check for new versions

[DaveM]

Re: check for new versions

Ray,

After testing the developers button, the file can be created from alpha and updated to the website in .03 seconds(varied from .02 to .04)

The download of the file, read the file, and a popup ui_msg takes .06 seconds(varied from .05 to .07). Not all will be as fast and some will be slower. ISP's do make a difference. My upload speed here is about 8m per minute and download is about 35m per minute. Machine is pretty fast with medium memory and fast cards in it.

My download and check is running in the autoexec. Autoexec reads current app version to var, and then calls a function that draws the update file by ftp, reads the file, compares the 2 versions and either does nothing or pops a ui_msg asking to download the update. If the user chooses, then downloads the update by ftp. the update download speed depends on the size of the file which is not part of this discussion.

It does not get much faster than that and is dead accurate.

I just need time to put it together in a test app so others can see.

Forgot to mention that I work on Linux sites and windows sites. Linux is more than 2 times as fast as windows, so bear that in mind when you are testing.

[DaveM]

Re: check for new versions

I already have a registration where an email is sent to me and alpha gets it, fills a form and sends a Thank you back to the sender with other information. Working out a few small glitches right now. At least I hope they are small. I also have to trap the notice from paypal that it is paid before the registration is sent and have not tackled that one yet. Will probably spend a lot of time in the paypal sandbox.
Later, I will have my completed registration process done for my sold software. "NO FREEBIES" and "NO COPIES"!

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: check for new versions

Dave, I did not mean to offer what I offered as a duel. There is nothing wrong with your approach to what you trying to do, but I think the truth is we still don't know for sure what the hell Mike was after. I thought, perhaps mistakenly, that I was responding to what he was asking for. Now, I have almost no idea what this thread is even about. I am done--for real this time, even if Mike arises from the dead and clarifies what he was asking for. He or anyone else can use your approach or my approach (depending on what they are wanting to do). Either one, I am sure, will work and work just fine. And in case In case anyone raises an issue with what I said about possibly having an autoexec check on every startup to see if there is an update, obviously it would be child's play to make that only every week, every month or whatever. And it wouldn't have to be done from the autoexec either, i.e., it could be done from a button on a form, though using a button would complicate the coding as all forms would have to be closed the way they are when a backup is run from a form button. Ditto if you did it automatically when a start form opened. All perfectly doable, due to the power and flexibility of Alpha Five.

Me? I don't use a web site for updating my clients' (LAN) servers, so I use an entirely different approach. That is, I just access my clients' servers remotely and unzip updates to my applications, sometimes without them even knowing about it. I have never had any single user clients where web based updates would make sense. As I said, I am done. Goodnight.

Raymond Lyons

[DaveM]

Re: check for new versions

Ray,
I consider it a good exercise that could be of great help to others that may need it.

I never considered it a competition at all, but two views and 2 methods.
I give away a diabetes app to veterans. There are over 7000 out there now. I do not have an actual count, but around 14 a month are being downloaded on just one site per month. It is also on several other sites, I don't get the numbers for. Some are much larger(in traffic) then my little sight. To say 40 a month are being downloaded would probably be low. I would like to know haw many are actually installed, no other data about it.

My car lot app is similar at over 750 single users out there that I got paid for, and 38 major ones where they paid a lot more for it. For this one and the church db, I need a "simple for the user" registration and update system. In one year the diabetes app was downloaded(it is free) 312 times at http://www.allstarapplications.com from the store. One of Ted Giles apps was downloaded a lot more than that

I don't consider it acceptable(for my time spent) to go into other peoples systems to affect an update when there are well over a 1000 of them to do at times. Not for me anyhow. Exceptions are the custom applications where there is just one install of the app.

[Mike Wilson]

Re: check for new versions

Hi Guys,
Sorry for not getting back but I was notified by our web hosting company early last week that our "website was hacked and now contains infected files" and they took down all the website domains within the account. This week has been a flurry of trying to get that all straightened out, and very little time has been had for Alpha message board review. It's close to being resolved.

