# Installation and updates

Installing Perfect Publisher (opens new window) is no different than installing any other Joomla!™ extension on your site. You can read the complete instructions for installing extensions on the official documentation page (opens new window). Throughout this chapter, we assume that you are familiar with those instructions, and we will try not to duplicate them.

# Installing or manually updating the component

Just like with most Joomla! extensions there are two ways to install or manually update Perfect Publisher on your site:

  • Install from URL It is the easiest and fastest one if your server supports it. Most servers do support this method.
  • Upload and Install. That's the typical extension installation method for Joomla! extensions. It rarely fails.

Please note that installing and updating Perfect Publisher (and almost all Joomla! extensions) is the same process. If you want to update Perfect Publisher, please remember that you MUST NOT uninstall it before installing the new version! When you uninstall Perfect Publisher, you will lose all your settings. You do not want this to happen! Instead, install the new version on top of the old one. Joomla! will figure out that it is an update and will treat it as such automatically.

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After installing or updating Perfect Publisher, if some features are missing or don't work, please try installing the same version a second time without uninstalling the component. The reason is that very few times the Joomla! extensions installer infrastructure gets confused and fails to copy some files or entire folders. By repeating the installation, you force it to copy the missing files and folders, solving the problem.

# Optional Plugins

Over 48+ extensions are integrated (please, check the list of integrated extensions here (opens new window), or review the System Check menu in the component). After you install the main component, only the core plugins are installed for content integration. For instance, Joomla! Content plugin for articles.

Optional Plugins must be manually installed and enabled. You can find them in the downloaded package, inside the plugins/ directory. You only have to install the optional plugin associated with your required extension.

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If you have manually installed an Optional Plugin, please remember to update it manually when a new version is available. If you plan to uninstall an integrated extension, first uninstall the integrated optional plugin.

# Install from URL

The easiest way to install Perfect Publisher is using the Install from URL feature in Joomla!.

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This Joomla! feature requires that your server supports fopen() URL wrappers (allow_url_fopen is set to 1 in your server's php.ini file) or has the PHP cURL extension enabled. Moreover, if your server has a firewall, it has to allow TCP connections on ports 80 and 443 to www.extly.com and cdn.extly.com. If you don't see any updates or fail to download, please ask your host to check that these conditions are met. If they are met, but you still do not see the updates, please file a bug report in the official Joomla! forum (opens new window). In the meantime, you can use the manual update methods discussed further below this page.

First, go to our site's download page (opens new window) for Perfect Publisher. Make sure you are logged in. If not, login now. These instructions won't work if you are not logged in! Click on the version you want to install. Please note that the latest released version is always listed first on the page. On that page, you will find Perfect Publisher. Next to the Download Now button, you will see the DirectLink link. Right-click on it and select Copy link address or whatever your browser calls this.

Now go to your site's administrator page and click on Extensions, Extension Manager. If you have Joomla! 3.x click on the Install from URL tab. Clear the contents of the Install URL field and paste the URL you copied from our site's download page. Then click on the Install button. Joomla! will download and install the Perfect Publisher update.

# Upload and Install

  1. You can download the latest installation packages from our site's download page (opens new window) for Perfect Publisher. Please note that the latest version is always on top. Click on the version you want to download and install.
  2. We provide two installation packages: pkg_perfect-publisher_pro_v....zip or UNZIPME-Perfect-Publisher-pro-v.....zip. The first file provides the core component, and the second file has the core component and all the optional plugins. If you download the whole distribution, please remember to unzip it to install the core component.
  3. Click on the Perfect Publisher item to download the ZIP installation package.
  4. All Perfect Publisher installation packages contain the component and all of its associated extensions. Installing it will install all of these items automatically. It can also be used to upgrade Perfect Publisher; just install it without uninstalling the previous release.
  5. Log in to your site's administrator section. Click on Extensions, Manage link on the top menu. If you are on Joomla! 3.x, please click on the Upload Package File tab. Locate the Browse button next to the _Package File_or Extension package file field. Locate the installation ZIP file you had previously downloaded and selected it. Back to the page, click on the Upload & Install button. After a short while, Joomla!™ will tell you that the component has been installed.

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If you still can't install Perfect Publisher and you are receiving messages regarding unwritable directories, inability to move files, or other similar file system-related error messages, please consult our installation troubleshooting instructions. If these instructions do not help, please do not request support from us; we are unlikely to be able to help you. These errors come from your site set-up and can best be resolved by asking your host for assistance or by asking other users in the official Joomla!™ forums.

# From Free to Basic or PRO

Perfect Publisher Free has the following restrictions:

  • Support for Back-end Auto-Posting only (no Community Auto-Posting, Virtual Manager, or interactive Scheduling)
  • 2 Social Channels - Facebook, Twitter X, and LinkedIn.
  • Joomla! Articles plugin
  • 2 RSS Feeds for article grabbing/import
  • tinyurl.com shortener service only

Upgrading from Perfect Publisher Free to Basic or PRO is by no means different than installing the component. You do not have to uninstall the previous version; in fact, you MUST NOT do that. Follow the installation instructions to install Perfect Publisher over the existing Perfect Publisher installation. That's all! All your settings are preserved.

INFO

When upgrading from Perfect Publisher Free to Basic or PRO you usually have to install the package twice, without uninstalling anything in the middle. Sometimes Joomla! does not copy some of the files and folders the first time you install it. However, if you install the package again (without uninstalling your existing copy of Perfect Publisher) Joomla! copies all of the necessary files and performs the upgrade correctly.

