File Overwrite: Page 2 - Enhance Control Panel

File Overwrite

Omar

twest
It's perfectly valid to criticize those who sell hosting professionally without understanding the basics.

I agree that hosts should understand their systems, but we can't expect end clients to be Linux experts. That's precisely why control panels (dashboard, GUI, bla bla bla) exist - to abstract complexity for common tasks.

From what I've observed in the forum: Not all users are providers. Some are small business owners, freelance designers, or junior developers using the panel for specific tasks.

Enhance explicitly markets itself as "intuitive interface for beginners." That's why it attracts not just sysadmins, but also novices [some time ago, me and others in this forum were newbies in this industry. Years, successes and mistakes are what build experience - but apparently that's not your case. You were born already knowledgeable! Congratulations! (read this last part with sarcasm, satire or irony - your choice)]

I agree the forum has users who only complain without offering solutions. But this thread isn't one of those cases. Here I presented: Detailed report with real scenarios and Scalable technical proposals

Dismissing all criticism as "whining" ignores valid concerns. The ZIP extraction issue, for example, isn't about demanding special treatment - it's about aligning functionality with:

The product's own marketing claims
Industry-standard behaviors (like cPanel's predictable extraction)

If the forum is losing experienced voices, it's our collective responsibility to elevate the discussion level, not blame others.

If cPFence launched a GUI, it's because their clients requested (and pay for) it (my team recently enabled it - I mostly use CLI, but appreciate having the UI for quicker tasks across all servers).

GUI implementation isn't "stooping" to anything - it's recognizing that different users have different needs. It's market adaptation. Airbags in cars don't exist because drivers are bad, but because accidents happen.

Attacking others doesn't improve software. Building alternatives does.

My core point:
Enhance has the opportunity to:

Maintain and keep improving the control panel
While improving intuitive behaviors for basic functions
Without compromising either

The fact that @Adam acknowledged the ZIP issue suggests the Enhance team understands this balance. I'm optimistic we'll see thoughtful solutions in future releases.

PS: I've been using Enhance and the forum since February, so I know v12.0.0+. I'm starting to identify idiots, trolls, experts, and newbies. If letting idiots go unchecked is the problem, then you should propose stricter moderation policies. I'd definitely support it. Until then, the forum belongs to all of us, not just the experts.

☮️✌️

twest

Omar ah, the digital landscape is a wondrous place where “dashboards” and “GUIs” swoop in like caped crusaders to rescue us from the perils of command-line complexity. It’s almost poetic that we’ve transitioned from shell prompts to point-and-click, all while sprinkling in just enough buzzwords to make it feel like the future has finally arrived.

In today’s ever-evolving digital ecosystem, striking the right balance between user experience and system robustness is crucial—because what’s more forward-thinking than adopting industry-standard behaviors and calling them “intuitive improvements”? It’s the kind of market adaptation that feels like swapping out cPanel’s ZIP extraction logic for a fresh coat of Enhance branding.

Your reminder that “end clients aren’t Linux experts” is spot on. After all, if novice users can breeze through a control panel without a single sudo command, they’ll never know what they’re missing. And who can blame them? When the product explicitly markets itself as “intuitive for beginners,” empty platitudes about abstraction suddenly sound like consumer empowerment.

Speaking of empty platitudes, it’s fascinating to see how phrases like “scalable technical proposals” and “thoughtful solutions” get tossed around like confetti. They add just enough fluff to cover up any functional quirks—such as unpredictable ZIP extractions—while keeping the conversation humming along in perfect corporate cadence.

At the end of the day, repainting familiar behaviors in Enhance’s color palette isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about ensuring that every click reinforces the brand promise, even if the underlying mechanics remain unchanged. After all, evolution in software is measured not just by features, but by how many times you can rewrite the same feature and still call it “new.”

So here’s hoping that v12.0.1 brings both genuine fixes and a fresh supply of empty platitudes to keep us all entertained. Until then, may your GUIs remain intuitive, your dashboards ever-scalable, and your buzzword bingo cards forever full.

