SetupBOT - It's like InstallShield for web apps

SetupBOT is a unique site-to-site installer for web applications like WordPress. If they were using it, there would be a button on their site like the one below. With it, a complete install of WordPress can be done by anyone in a couple of minutes, start to finish, on any Linux server - no downloads, technical knowledge, or docs required.

Example: Install WordPress 3.1.3

Go ahead and try it, or watch a 90 second video, and let us know how it goes in the comments below. It's a little clunky as it grew organically to handle stupidly complex installs. (Based on your feedback below, I'll decide to clean up what we have and provide it as a service, sell it, or not.)

NOTES:

• All information is sent over secure https and no information is kept, even temporarily.
• If nothing happens when you click the button, check your popup blocker.
• Yes, the interface could use a refresh. (It was first designed in 2005.)
• If for some reason it fails, well, we threw this demo up in a day.
• It can be quickly adapted for different products and way more complex installs.

Why?

Despite WordPress having its "famous 5 minute install", it often takes me 20 minutes (if I don't make a mistake). Installing is a barrier to entry for many web applications, unless your market is system administrators.

In 2006 I launched a web application and I created the first version of SetupBOT so that anyone could install it. SetupBOT greatly reduced support requirements around installs, letting me focus on the core application. It has been used on at least 5,000 unique server configurations.

Why now?

I'm raising money for another project, and my hope is that WordPress or someone like them will license or buy SetupBOT outright. If you've spent more than three minutes installing a web application, please send the developers here if you can. SetupBOT can be customized for almost any web application.

What else can it do?

SetupBOT is very powerful, able to deal with incredibly complex software. It can be quickly adapted to different products by editing a configuration file.

Installs:

Other than the pesky database, WordPress is a pretty simple install. SetupBOT can handle almost anything.

• Detects domain's root folder on many servers
• User can select path to home page if not auto-detected
• Detects .htaccess requirements, makes edits and backups
• Detect Zend/ioncube dependency and install on most servers
• Create cron jobs
• Create and populate mysql tables
• Set folder/file permissions
• Gather custom configuration details and writes/edits config files
• Install wordpress plugins
• Display license agreement and require agreement
• Display thank you and readme message at end of install
• Won't overwrite existing installs in selected folder
• Remembers the install folder so it doesn't have to ask ever again for that domain

Upgrades:

SetupBOT makes upgrades easy too!

• Creates backups before upgrading
• One-click upgrades: Just like WordPress
• Not all servers support one-click upgrades, so if it fails, it falls back to using SetupBOT to upgrade, without having to enter information again.
• Runs script to upgrade databases if required.
• Reconfigure if required.

Repairs:

If you point SetupBOT to something it installed, it detects the existing install and offers repair options:

• Option to reinstall from scratch
• Detects old version and gives option to upgrade
• Option to reconfigure
• Migrate to a new domain/server

Licensing:

We also created a licensing server to go along with this, so you can control software once it's installed:

• Know when, where, how often, and by which customers your applications are installed.
• Turn on/off features remotely. Example: If someone starts or stops paying, switch the installed application between free trial mode and different pay modes.
• That means you can also setup free trials on installed software.
• Notify your application that an update is available and display a custom upgrade indicator.

Contact:

Please contact John at setupbot@gmail.com to talk about licensing or purchasing SetupBOT for your web application. Please do not contact us for technical support if our quickly put up demo fails on your particular server, but do let us know in the comments, and we'll probably fix it.