Auto check for updates

[NewsArchive]

Friedrich,

Do you have any references to do a web update check that goes something like this?

1) User starts the app.
2) App does an update check early in its execution without displaying anything to
the user.
2A) If there is an update available, ask the user to update.
2B) If no update, proceed normally.

I'm even thinking of not even notifying the user, just do the update anyway.
--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Clarion developers: www.radfusion.com/devs.htm

[NewsArchive]

Russ,

> Do you have any references to do a web update check that goes something
> like this?
>
> 1) User starts the app.
> 2) App does an update check early in its execution without displaying
> anything to the user.
> 2A) If there is an update available, ask the user to update.
> 2B) If no update, proceed normally.
>
> I'm even thinking of not even notifying the user, just do the update
> anyway.

Absolutely no problem. I would use wucheck.exe to handle this (does not
give the elevation prompt on UAC-aware systems).

Just call wucheck.exe silently from your own application (e.g. at
application startup).

wucheck.exe /C /S - Check for a web update in silent mode. Returns "1" if an
update is available. Returns "0" if no update is available

If an update is available, call wucheck.exe again to let the client download
your "real" web update installer package. This will then be executed.

wucheck.exe /S /Q - Check for web update. If an update is available, it will
be downloaded and executed in silent mode

Does this help?

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Perfect! Thank you!

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Clarion developers: www.radfusion.com/devs.htm

[NewsArchive]

Russ,

Friedrich supplies two programs - wucheck.exe and wupdate.exe.

wucheck.exe is designed for exactly what you're describing - checks silently
for the availability of an update and doesn't request elevation. Check its
command-line switch options in the main SB help file.

wupdate.exe does request elevation.

The scripts for both of those utilities are in the setupbuilder\Redist\1033
folder.

I think you could either use them as-is, or copy and customize the scripts
to do what you want.

Jane

[NewsArchive]

I recall wucheck.exe *now* <bg>.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Clarion developers: www.radfusion.com/devs.htm

[NewsArchive]

> I'm even thinking of not even notifying the user, just do the update anyway.

Just be careful since many users would construe this as an "E.T. Call Home"
action.

Also what if the user is on a laptop in an airport and fires the app for 30
seconds? They may not have time to complete the download (or want to do it
at that time).

One of the reasons we extended SetupBuilder's Check for Updates with our
SetupCast product was so that a user could actually see what was involved
in the update (as well as how big it would be) BEFORE they decided to
download it.

http://www.setupcast.com/html/setupbuilder.html

Food for thought...

:-)

Charles


--
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[NewsArchive]

>> I'm even thinking of not even notifying the user, just do the update anyway.
>
> Just be careful since many users would construe this as an "E.T. Call Home"
> action.
>
> Also what if the user is on a laptop in an airport and fires the app for 30
> seconds? They may not have time to complete the download (or want to do it
> at that time).
>
> One of the reasons we extended SetupBuilder's Check for Updates with our
> SetupCast product was so that a user could actually see what was involved
> in the update (as well as how big it would be) BEFORE they decided to
> download it.

Yes, definitely some good thoughts from Charles from an end user
perspective...

Also, this product may not be of particular interest for Russ - but since
the message thread is about SB update checks (one of the SetupCast
features)

LANSRAD SetupCast is definitely an amazing TimeSaver for Software
Publishing tasks including Fast Republishing...

David

--
From David Troxell - Encourager Software
Microsoft Forums NNTP Bridge - Instructions to use
http://profileexchanges.com/blog/?p=397

[NewsArchive]

Hi Charles,

>
> Food for thought...
>

Very good points!

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

This is for our internal applications.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Clarion developers: www.radfusion.com/devs.htm