The Version Manager is an interface available to the board administrator. It displays the current version of Discus and provides handy methods by which new software versions can be downloaded. We'd like to think that most of the Version Manager is pretty self-explanatory.

Board Information: This reveals the following information:

• Title of your board as recorded in the title variable of your discus.conf file

• Discus Professional license number (if you're running Discus Professional)

• Number of posts, pages, and topics gathered mainly from your board's "tree" index files (see Data Recovery if you think this is incorrect)

• Most recent post as gathered from posting logs

Version Check: This contacts DiscusWare's server and compares your version against the currently available version of Discus. This will either tell you that no upgrade is needed, or that an upgrade is recommended.

The online update system is the easiest way to install the latest patch release, to update from Discus Freeware to Discus Professional, or to upgrade to the next major release of Discus.

Please read our online update technical details and privacy policy for information on what information is and is not transferred to DiscusWare's server, and DiscusWare's policy for handling of any information that is transmitted.

This system has been designed so as to provide a straightforward and self-explanatory software update. For the purposes of completeness, the following is a detailed procedure to upgrade your discussion board using the online update system:

1. If this is your first time using online update, your Version Manager will display a summary of information that is transmitted and DiscusWare's privacy policy. You may choose to hide this information from subsequent accesses by checking the "Don't show this information next time" box.

2. If you are running Discus Professional, enter your license number and download password in the text boxes. (If you are upgrading from Discus Freeware to Discus Professional, you will be prompted later to enter your license details.)

3. Click the "Start Online Update" button. Note that this directs you to DiscusWare's secure web server. On some browsers, you may receive a warning that you are entering a secure site.

4. Assuming that an upgrade is available, you will be given the opportunity to select which version you wish to upgrade to. You must choose a version by checking the radio button next to your choice. It is also on this screen where, if you are running Discus Freeware but have recently purchased Discus Professional, you will have the opportunity to enter your license details to perform that upgrade.

5. You may receive a message indicating to click a link to be redirected to the online update download site for your software version. Click the "Download here" link as directed. (Note: this redirects you to a site that is no longer encrypted. Some browsers may present a security warning when you click this link.)

6. You will see a message indicating that updates are being transferred to your browser. When the updates have completed their transfer, this message will indicate that the download is complete. When you see the message indicating that the download is complete, click the "Continue" button.

7. Please wait as the software update is transferred to your server. Depending on your connection speed, it may take several seconds for the screen to load. To avoid unnecessarily transmitting the data multiple times, please be patient after clicking the "Continue" button.

8. You will receive a message that updates were successfully retrieved from the DiscusWare server, and presented with a detailed listing of the files to be installed. Please review the files that will be installed, and check or uncheck, as needed, any files that you may have customized. (Note that certain files that are not considered customer-modifyable, such as program source code, cannot be unchecked during an online update.) When you have reviewed the information, click the "Install Selected Files" button.

   Important: No files from your update are actually installed until you click the "Install Selected Files" button.

9. Read over the final status screen to identify any messages of interest. Congratulations on your successful upgrade to the latest version of Discus!

This tab performs tests for the presence of certain Perl modules and database functionality. This is a point of reference for features that are available in Discus 4.1 and new features that will be available in the new Discus 5. Descriptions of each module are provided.

Please note: it is the responsibility of your server administrator to install any Perl modules that you may be missing.