What I want is exactly what both Dave and Ray proposed. Either and both look like very doable options. Ray's method is more of what I though would be required, have a webpage with text and have it scanned, but Dave's method in post #12 looks simple and possibly a little easier to maintain, and as Ray said, the scanning method is not used by many, and I am certainly one that is not familiar with it. But it's time to get educated. Not that we are putting out versions left-and-right. My partner is the one that maintains the web content so we'll have to look into testing both, once our websites have been reopened for access.

Thanks to you both and as we work through our process, I'll report back.

[preston2]

Re: check for new versions

Here is mine. Runs on app start-up in silent mode and only notifies you if there is an update.

dim vc_udpath as c
vc_udpath = vA5.GET_PATH()+"\\" + "Updater.exe /S"
sys_shell_wait(vc_udpath,.T.)

That reads a file on my website that has info like this in it.

5.01
http://www.shopcalmanager.com/t-five/Update.exe

[DaveM]

Re: check for new versions

That should take you to a download page if it needs to? Or does it just take you there every time you start the app?

I think we were looking for something runs totally in the background where it tests and then recommends update or just does the update silently.

I plan to run this from the "ondatabaseclose" script and probably every Monday and Friday only.

[preston2]

Re: check for new versions

That should take you to a download page if it needs to? Or does it just take you there every time you start the app?

You asking me?

Mine never takes you to a download page. It just checks and if there is an update it then ask you if you want to download it. You never go to the web at all to check. If there is no update then you do not even know it checked.

I also have it check everyday even if you do not open the Alpha app.

[DaveM]

Re: check for new versions

I think Ray's method and mine can both be configured that way.

[preston2]

Re: check for new versions

Probably so Dave. I just happen to have a utility that does it and is part of the installer so I did not see a need to figure out a lot of code to do it.

That said, yours and Rays methods may also be useful for other things other than just checking for version updates.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: check for new versions

Preston,

From what you say you run your utility daily whether or not your Alpha app is run. So it has to be an independent installer utility that really has nothing to do with Alpha Five per se. But, contrary to what you probably did not mean to but did suggest, it is checking the web daily, and if the user wants it, downloads and install the update--right? It might help if you gave the name of the installer in case anyone was interested.

All Dave and I were saying is that there are ways to do the same thing using nothing but fairly simple Alpha Five coding. Dave's way and my way are somewhat different but the end result is the same. The main difference is that our ways are a lot more fun than using an installer utility! And oh yes, I should add that my way is far more elegant and beautiful than Dave's!!!!

I should also add that Dave is actually building his way of doing it, whereas I just outlined a way I am sure it could be done using built-in A5 functions.

Raymond Lyons

[preston2]

Re: check for new versions

Ray,

When I create the install package I can set the update utility to silently check for updates on any time frame I want be it daily, monthly, every 7 days or whatever.




I originally posted the name of the installer creation software in post 3 of this thread http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafo...l=1#post693567

But again, it is Actual Installer. Not free and is why most try and figure out other ways to do all of this. Me, I felt the time saved was worth the price.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: check for new versions

I originally posted the name of the installer creation software in post 3 of this thread http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafo...l=1#post693567

But again, it is Actual Installer. Not free and is why most try and figure out other ways to do all of this. Me, I felt the time saved was worth the price.

Preston,

Sorry, somehow I overlooked your post 3 of this thread. If one needs/wants an installer, that is certainly a good, and maybe the best way to deal with such updates.

Raymond Lyons

[DaveM]

Re: check for new versions

My way is also only using alpha 5 functions.
I still use astrum and it was also not free when I got it. I have actual installer but have not used it so far. Maybe I should get further into that.

I did misunderstand your post 3.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: check for new versions

Actually !, the Actual Updater part of the Actual Installer is free unless you want the Pro version, the one Preston gets with the paid version of Actual Installer. The paid version gives you things such as check for updates every n days, etc. The paid version of the Updater is $29.xx. See this LINK.

But wait, why would I want to spend $30 when I can build my own in about $300 worth of my time?

Raymond Lyons