iDeploy suggestion

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

First, congratulations on you achievement with the MS Digital Locker.

Now my suggestion: If one launches an iDeploy installer without first
connecting to the internet, SB presents an error. This makes sense, but it
would be much more forgiving if that error message suggested connecting as a
solution. In addition, a Retry button on the error window seems to make sense
-- and would probably make for a better experience for the user.

Thanks,
Greg

Greg Fasolt
G. Fasolt and Associates

www: GFasolt.com S.M.

[NewsArchive]

Greg,

>
> First, congratulations on you achievement with the MS Digital Locker.
>

Thank you :)

> Now my suggestion: If one launches an iDeploy installer without first
> connecting to the internet, SB presents an error. This makes sense, but it
> would be much more forgiving if that error message suggested connecting as
> a solution. In addition, a Retry button on the error window seems to make
> sense -- and would probably make for a better experience for the user.

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll see if it can be added to one of the
next builds.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable way to detect if a machine is connected
to the Internet.

But the full wupdate.exe source code is available (wupdate.sb5), so you can
add your own code to 1) display a message and suggest to connect to the
Internet and/or 2) add a function to retry (e.g. using a Loop).

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Friedrich,

You could try to see if you could ping a few web sites. More than one as
you never know when they may be down for maintenance. If your code shows no
response from 2 or more sites, then they may not be connected.

JAT,

--
Russ Eggen
www.radfusion.com

[NewsArchive]

Thanks for the reply, Friedrich.

My greatest concern is with the installer after rebooting, not wupdate.exe.

I've added this before [ Install Files ]:

Set Variable %CONNECTIONTEST&% to ScriptItem->Check HTTP Connection "http://ProENTRY4.com"
If %CONNECTIONTEST&% Not Equals "0" Then
Display Message Box "An internet connection is required in order to con..."
-- "ProENTRY IV Installer" [non-silent]
End

Greg

[NewsArchive]

Thanks Russ. The "Check HTTP Connection" script function does something
similar. But I don't want to hardcode a "ping" to lindersoft.com (could
result into millions of pings <g>). Perhaps a ping to downloads.com - I'll
give this some thoughts.

Thanks again,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Hi Greg,

Aha, I see. I thought you meant the web update client, sorry.

"Check HTTP Connection" is a good idea!

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

Check HTTP Connection didn't appear to work with http://proentry4.com but does
work with http://proentry4.com/index.htm.

Perhaps it was some external problem, but if this is expected, perhaps a bit of
clarification in the docs would be in order?

BTW, the process of creating the current SB installer has me nitpicking my own
docs, web pages, and app. ;) Actually a very useful exercise as I see things
more from the user's perspective.

Greg

[NewsArchive]

Hi Greg,

You are right. The documentation is not precise enough. The URL has to
point to a file on the server (.htm, .html, .jpg, etc.).

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

> You are right. The documentation is not precise enough. The URL has to
> point to a file on the server (.htm, .html, .jpg, etc.).

Hi Friedrich,

That might be a problem if a developer was wanting to test the connection
to a website like Google.

You never know if a page is going to be a .htm, .html, .php or what on a
public server like that.

In NetTalk I use a NetSimple object to test for the ability to reach a
given URL on a given port.

AFAIK - I think they are evaluating the header that comes back to determine
if the URL/Port were reached.

In my test for connection routines, I usually test for the destination I
want to reach, then if it fails I test for something like Google.

If I can reach Google - but not my destination of choice - I can advise the
user that my site is not reachable. If I can't reach either one, I advise
them to check their Internet connection.


Just some thoughts...

;-)

Charles


--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds

www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

Hi Charles,

Thank you for your thoughts ;-)

I think pointing to http://www.google.com/index.html should work fine.
But to be on the safe side, I would check my own side and the above
Google link. If "Check HTTP Connection" fails on both, it's time to
check the Internet connection :)

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5