Using The Auto Updater

This tutorial will guide you step by step in creating and maintaining an install package that uses the Advanced Updater.

We will create an install package for the "story.txt" file that we used in the Simple Installation tutorial.

• 1. Create the original install package.
• 2. Manage the first update
• 3. Manage the second update
• 4. Manage a patch

1. Create the original install package.

Create a professional project.

Now create the install package following the same steps as described in the Simple Installation tutorial, but don't build the package yet.

After adding the files to the package it is time to add the auto-update functionality.

Switch to the Updater by selecting it in the left-side panel.

Select the “Enable Advanced Updater” checkbox.

Now, you will have to reserve on your site a location for the updates configuration file. You will create this file when the first update will be released. For now, you just have to input the location. Let's suppose you have chosen this location:

http://www.myupdateslocation.com/download/StoryUpdates.txt

Enter it in the “Updates URL” field.

In order to be able to launch the Advanced Updater, create a desktop shortcut that will point to the updater.exe file in the package.

Go to the Files and Folders page. Right click on the “updater.exe” file and choose "New Shortcut...". In the newly appeared dialog edit the fields like in the following screen-shot.

Save and build the package.

Install the package.

Click on the desktop shortcut. Naturally, no updates are found.

2. Manage the first update

First you need to create a backup of the original project. After the backup is made you can start modifying it to create a new version.

Go to the Product Details Tab page and increase the "Product Version" (for example you can set it to 2.0.0).

When selecting another page you will prompted about the update method. Answer Major Upgrade in order to enable the automated upgrade feature.

Modify the story.txt file by changing a few words and eventually add some new files. Suppose the new size of "story.txt" is 1234. Remember this size in order to use it as a detection criteria in the updates configuration project. You could now release an update which makes these changes.

Save and build the package.

After creating a new version of the package is time to create the "StoryUpdates.txt" file on the server so the updater will know that new updates are available. Create a new Updates Configuration Project and configure the first update as showed in the updates tutorial. After generating the updates configuration file place it at the URL location you specified in the original package.

Use the updater shortcut installed by the original package. You will notice that a new update is found. Download and install it. When checking for updates again your application should be up to date (no updates should be found).

3. Manage the second update

Modify the story.txt file by adding a new paragraph. It's new size is 2345. Remember this size in order to use it as a detection criteria in the updates configuration project.

You can now create another update, just like you created the first one. This new package can have the version 3.0.0.

After generating it place the new version on your server.

Open your updates configuration project and configure the new update.

Check for updates again. You will notice that the first update is not visible anymore, only the second one can be installed. Install the update.

4. Manage a patch

To create a patch you can try following our patch tutorial. Patches can also be applied through the Auto Updater. Simply configure the patch as update, just like you configure a new version of the package. For the Updater it doesn't matter if the update is a MSI, EXE or MSP file.

The End

This concludes our tutorial.

Topics

• Create Updates File
  Step by step tutorial describing the creation of an Updates Configuration File.
• Sample updates configuration files
  Sample updates configuration file for an EXE application.