NEWBIE: What's the easiest way to get up an running with TU2?

[BobbyCFromEP]

I've downloaded and installed the eval copy of TU2. I like the concept and think this will work for me but I admit I must be missing something here. The user interface is nice but from reading the documentation I not really sure where to start. I see a lot of text on scripting and I'm wondering if that is how you get at the functionality of the product.

Here's what I'd like to try out. I have an application (written in VB.NET 2003) and I have created an initial install (via SUF7). The application has a menu option title "Check for Updates" but I have yet to test the code. The initial install checks out perfectly. Now I've made some changes to the application and have created a new install (I prefer to supply full installs instead of patches). How do I go about setting up the update client and server parts? What do I have to distribute with initial install so the "Check for Updates" option can work?

I saw the samples that were installed with the eval but I'm still not sure how that all works. Is there a tutorial or did I miss something in the documentation?

Again, I'm not faulting the product. It appears to be able to handle what I need. I'd just like to see it work once with this application.

Thanks in advance...

[Ted Sullivan]

You should definitely run through the Project Wizard to get started. It will ask you a number of questions about how your software is installed and how you'd like to deploy and install patches. Once you've done that, it will generate all of the script for you that you need. You'll see that the script is commented extensively and is designed to be easily modified by changing the value of variables etc.

Try that out, and see how it goes. Starting from scratch is definitely not recommended. Once you've seen how things are layed out, let us know what other questions you run into. TrueUpdate 2.0 is extremely flexible and powerful, so it can handle any software updating requirements you have!

[BobbyCFromEP]

You should definitely run through the Project Wizard to get started. It will ask you a number of questions about how your software is installed and how you'd like to deploy and install patches. Once you've done that, it will generate all of the script for you that you need. You'll see that the script is commented extensively and is designed to be easily modified by changing the value of variables etc.

Try that out, and see how it goes. Starting from scratch is definitely not recommended. Once you've seen how things are layed out, let us know what other questions you run into. TrueUpdate 2.0 is extremely flexible and powerful, so it can handle any software updating requirements you have!

Ted,

Thanks! So the bulk of the business end of TU2 is creating the client and server scripts, correct? I think that's where my confusion has been. Is there a repository of other sample scripts besides the one in the eval?

[Brett]

Here's what I'd like to try out. I have an application (written in VB.NET 2003) and I have created an initial install (via SUF7). The application has a menu option title "Check for Updates" but I have yet to test the code. The initial install checks out perfectly. Now I've made some changes to the application and have created a new install (I prefer to supply full installs instead of patches). How do I go about setting up the update client and server parts? What do I have to distribute with initial install so the "Check for Updates" option can work?

Chapter 10 in the User's Guide (a PDF file in the /Docs folder of the TU20 install dir) goes over distributing your app a bit. The short answer is that you need to distribute "Update.exe" and "Update.dat" with your application. Keep in mind that these files may be named something else if you chose such but the point is you need to distribute 1 .exe and 1 .dat file.

The Update.exe eads the .dat file and from there communicates with your server files.


I saw the samples that were installed with the eval but I'm still not sure how that all works. Is there a tutorial or did I miss something in the documentation?

Again, I'm not faulting the product. It appears to be able to handle what I need. I'd just like to see it work once with this application.

Thanks in advance...

There is no "tutorial" per se. My reccomendation is to run through the project wizard once and then analyze the script and screens produced. The scripts are pretty well documented. Then once you have specific questions, ask them here and we will be glad to help you out.