Updating the script

New versions of Hearing Center Business Suite and of its addons are published on the License Center. An update replaces the program files and then brings the database up to date; your patients, sales, settings and uploads are never touched.

There are two ways to update: by hand, with FTP or cPanel's File Manager, or with one click through the Script & Addon Updates addon.

Which version you have

The version number is at the bottom of the sidebar (v1.0.0 · Active) and in the Installation card of the License page. The changelog of every version is on the product's page on faruk.bd and in your account on the License Center.

Before you update

1. Take a backup. With the Backup & Restore addon press Back up now; without it, download the database from cPanel → phpMyAdmin → Export, and the uploads/ folder with the File Manager.
2. Choose a quiet moment — before opening or after closing. An update takes a minute or two, and the panel may show errors to anybody using it in between.
3. Read what changed. A new version occasionally asks for a newer PHP version or a new setting.

Updating by hand

1. Download the new ZIP from My licences on the License Center.
2. Extract it on your computer.
3. Upload everything over the existing files — same folder, overwrite when asked.

   Do not upload or overwrite:

   • config.php — your database details and secret key;
   • installed.lock — without it the site thinks it is not installed;
   • uploads/ — your logos, photos, reports and backups;
   • install.php — you deleted it after installing; leave it deleted.

   The ZIPs on the License Center never contain the first three, so a plain "upload and overwrite" is safe.

4. Sign in as a Super Admin and open https://your-domain/db_update.php.
5. Press Run the update.

What the database update does

This tool brings the database up to date with the files currently on the server. It only adds what is missing — your data is not touched.

• Runs every migration step the new version brings, each exactly once. Steps that have already run are remembered and skipped, so running the updater twice is harmless — Run again is always safe.
• Adds any table or column the files expect and the database does not have yet.
• Creates the tables of any switched-on addon that is missing one.
• When an addon has been merged into another, moves its settings across so nothing you set is lost.
• Writes a line for every step, so you can see exactly what it did.

Only a signed-in Super Admin may run it; anybody else gets Sign in required. It is one of the few pages that still opens when the licence is not valid, so an update can never lock you out.

Updating an addon

Addons are updated the same way: their folders are inside plugins/ in the new ZIP. To update a single addon you can also upload its ZIP on System → Addons (when your licence allows uploads): a newer ZIP of an installed addon replaces its files and keeps its settings. Run db_update.php afterwards.

Updating with one click

The Script & Addon Updates addon adds More → Updates. Check for updates asks the License Center what is new for your licence; when a newer version exists you see what changed and an update button. Before a single file is replaced, a full backup of the site — every table and your uploads — is taken and sent to the License Center, and the update will not proceed without it. Afterwards the screen tells you to Run the database update.

After updating

• Open a few screens you use every day — the dashboard, a patient file, the till — and check they look right.
• If a page shows an error, run db_update.php again first; most errors after an update are a step that has not run yet.
• If the panel will not open at all, see Troubleshooting, or open a support ticket from the License Center. The backup you took a few minutes ago is your way back.

Moving to a new server

Moving is a backup and a restore: copy the files (including config.php and uploads/), import the database, correct the database details and HCS_URL in config.php if they changed, and run db_update.php once. If the domain changes too, press Release this domain on the License page before you start.