# From AutoTweetNG or Joocial to Perfect Publisher

Perfect Publisher is the next major version of AutoTweetNG and Joocial. For more information: Perfect Publisher 9 and Instagram Publishing are here (opens new window)

INFO

Perfect Publisher is the next iteration of AutoTweet and Joocial and the new product name for our social solutions. Perfect Publisher is already available in all accounts, and we recommend upgrading to modernize the codebase to take advantage of the benefits. There is no urgency to upgrade, and you can manage the time to move to Perfect Publisher v9.

AutoTweet and Joocial v8 will be supported until Joomla 3 reaches the end of life (two years approximately). The AutoTweet and Joocial subscription also include the Perfect Publisher subscription. Feel free to test it and upgrade when you have available time.

Please consider that we are adding new features only on Perfect Publisher (for instance, the new Instagram channel in Perfect Publisher PRO). Perfect Publisher is compatible with the latest PHP stable versions, and it is fully compatible with Joomla 4.

Upgrading from AutoTweetNG, either Free or Pro, or Joocial to Perfect Publisher is by no means different than installing the component. You do not have to uninstall the previous version; in fact, you MUST NOT do that. Follow the installation instructions to install Perfect Publisher over the existing AutoTweet or Joocial installation. That's all! All your settings are preserved.

  • Perfect Publisher Free is the latest version of AutoTweetNG Free
  • Perfect Publisher Basic is the latest version of AutoTweetNG Pro
  • Perfect Publisher PRO is the latest version of Joocial

WARNING

If you have manually installed optional plugins, please, disable these plugins that you may have installed before upgrading. Once you upgraded the component, manually upgrade to the plugins and re-enable them.

# Updates

INFO

Our extensions can be upgraded by installing the new version on top of the previous version. However, we recommend testing the update on a development site, check the new features, and test the right configuration for you before the deployment. If you are upgrading from an old version, when you skipped several versions, we "strongly" suggest testing the new version before the upgrade.

# Checking for the latest version and upgrading

You can check for the latest published version by visiting the download page (opens new window) for Perfect Publisher. The page lists the version and release date of the latest Perfect Publisher release. You can also check it against the data which appears in the right-hand pane of your Perfect Publisher Control Panel. If your release is out of date, click on the Download link to download the install package of the latest release to your PC.

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Perfect Publisher solution has a component, modules, core plugins, and optional plugins. Perfect Publisher component, modules, and core plugins are updated by Joomla! Extensions installer. But, Perfect Publisher optional plugins, which are manually installed, must also be manually updated following the same procedure.

After a Perfect Publisher update, please, verify if you have installed the latest version of the optional plugins. You can find them in the same Perfect Publisher version package UNZIPME-Perfect-Publisher-pro-v.....zip.

You can also check the latest versions in Perfect Publisher / System Check:

System Check

# Updating automatically with the Joomla! extensions update feature

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This Joomla! feature requires that your server supports fopen() URL wrappers (allow_url_fopen is set to 1 in your server's php.ini file) or has the PHP cURL extension enabled. Moreover, if your server has a firewall, it has to allow TCP connections on ports 80 and 443 to www.extly.com and cdn.extly.com. If you don't see any updates or if they fail to download, please ask your host to check that these conditions are met. If they are met but you still do not see the updates, please file a bug report in the official Joomla! forum (opens new window). In the meantime, you can use the manual update methods discussed further below this page.

Perfect Publisher can be updated just like any other Joomla! extension, using the Joomla! extensions update feature. Joomla! is responsible for finding the updates, downloading them, and installing them on your server. You can access the extensions update feature in two different ways:

  • From the icon your Joomla! administrator control panel page. On Joomla! 3 you will find the icon in the left-hand sidebar, under the Maintenance header. It has an icon like an empty star. When there are updates found for any of your extensions, you will see the Updates are available message. Clicking on it will get you to the Update page of Joomla! Extensions Manager.
  • From the top menu of your Joomla! administrator, click on Extensions, Extensions Manager. From that page, click on the Update tab found in the left-hand sidebar on Joomla! 3. Clicking on it will get you to the Update page of Joomla! Extensions Manager.

If you do not see the updates, try clicking on the Find Updates button in the toolbar. If you do not see the updates yet, you may want to wait up to 24 hours before retrying. This has to do with the way the update CDN works and how Joomla! caches the update information. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it, especially in Joomla! 3 (there is no way to clean the updates cache forcibly).

If there is an update available for Perfect Publisher, tick the box to the left of its row and then click on the Update button in the toolbar. Joomla! will now download and install the update.

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Remember to assign Download ID to enable all features

INFO

Perfect Publisher needs you to set up the Download ID (opens new window) before you can install the updates and enable all available features. You can find your main Download ID (opens new window) in your Account/Your Download ID (opens new window). Then go to your site's administrator page and click on Components, Perfect Publisher, and click on the Options button in the toolbar. Click on the Live Update tab and paste your Download ID there. Finally, click on Save & Close.

Options

Download ID

# Uninstallation

You can uninstall the component just like any other Joomla! component. In your site's back-end, go to_Extensions Manager_, click on Uninstall, select Perfect Publisher and click on Uninstall. This will entirely remove Perfect Publisher, including all plugins, modules, and ticket information.

Last Updated: 3/20/2024, 3:32:54 PM