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Plugin Update Checker: Installation

Requirements

• osTicket 1.18.x
• PHP 8.1 or newer (composer.json: >=8.1)
• PHP extensions curl and json
• Access to the file system of the osTicket server and to the Admin Panel
• Outgoing HTTPS connection from the server to api.github.com
• Composer on the server, unless the autoloader is already part of the package

Install the plugin files

The plugin loads its classes from src/ through the Composer autoloader vendor/autoload.php. That file is the only runtime dependency: the plugin has no third-party packages, and composer install --no-dev only generates the autoloader.

If vendor/autoload.php is missing, the plugin file loads without error, but opening the plugin list fails because the classes cannot be found. Always generate the autoloader before you enable the plugin.

Option 1: ZIP

1. Download the release ZIP from the GitHub Releases and extract it.
2. Copy the folder to include/plugins/update-check/ in your osTicket directory, so that plugin.php sits directly in that folder.
3. Run composer install --no-dev in the plugin folder if there is no vendor/ folder with autoload.php.

Option 2: Git clone

cd /path/to/osticket/include/plugins
git clone https://github.com/markus-michalski/osticket-plugin-update-check.git update-check
cd update-check
composer install --no-dev

Enable the plugin

1. In the osTicket Admin Panel go to Manage > Plugins.
2. Find Plugin Update Checker in the list and enable it.

The plugin is a singleton: when you enable it, it creates an instance itself if needed, with the note Auto-created singleton instance. You do not have to create an instance by hand. The badges appear the next time the plugin list loads. The optional settings are described under Configuration.

Update

Replace the folder include/plugins/update-check/ with the new version and run composer install --no-dev again if needed. The plugin has no database tables and no migrations. Responses that are already cached stay valid until they expire, see Technical details.

Disable and remove

• Disable: In the Admin Panel under Manage > Plugins, disable the plugin. The plugin has no cleanup logic of its own. It creates no tables and changes no osTicket files.
• Remove: Uninstall the plugin in the Admin Panel, then delete the folder include/plugins/update-check/.
• Cache: The plugin does not delete its cache files in the server's temp directory (osticket-update-check/ under sys_get_temp_dir()). You can delete that folder by hand after removal.
• GitHub token: If you entered a token, it is stored in the plugin configuration in the database. Clear it before removing the plugin or revoke it at GitHub. See Privacy for details.