Updates

Updating a CMS is the moment most sites break. jekcms treats it as a transaction: back up, apply, verify, and undo automatically if the site stops answering.

The updates screen showing current version, database version and PHP version
Current version, last check, and whether anything is waiting.

The overview

The top of the screen states your core version, the database schema version and the PHP version you are running - the three numbers a support conversation always starts with.

Below that, either an available update or a plain statement that you are on the latest version. Check for Updates asks the update server directly rather than waiting for the scheduled check.

What happens when you apply one

A backup is taken first - files and database, before anything is touched.

Then the package is verified. jekcms checks its signature and hash before extracting a single file, because an update channel that accepts unsigned packages is a way into every site that uses it.

After the files are in place, jekcms requests its own pages over HTTP and looks at what comes back. If the site returns a persistent server error, the update is rolled back automatically, the site is restored from the backup taken minutes earlier, and further update attempts are held until you have seen the reason.

That last part exists because of how update failures actually behave. Nobody watches an update at two in the morning; the failure is discovered the next day by a reader who could not open the site.

History and rollback

The History tab lists every update with its outcome and lets you roll back deliberately, not just automatically. If something subtle broke - a theme detail, a plugin that no longer agrees with the core - you do not have to wait for a fix.

Release Notes shows what changed, in the same words published on the site.

When the update server cannot be reached

Behind a firewall, or on a host that blocks outbound requests, the automatic channel will not work. Download the package from your account and upload it under Upload a Package. The same backup, the same verification and the same rollback apply - only the delivery differs.

Be the first to know

New features, release notes and CMS guides. We send a couple of emails a month.