JohnB

Very well said. Speaking of scalable promises I love those. Even my worst code is very scalable: just use a better processor and more memory. Scalability!

cPFence

Stewart85 However, if you upload a .zip file and uncompress the .zip file, it will not ask if you want to overwrite the files, and it looks as if it unpacked the .zip file, but nothing gets unzipped or overwritten

Yes, the unzip function in the Enhance File Manager uses unzip -n (never overwrite) by design, so existing files are skipped and only new ones are added. It’s not a bug — it was built that way. Might be worth submitting a feature request for them to optionally use unzip -o (overwrite without prompt) instead, which we think is a better choice to avoid confusing users.

We think Enhance File Manager is awesome, once the RTL issues are fixed, it’ll be nearly perfect.

slimx

I think @Omar is on the right track.
It is just common sense.

Which end-user is going to delete and then unzip? It makes no sense. Especially when applying a patch or a WORDPRESS plugin update? lol.

If end-user is patching something, they should be able to just unzip.
I think it is a no brainer to have it OVERWRITE by default.
However: if you are afraid of this - then just put a prompt.

Skipping is dumb.
It doesn't even tell you it skipped.
I had no idea it even skipped until this thread.

I am so sure that many of the support tickets I dealt with were caused by this. Particularly when someone says, "Hello sir I am trying to install x but it's not working, here is my zip file". I go in and extract it (through cli of course) and it works without any headache - I was assuming it was just a bug or connection issue at the time, now it makes more sense.

Also how do you "notify" people that "By the way anything you unzip won't overwrite" when 90% of CMS systems' patches,bug preventions etc. are designed with that in-mind.

I make plugins too, and if someone orders something "custom" we just send a patch file, and expect them to unzip it lol. Now i have to pre-ask - Are you on enhance? (The only cp with a file manager that skips without even telling you when extracing an archive)?

I cannot see what leg you are standing on here. @xyzulu

And man what drama, we are disagreeing with one another which is literally a conversation. Noone is getting hostile here. Stop whining ladies.

xyzulu

slimx there are times when you (as a plugin developer) might want to replace folders (not merge). This ensures that files no longer needed are removed. And there might be times you want to do a merge.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, not sure what the reference to ladies whining is about (the gender of users here isn’t relevant I don’t think) ... but I don’t think we are in as much disagreement as you make out. The current behaviour is obviously confusing to some/many users. Hoping Enhance can clear some of this up with some warnings/options/explanation.

cPFence

FWIW, the way Enhance File Manager handles unzip isn’t unique or anything new. Webmin’s file manager used to do the same thing by default, and when they switched to overwriting, a bunch of users actually complained in the community! , they preferred the old behavior.

Plesk’s File Manager also skips existing files unless you tick a box to overwrite. Same with Hostinger’s hPanel, the overwrite option is there, but it’s off by default.

So yeah, it’s not a bug or a weird design choice, just a common approach used by some file manager developers to avoid accidental overwrites. That said, a simple prompt with an overwrite checkbox sounds like a solid feature request.

Omar

cPFence Dicho esto, un simple mensaje con una casilla de verificación de sobrescritura suena como una solicitud de función sólida.

+1 As you say: Solid and simple. I like it

Thank you for your helpful comments.

standtech

Personal AI bots will be a cheaper option to discuss online in the future, and maybe then I will use them to make it concise to read. Meanwhile, could we keep responses under 5-10 lines max please ? 😉

twest

standtech I thought my ai reply was hilarious lol! I'm just not gonna waste the time talking to someone who doesn't even have the basic respect to write their own words - so AI it is 😆

xyzulu

This issue led me to wonder what is the default behaviour using .tar.gz files on Enhance file manager.. anyone tested/know yet? If not, I'll do a test myself.

Edit: We tested.. .tar behaves like .zip right now and files are not overwritten using the uncompress option of the file manager

Aliysa_Enhance

Please keep an eye on https://community.enhance.com/d/2788-overwrite-option-when-unzipping-logged/21

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