Updating the Client Update EXE

[nickw]

Hi All,

I have the following situation:

We have been using trueupdate for a while, and it has been updating from a certain webserver. The UIF now needs to be moved to another server, therefore I need to update the client EXE to allow this.

Also, because of "silly" issues we have had, our boss wants us to enable the debug mode, and send this out in the new update.

I have built the file, but now... how do I update the updater itself? Surely it is "in use" when I send down the files?

Confused...


Nick.

[Adam]

Nick,

This is not a trivial task but we have accounted for this. Here are the instructions to update the client:

- When TU finds a valid server file location, it checks the same location for a file called "clientupdate.ini"
- If there, downloads/copies it to temp folder
- Gets version information from running client file
- Checks INI file for:

[TUClient]
RecentVer=#.#.#.#

- If RecentVer value is greater than the version of the client exe, it checks the ini file for:

[TUClient]
Location=<<Location>>

Where Location is the URL or local path to a Setup.exe file that will update the client. If the Location starts with "http:", it is asumed to be on an HTTP site. If not, then it is assumed to be local.

- Client downloads setup program to "%TempDir%\tuclientsetup.exe"

- If download/copy is successful, the following happens:
- An INI file called "tusetupconfig.ini" is created in the same folder as the tuclientsetup.exe program (%TempDir%)
- The INI file gets filled like so:

[TUSetup]
Clientlocation=<<Location of client.exe file>>
CmdLine=<<Command line options that Client.exe is running under>>

- The setup program is the executed and the client.exe closes down

- The setup program should:
- Read the tusetupconfig.ini from the %SrcDir% for ClientLocation and CmdLine
- Install the new client.exe to ClientLocation
- Run the new client from ClientLocation, passing it CmdLine as command line arguments
- Quit the setup

- Now the client will start the entire update process again using the new client file

[nickw]

Thanks Adam....

Off I go then ;-)

I am sure that will work perfectly for me....

[nickw]

Hi Adam,

"RecentVer=#.#.#.#"

I assume this looks at my client true update exe and compares the file version?

What if the file version is the same? Our existing version is 1.0.0.8.. the new version is also 1.0.0.8...

Confused (again).

[nickw]

I am also getting an error when the client tries to download the ini file....

(edited)
Attempting to download client update file: "http://xxx.xxx.xxx/fmupdate/uif/clientupdate.ini" -> "C:\DOCUME~1\Nick\LOCALS~1\Temp\tuclient.ini"

Download failed

The ini file is at the location...

Also, I am now even more confused. the ini file it is downloading to is tuclient.ini??

[nickw]

This is driving me nuts now.... anyone any ideas?

[Adam]

Hi,

The method that I described may not be the best solution. I have been looking into this and the best way that I can think of to accomplish what you want is to:

1) Leave the old Server file in place for now.
2) In that server file have it download a setup.exe (you may need to use a setup utility for this)
3) Have that setup run by the user.
4) In the setup simply replace the .cli file that is in the same directory as the client.exe. The client.exe itself probably does not need to be updated, only the .cli file needs to be.

There is also the command line argument that points the client.exe at a different .cli file so depending on how you launch the True Update client you may be able to simply download the new .cli file and then point the client.exe at this new file.

I hope that this helps.

[nickw]

Thanks Adam...

I will give that a go...

It appears that the ini file does not download when the file is on a Windows 2000 IIS Server. Strage huh?

[Adam]

Just keep in mind that all you have to replace is the .cli file as this is where the path to the server file is located.

Let me know what you come up with.