Updater questions

[robbiehanson]

I'm testing out the updater feature of Advanced Installer. I've read the updater tutorial, and the documentation. I have a sample project setup that can check for updates, and it properly tells me when updates are available. I still have several questions.

If I run the updater with the /checknow option, everything works great.

If I run the updater with the /silent option, then does the updater run forever? If so, how do I tell it to quit when my application is closing?

I've configured the updater to run normally (not as a Windows task), yet if I run the updater from the command line with the /silent option, I don't see it show up in the list of processes in Control-Alt-Delete task manager. How can I tell if it's running?

Also, what exactly does the /silent -nofreqcheck do? Does this mean it silently checks for updates once, right away, regardless of whether it was time to check again? And then quits?

[Cosmin]

Hi,

If I run the updater with the /silent option, then does the updater run forever?

Please note that the "/silent" parameter will make the Updater search for updates only when the check frequency has passed. For example, if the check frequency is set to 2 days, the Updater will search for updates only after 2 days have passed since the last check (or the first installation). It doesn't matter how many times you will launch the updater in this period, it will not perform a check.

Only the "/checknow" parameter will make the Updater to instantly check for updates (all the other parameters use a check frequency). Also, after the check frequency period has passed, the Updater will check for updates only if it is launched (it will not launch itself automatically).

what exactly does the /silent -nofreqcheck do?

If you want the updater to instantly check for updates when using the "/silentall" and "/silentcritical" parameters, you need to set the check frequency to "0". This can be done by using the -nofreqcheck parameter. All updater parameters are explained here.

The "/silent" parameter cannot be used with "-nofreqcheck" because it is designed for running the Updater when your application starts.

Regards,
Cosmin

[robbiehanson]

Cosmin, thank you for your response but you have not answered my original question.

I have read the documentation (several times) and I understand that the updater will only check for updates at the specified interval. I understand that if I launch the updater with the /silent option it won't immediately check for updates unless the check frequency has passed. This was not my question. Here is my question:

Let us assume the check frequency has NOT passed.

If I launch the updater with the silent option will it:
A) See that the check frequency has not passed, and immediately quit.
B) See that the check frequncey has not passed, and sleep until the frequncy is up.

Here's what the documentation says about the silent option:

/silent - The Updater will search silently for updates at the interval specified by the user. The search interval can be specified in the Configuration dialog. By default it is the value you specified in the "Check Frequency" field (Updater Page).

Now when I read this, it sounds like the updater would perform B above. But you can't fully tell because the documentation isn't specific. So to further solve this dilemma, I then took a look at the example source code in C#.

In here I find the code only launches the updater once with the silent option. So again, this seems to confirm that the updater would perform B above.

So which is it? A or B?

If it's A, then why doesn't the documentation explicitly say this, and why doesn't the sample code setup a timer to run the updater every so often?

If it's B, then how does one kill the updater when the application is closing?

[Cosmin]

Hi,

If I launch the updater with the silent option will it:
A) See that the check frequency has not passed, and immediately quit.
B) See that the check frequncey has not passed, and sleep until the frequncy is up.

If the Updater is launched with the "/silent" parameter it will verify the check frequency. If it has not passed, the Updater will exit (its process will stop). However, if if the check frequency has passed, it will check for updates. If no updates are found, the Updater will exit.

If it's A, then why doesn't the documentation explicitly say this

We modified the help file and the change will be visible in the next version of Advanced Installer. Thank you for your suggestion.

why doesn't the sample code setup a timer to run the updater every so often?

Please note that this can be done though code into your application (the sample code covers the basic scenario). Usually when the Updater is integrated into an application, it will be launched every time the application starts. If you need to perform multiple checks while your application is running, you can write custom code in your application which does this.

Regards,
Cosmin

[robbiehanson]

Thank you!

I'm looking forward to integrating the updater into our product. And I'm glad it works the way it does. This makes it easier to customize the update functionality.