Re: Updating my application via Internet

FROM : John C. Randolph
DATE : Wed Nov 24 22:25:18 2004

On Nov 24, 2004, at 1:20 PM, Michael Becker wrote:

> Hi!
>
> In my current project, my customers want to have the possibility to
> check for available updates. Right now, I have a simple checking
> method: The application compares its own version number to the latest
> available version number (which lies on a remote server). If it finds
> that there's a newer version out there, a window is displayed with a
> message and a URL to the newer version download.
>
> This is a very easy approach and it might confuse the user to have the
> same application twice on the computer, they might even end up
> removing the wrong one (the new one instead of the old one, etc.).
>
> Are there any common ways to handle this? I guess you can't make a
> running application exchange itself by a downloaded one? What is the
> recommended way to take care of this updating thing (should be
> something that comes up in many projects, i guess...)


  When I was at IllumineX, I implemented our software update mechanism
by launching an rsync task.  When the update was completed, I prompted
the user to quit and re-launch the app.  You might also ask the guys on
the Omni macosx-dev list how omni implemented software update for their
apps.

-jcr








John C. Randolph <<email_removed>> (408) 974-8819
Sr. Cocoa Software Engineer,
Apple Worldwide Developer Relations
http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/index.html