Q. I have an older version and need to upgrade, but there are no upgrade instructions. How do I upgrade?
A. Upgrading from an older version is a snap, all you have to do is download the latest version and extract the zip file. Then, in the folder that creates, there will be a file calles sources/components_acp/umi.php, just upload that file into your sources/components_acp/ directory. One other thing that you may need to do depending on which version you are upgrading from (and it never hurts to do this step regardless!) is to import the latest ipd_components.xml file from your Manage Components page of the ACP.
Q. I don't have any Manage Components link on my Components tab, how do I upload this ipd_components.xml file?
A. You should not have a Manage Components link on your Components tab, I would be very concerned if you did. Fortunately for you, this just means you are misinterpreting the installation instructions. You need to go to the Admin tab in your Admin CP, not the Components tab. The tabs are those items at the very top of the page. Once you are in the Admin tab, then you should see this Manage Components link on the left.
Q. I just do not understand how to install this thing, can you explain it better?
A. Um, not really, it's as basic as I can make it. It's really quite easy, just have to upload a folder, a couple of files, and import an XML file. There's no reason why installation should take longer than 2 minutes to accomplish. If you are having trouble installing this, you most likely will not be able to install any of the mods it works with. If you just cannot get it installed, I'd recommend opening a ticket in the Services system, a staff member should be able to assist you for a small fee.
Q. I'm getting an IPS Driver Error when I try to install a mod with this on IPB 2.3.x, what's the deal?
A. Upgrade your copy of the UMI. Some code was changed in IPB in 2.3 that deals with how the Tools & Settings settings work, and the Universal Mod Installer was updated to work with this. While the mods themselves that it works with will still install fine, the UMI itself needed updated to compensate for these changes. If you upgrade you should be able to install the mod in question with no problem.
Q. When I try to go to the 'Manage Mod Installations' page, it just times out and never loads, what can I do?
A. Go to the 'Manage Settings' link for the mod and set the 'Use the 'callback' functions?' setting to No. Your site is trying to contact mine to find out if the UMI and the mods it installs are up to date and something is blocking this communication. If you tell it to not try this callback your UMI should work, but you will lose the functionality that lets you ensure your versions of the mods are up to date.
Q. One of the mods I just installed has a red exclamation mark in the 'Up To Date?' column, what does this mean?
A. It could mean one of two things, either the mod you installed is not the most recent version, or the mod author did not provide any means of checking this version info. In the first case, check with the place you got the mod and see if there is an update. If it is updated to the latest version available, then it's the second case. I have provided mod authors with the documentation they need to make these version files, but few of them use it. Get on their case about it!
Q. I used this to install a mod, but it didn't do any of the file edits, why not?
A. The UMI does not do file edits to source files, it only has the ability to edit language and skin files as those can be built using IPB's built-in APIs. In order to edit files, those files have to have their read/write permissions set to allow this, and this is unsafe and can lead to malicious users editing your files to add things you don't want. The UMI just does what work it is able to, mostly affecting the database. If a mod tells you to edit files in its instructions, you need to edit those files for the mod to work.
Q. When I go to the Manage Mod Installations page, it doesn't list any mods. How do I make a mod I want to install show up in this?
A. All mods that use this will contain an XML file that needs to be uploaded to your forum's mod_install directory. If you do not have this directory, it means you missed uploading it when you installed the UMI. In that case, simply create a new directory on your site called mod_install (it should go in the forum's root directory), make sure its CHMOD is set to 0755, and upload the XML file for the mod you wish to install into that new directory.
Q. I get this error when I click on any of the links for the mod in the AdminCP:
IPB WARNING [2] acp_components::auto_run(/home/*****/public_html/sources/components_acp/umi.php) [function.auto-run]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory (Line: 144 of /home/*****/public_html/sources/acp_loaders/acp_components.php)What does this mean?
A. It means you failed to upload the sources/components_acp/umi.php file, or you uploaded it to the wrong directory. Look in the sources/components_acp/ directory for your forum and see if there is a file in there called umi.php, and that it is larger than just a couple of KB (it should be around 75K as of the time of this announcement). If there is a small file named umi.php in there, delete it and upload a fresh copy. If there is no umi.php file in there, upload one.
