Fantastico (web hosting)

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Fantastico is a commercial script library which automates the installation of web applications to a website. Fantastico scripts are executed from the administration area of a website control panel such as cPanel. Fantastico's web site claims that they are installed on ten thousand servers, with a million users worldwide, which would make it the leading product of its type.

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[edit] Typical usage

Fantastico scripts are usually executed when a new website is created, or a new application is added to an existing website. The scripts typically create tables in a database, install software, adjust permissions, and modify web server configuration files. Although Fantastico is typically associated with open-source software, a handful of scripts are also available which install commercial products, which once installed, are available to all of the domains hosted by a physical server; such as web site builder SohoLaunch, PerlDesk customer support software, and AccountLab Plus software for interacting with Internet registrars.

There are more than 50 applications that have Fantastico scripts associated with them. The most commonly added systems include:

  1. Web content management system
  2. Shopping cart software
  3. Wikis
  4. Blogs
  5. Photo sharing

A full list of Fantastico-supported applications and versions is available here.

[edit] Criticism of Hosting Providers Offering Fantastico

Hosting providers offering Fantastico have been criticized in several areas:

  1. The installation scripts, although easy to use, are frequently not maintained by the ISP, and thus older releases of products with known security problems are in current use.
  2. The default configuration for many applications may not be secure. So although the systems are easy to set up, it also provides opportunities; for example for spammers to write automated scripts which post spam messages on websites.

Although Fantastico includes it's own installers, since open source projects do not all have the financial and legal resources to prevent third parties from creating alternate installers, there may be many versions in circulation. In such circumstances, users may have to shoulder the updating of their scripts themselves, which could be a technically-daunting for beginners. However, there are two schools of thought on the matter of recent updates: eager to improve user experience and heighten security, some like to have an update as soon as a new release is available, while others prefer to use old IT wisdom, waiting and letting others test a new release to see if it introduces any new and serious problems, before offering it as an update to their own client base.

[edit] See also

  • cPanel -- the platform which Fantastico runs on.
  • installapp -- Script Installer for Lxadmin
  • Installatron -- alternative script installer for cPanel

[edit] External links

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