The Auto Updater

The Advanced Updater is a small executable tool whose role is to check for updates, inform the user of their presence and offer to download and install them. When launched, the Updater checks if a newer version of the application exists by using a predefined criteria.

When you decide to add the automatic updates capability to your application, a copy of the Updater (having the name you specify) and the INI configuration file will be inserted into the install package.

Updater options

The Updater has the following command line option:

• /checknow - The Updater is launched, pops up a dialog box, checks for updates and automatically informs the user that new updates are available.
• /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).
• /silentall - The Updater will search silently for updates and automatically install all updates. This has the has the same effect as the /silent option if the user has selected the "Check and automatically install all updates" option in the configuration dialog.
• /silentcritical - The Updater will search silently for updates and automatically install only critical updates. This has the has the same effect as the /silent option if the user has selected the "Check and automatically install critical updates" option in the configuration dialog.
• /configure [HWND] - the Configure dialog will be displayed allowing the configuration of the Updater. In this dialog the user can specify the download folder, the check frequency, enable or disable the automatically update option. This command line could be used with an optional parameter that specifies the parent window handle (HWND) for the "Updates Options" dialog. This parameter is of unsigned integer type.

Updater command line switches:

• -nofreqcheck - If this switch is specified in the updater's command line, the frequency check is skipped. It can be used with the /silentall and /silentcritical command line options.
• -url url_location - If this command line is used the Updates Configuration File url from the updater configuration INI file will be replaced with the one specified after this switch. It can be used with the /checknow, /silent, /silentall and /silentcritical command line options.

Examples:

• updater.exe /silentall -nofreqcheck
• updater.exe /checknow -url http://www.example.com/updates.aiu

The old command line options: /m checknow, /m silent, /m configure are still supported but deprecated. It is recommended to use the new command line options.

User authentication

You can restrict the user's access to the updates configuration file or an update file using username/password authentication. The user will be prompted to enter the password. The updater can remember the password, if the user chooses to do so.

The password sent by the updater to the server is not secured. It is sent as plain text.

Automatically download and install some types of updates

This option is enabled by selecting the "Check and automatically download and install" option from the "Configure" dialog. You have two choices: Critical or All. An update can be marked as critical using flag Critical in Flags entry from updates configuration file.

Automatically close the updated application

The updater can automatically close the updated application. The path to the application that must be closed is specified in the updates configuration file in the "AutoCloseApplication" entry.

Using the Updater

The Updater should be launched from within your application with one of the above command line options.

For example, you could add a menu option that will launch the updater. In order to do that just execute the Updater tool with the "/checknow" command line, when that menu option is selected.

When launched, the Updater automatically downloads from the URL location specified in the "Update URL" field (Updater Page), the updates configuration file.

After the INI file is downloaded the Updater checks for newer versions of the application. If they exist the user is informed of their presence. Then the Updater gives you the possibility to select the files that you want to install.

After selecting the desired files, the update process begins and the files are downloaded and installed.