Support

It's been a very long time since we stopped using RSS feeds. Instead, we are now using Live Update for Professional versions and most of our software and Joomla!'s extensions update feature for everything else. This way you are not only notified if we release a new version but you can actually upgrade to it on the sites where you have the software installed.

We are NOT bypassing the Joomla! installer at all. Live Update merely downloads the package, it's Joomla!'s installer (the core com_installer component) that installs the update. We cannot use the Joomla! extensions update because it doesn't support paid extensions that require authentication for downloads. I had been complaining about this ever since the summer of 2010 when Joomla! 1.6 was released. Last year I wrote a patch and contributed it to Joomla! but it's only added to Joomla! 3.2. This means that I cannot possibly use this feature in our extensions until we drop support for Joomla! 2.5. Please don't imply I made an oversight, I am the one who fought for Joomla! to fix this huge oversight and the one who actually fixed it!

Other commercial vendors (such as RocketTheme and SP Cyend, etc) have found a way to authenticate while still using the Joomla installer/updater, which is much preferable for us.

No, they didn't. They are serving you the free versions over Joomla!'s EXTENSION UPDATER (it is NOT the Joomla! extensions installer). RocketTheme only allows you to update Gantry, which is free of charge. Updating the actual template (which is for a fee) requires you to log in to your site, edit your template and perform the update from there.

I can analyse you exactly why the Joomla! extensions updater cannot support for-a-fee extensions in Joomla! 2.5. The download link is not stored in the database. Instead, JUpdate will read the extension update stream XML file, find the most relevant version and use the download link it finds there. This means that the developer must supply a different XML update stream for each of their clients instead of a generic one (or make their for-a-fee software downloadable by everyone). I have already tried the "different XML update stream per client" approach. It work great with up to 100 subscribers. When you reach a volume of 10,000 active subscribers with several dozens of thousands of sites polling for updates (like what we currently have) it needs a VERY costly infrastructure which translates in 60% price increase of subscriptions and no update discounts to make it viable. The cost grown exponentially from there.

My fix for Joomla! 3.2 had to do with this exact sequence of download URL determination. The update site record now stores an optional authentication query string. Then JUpdate reads the download URL from the XML update stream it tacks that query string to the download URL. This allows for authenticated downloads with a centralised XML update stream. Unfortunately they decided not to include it in Joomla! 2.5. I did everything that was under my control (and I went far beyond the call of duty) to provide better updates for everyone. So think twice before implying I didn't try hard enough. I'm spending my nights and weekends trying to fix what is broken in Joomla!.