Updatesicherheit

A Word on "Update Safety"

The Gambio shop system is powerful and includes many functions and possibilities. But sometimes even these are not enough, or they are designed in a way that you don't currently need, or you require a slightly different version of what is built and implemented in the shop.

Then the shop system can usually be modified.
But changes to the system immediately bring a certain uncertainty.

What happens with the next update? Can I still apply updates and patches to the shop and will the shop continue to work – including the existing modification?

A desire quickly arises: UPDATE SAFETY – the modification of the system, but "update-safe," so that nothing happens during updates and everything continues to work as before.

One thing upfront: UPDATE SAFETY in the strictest sense is a phantom; everyone hopes it exists, but unfortunately no one has seen it yet, because despite the good approaches and intentions on Gambio's part, "update safety" has its limits.

But let's start at the beginning: what IS "update safety"?
The basis for the update safety of a system arises when the creator of the system – here Gambio – programs proactively and designs the routines and functions of the system so that they can be modified, supplemented, or overridden from the outside. This special design allows constructs that enable changing the original content. There is a basic form of a process and its steps defined by Gambio; this is delivered with the shop and fulfills the task intended by Gambio. Through the aforementioned special programming, these processes and steps can be made redefinable: you can place yourself before, after, in the middle, or you can supplement, change, and modify them. These modification possibilities take place outside the original program code delivered by Gambio and are invoked at runtime via the built-in override mechanism: supplementing or replacing. The original file from Gambio remains untouched and unchanged, yet this construct achieves a modification of the processes.

The prerequisite for this is the mentioned special programming, and Gambio develops new areas with each new version that follow this special design. The rewriting of formerly rigid programs into such modifiable constructs is called "refactoring" – the redesign of old rigid programming into the new form, with the possibility to change or supplement it at runtime. Gambio also implements entirely new areas that directly correspond to this design and allow modification possibilities from the start without changing the original code.

These mechanisms are based on the principle that the respective original files remain unchanged. When Gambio releases an update, only the original versions of the respective files are affected. Gambio does NOT change overrides but only takes care of the respective original files.

Thus, modifications basically remain intact while the original files from Gambio are maintained and, if necessary, replaced during updates.

But now comes the big BUT:
This only works as long as Gambio does not deliver fundamental or structural changes and the modifications made still fit the rest of the (updated) shop after an update. However, as soon as Gambio necessarily redesigns, replaces, or also performs "refactoring" of fundamental processes, the risk returns that the modifications present in the shop no longer fit. Then "update safety" quickly comes to an end.

And yet, the separate placement of modifications through "update-safe" programming is a decisive advantage because the modifications remain unchanged after an update and are easy to locate – and can be specifically revised so that they fit the (new) shop again.

"Update-safe" programmed changes thus significantly reduce the risk of losses during shop updates, as they are installed separately and outside the original files and often still work after shop updates. But with structural changes, there is also the risk that they must be reworked and made compatible again with the shop as it exists after the shop update.

One more tip: Have modifications to your shop system generally and in your own interest made "update-safe," even though there is also a certain risk of later adjustments with structural changes. Installations in original files should only be made where Gambio (still) does not allow update-safe modification. There is nothing more expensive than maintaining modifications in original files because every shop update almost automatically causes significant damage here, as the changes built into the originals are lost. The shop offers enormous possibilities for update-safe installation, and these should be used. If, against better knowledge and despite these possibilities, something is installed in original files even though other options exist, one must assume that follow-up orders are intended here: because after every update, the unavoidable damage must be corrected and the solution reinstalled.

XYCONS Modules and "Update Safety"

Our modules are developed "update-safe" and use all possibilities that Gambio offers in the shop system for this purpose. This means that all changed or additional program and HTML code is stored in separate files using the override technique.

The concept follows the approach that a shop update cannot damage the modules and, above all, that the module remains intact because the changes made are not integrated into the original files of the shop but kept separately. Nevertheless, the contents of the module files may need to be adjusted during an update to keep the parts originally from the original files up to date with the respective shop version, as these could have been changed by the update itself.

A service pack or master update only updates the original files of the shop, and these changes may then also need to be incorporated into the "parallel world" of the installation. But the module itself is not automatically lost and would have to be reinstalled into the files changed by the shop update.

Xycons modules have followed the specifications according to Gambio's "GXModules" concept since shop versions 3.8.x.x upwards.

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