[Ldsoss] Automatic Update in Java

[Jay Askren]

I've also thought about using the Eclipse RCP.  Eclipse RCP can be
nice but it can be a real pain at times too.  Writing my own doesn't
sound bad at all.  Thanks.

Jay


On 9/4/07, Shawn Willden <shawn-ldsoss at willden.org> wrote:
> On Tuesday 04 September 2007 08:30:09 am Jay Askren wrote:
> > I'm working on an open source project in which I want to make updating
> > the application very easy.  For instance Firefox automatically updates
> > itself when there is an update.  MLS from the church does the same
> > thing.  I want to do this with my own Java application.  Does anyone
> > know of an open source, or at least inexpensive way to do this?  Of
> > course, I could make it a web app, and it would be a non issue, but
> > this app is more appropriately a desktop app.
>
> If you build your application on the Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform), you
> can use the automatic update infrastructure built into Eclipse.  Slide
> already mentioned WebStart, which is another good approach, and one that's
> simpler to set up (though it doesn't give you all of the other features of
> RCP).
>
> Finally, I've actually had to write my own automatic update system, and it
> really wasn't difficult at all.  Just break your app up into multiple jar
> files and then write some code to check a server during startup to see if new
> versions of any of the jars are available.  If so, have your code download
> and install replacement jars (optionally checking digital signatures to make
> sure that nothing funny is going on).  Add a little dialog window to show the
> user that the download is happening and telling them to restart the app and
> you're done.
>
>         Shawn.
>