New Update System in WebOrbiton 1.1.3

We’re on the final stretch before the release of WebOrbiton 1.1.3. The upcoming version introduces a completely new, automated update system that significantly improves the development and maintenance of our status monitoring tool.

This is one of the most important technical changes in WebOrbiton so far, which is why the new feature is being released in beta.

How did updates work before?

Until now, updating WebOrbiton was a manual process. Users had to:

• visit the project website,

• download the new application version,

• manually upload the files to the server (e.g. via FTP),

• make sure configuration files and user data were not overwritten.

While this approach worked, it became increasingly inconvenient and error-prone as the project evolved.

What’s new? Automatic updates

Starting with WebOrbiton 1.1.3, the update process is now fully automated. The new system:

• automatically checks whether a newer version is available,

• downloads updates exclusively from trusted sources,

• creates a full backup before applying any changes,

• updates only the files that are meant to be changed,

• protects user configuration and data,

• automatically restores the previous version if an error occurs.

All of this happens without any manual intervention from the user.

Security and stability

The new update mechanism was designed with production environments in mind. In practice, this means:

• protection of critical configuration files,

• no overwriting of directories containing user data,

• prevention of parallel update executions,

• the ability to quickly roll back changes thanks to backups.

As a result, updating WebOrbiton is safe even on actively used instances.