Controlling update recipients

[daisyL]

Is it possible to control who sees the updates using TrueUpdate? For example, if I have 100 clients all having TrueUpdate installed on them, but I only wanted to rollout the updates to 10 at a time, or to certain special ones first, can I do that? This is quite important to me so I'd like to make sure, as I am not able to spot anything on this topic on the user manual.

My second question is, I see that trueupdateclient.exe checks for updates when it is invoked. Is it possible to make it check for updates periodically? I think I can do that using a windows scheduler, but I am just wondering if Trueupdate has this cability.

Thank you.

[upeters]

Is it possible to control who sees the updates using TrueUpdate? For example, if I have 100 clients all having TrueUpdate installed on them, but I only wanted to rollout the updates to 10 at a time, or to certain special ones first, can I do that? This is quite important to me so I'd like to make sure, as I am not able to spot anything on this topic on the user manual.

Hello,

you will need to include an additional operation in your update process, if you want to do something like this. For example, before downloading the update, check if the update is allowed, querying a CGI script, ASP or PHP page, etc. If the script returns the information that the update was granted, only then proceed to the download process. How do you implement this function on your server is entirely up to you. You can set up a counter and deny any additional updates once the update limit for the day was reached, or you may want to have the TrueUpdate client pass some info to the server, so you can decide if this user is granted the update becuase he is a "special one".

My second question is, I see that trueupdateclient.exe checks for updates when it is invoked. Is it possible to make it check for updates periodically? I think I can do that using a windows scheduler, but I am just wondering if Trueupdate has this cability.

No application will run for itself. To have the application to check for updates, you will have to specify when and how to initiate the update check. You may want to check for an update on each startup of your application. Or you may want to check only after each "n" runs. Or after "n" days past the last time you checked. How do you make this happen only depends on your creativity, as you may use the registry or ini files to save your data, you may use the scheduler, you may place a shortcut in the Startup folder... almost anything is possible - just don't wait that TrueUpdate runs by itself. :D

Ulrich

[daisyL]

Thanks a lot for the response. That cleared up my confusion.

I have been trying TrueUpdate and would like to ask another question. Is there a way to check the timestamp of the server scripts, so that my client only runs the server scripts once when a new update is released, instead of running them every time on its scheduled check (e.g. start up, once everyday when it's invoked by windows scheduler etc.).

I know very little about the client/server area so I am just concerned if merely running the server scripts (not actually making any downloads) would create a load on my server if I have many clients.

Thank you.

[upeters]

Hello,

the script itself is very small, and the download of it should not take more than a second. TrueUpdate won't check for the timestamp of the file to see if there is a new version of your software available - it uses the information embedded in the file. So no, you can't use the timestamp.

However I think I know what you want, and there might be a much easier solution. You allow TrueUpdate to run normally, but check the option "Silent until update available". This way, your user will get a prompt for a new version only if there is one, and no dialogs will be shown to him if there is nothing to update - TrueUpdate will just close silently.

In the new project wizard, you find this option on the second screen, where you define the interface type. If you already have the project set up, you can change this setting in the client script:
-- Suppress all screens until an update is available?
g_SilentUntilUpdateAvailable = true;

See if this works out for you.

Ulrich

[daisyL]

Thanks again. I did try the silent update and it works well. I was just a bit concerned about the frequent downloading of the server scripts. Thanks for the info.