. I would be very grateful for advice. Thank you.

johnstephens · 2010-09-26 16:29:53

If I understood correctly what you said before, if I enable the plugin now (with the aim to uninstall it), the plugin will delete or change my previous changes or even whole files.

That can happen if you enable the plugin AND change the site’s production status to “Testing” or “Debugging” AND someone reloads a page on the site. Having cnk_versioning active is safe as long as the site’s production status is “Live”— in “Live”, the plugin will not load template files or affect any changes you’ve made in the Presentation tab.

What I would do is this: Go to the “Preferences” tab under “Admin”. Find the select menu labeled “Production Status”, and make sure it is set to “Live”. Then you can turn on cnk_versioning under the “Plugins” tab without risking any changes to your templates.

I hope this helps!

linguist · 2010-09-26 17:16:52

Johnstephens, thank you, it’s helpful information. I would like to unistall in the simplest possible way, to avoid risking any changes to my templates or any other complications which I myself won’t be able to handle. Can I uninstall the inactive plugin without turning it on first? Thank you.

johnstephens · 2010-09-27 13:40:39

linguist wrote:

Can I uninstall the inactive plugin without turning it on first?

Yes, you can uninstall the plugin by deleting it from the plugins tab, but that will leave it’s columns in your database. Most likely, that won’t be a problem.

For a more thorough uninstall, what I posted in my last message wouldn’t put your site templates at risk:

Backup your database and files.
Go to the “Preferences” tab under “Admin”. Make sure the site’s production status is set to “Live”, and click the “Save” button if you make any changes.
Go to the “Plugins” tab under “Admin”. Activate cnk_versioning.
Go to the “Versioning” tab under “Presentation”. Run the “Uninstall” script.
Go to the “Plugins” tab under “Admin”. Deactivate and delete cnk_versioning.

If you have backed up your database and files before making any changes, you can immediately restore them if anything goes wrong, which is very unlikely.

On the other hand, cnk_versioning won’t impact your site at all if you leave the plugin inactive. If you’re not confident about backing up your site or following the steps above, I can’t imagine any negative impact of leaving the plugin there in an inactive state.

Nothing I wrote is a correction to what Maniqui wrote— my only aim was to clarify that cnk_versioning cannot overwrite your templates if your site’s production status is set to “Live”.

I hope this helps!

Edit: Fixed typo.

Last edited by johnstephens (2010-09-27 13:44:14)

linguist · 2010-09-27 21:55:15

Maniqui and Johnstephens, thank you for your help.

jelle · 2010-09-28 11:35:17

In TXP 4.3.0 css is “no longer BASE64-encoded in the database.”

Because of this cnk_versioning requires 2 simple edits to work in TXP4.3.0

Thanks to Maniqui for THIS

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#73 2010-09-25 19:22:06

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#74 2010-09-25 19:34:04

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#75 2010-09-25 21:19:16

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#76 2010-09-25 22:18:33

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#77 2010-09-25 22:44:14

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#78 2010-09-26 02:40:34

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#79 2010-09-26 15:18:03

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#80 2010-09-26 16:29:53

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#81 2010-09-26 17:16:52

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#82 2010-09-27 13:40:39

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#83 2010-09-27 21:55:15

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

#84 2010-09-28 11:35:17

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] cnk_versioning

Board footer