Updating Plug-Ins

Hey Marty,

a. The main application would force update itself using wyUpdate at runtime and restart (even before the main screen)

wyUpdate can't update your app when it's running (in fact, no updater can - it's an impossibility on Windows). But it can minimize the time the end-user sees the update progress. Specifically using the free AutomaticUpdater control.

Plus, you can modify the branding of wyUpdate to match your application's icons / artwork so the user always knows what's going on.

b. At the main main screen, the main application would call each of his installed plug-ins to update themselves.c. When (b), some of those plug-ins would also use wyUpdate to update themselves.

See below.

1) being able to force often small updates (e.g. changes in the main .exe and some .dlls) without the need for the installer screen to pop up each time. Is there a way? Ideally I would have my own "in app" update screen for the download and installation steps and restart the app when it's done.

If you're making a .NET app, you can use the free AutomaticUpdater control to do just what you described. Namely, when your app is running and it finds updates it does all the long work (download, extracting, patching files) in the background. Then the next time your user runs your app wyUpdate completes the update. Afterwards it starts the new version of your app.

2) Is the "Library/plug-ins" updating scenario supported and/or feasible? (i.e. an assembly that call its own update - using its own wyUpdate etc - and let the hosting application know when some updates are ready to be installed or have been installed)

Yes, it's possible. You only need a single copy of wyUpdate.exe, but you'll need separate client.wyc files for every plugin. You can then use Silent update checking along with the parameter -cdata="C:\location\to\client.wyc" for each plugin.

In fact if the plugins are in a sub directory you can even update the plugins with restarting your app.

3) Would it be a problem to have multiple plug-ins (think Dlls + resource files) to update at the same time or would having multiple wyUpdate.exe to run simultaneously would be okay just as long as there's no MSI installations?Would I need to update them serially?

So long as they don't try to update the same files or registry it should be fine to run wyUpdate.exe concurrently. wyUpdate has no such limitation.

Tell me if this helps.

Hey Marty,

Hey. Thanks for the quick reply Wyatt.

wyUpdate can't update your app when it's running (in fact, no updater can - it's an impossibility on Windows). But it can minimize the time the end-user sees the update progress. Specifically using the free AutomaticUpdater control.

I get what you're saying and you're right. I didn't clarify enough what I had in mind. What about that scenario:Having an executable (e.g an App Loader) that is always called first to load the main application, that would take care of the main application updates and would never need to get updated himself. Could AppLoader.exe be a front to the updater and update the main app BEFORE running it? The AppLoader.exe->Update()->App.exe would be perfect for my app if wyUpdate allows for it. I could even have the AppLoader to detect which plug-ins are installed and update them serially, using their respective wyc files, after the main app is updated.

Does the AutomaticUpdater has enough IPC magic with wyUpdate going on to possibly act has a complete front to it? (e.g events about both download and installation progress, when it's all done etc)

Just to be sure: Can wyUpdate can silently both check for updates and install them? or is only the "update check" silent?

Thanks again Wyatt.PS: I think I could do pretty much anything by modding wyUpdate's open sources, but I'd prefer not if possible.

Having an executable (e.g an App Loader) that is always called first to load the main application, that would take care of the main application updates and would never need to get updated himself. Could AppLoader.exe be a front to the updater and update the main app BEFORE running it? The AppLoader.exe->Update()->App.exe would be perfect for my app if wyUpdate allows for it. I could even have the AppLoader to detect which plug-ins are installed and update them serially, using their respective wyc files, after the main app is updated.

No, this wouldn't work. However you could have the plugins be updated separately from your main app. That is, your main app will use the AutomaticUpdater and your plugins use wyUpdate as a silent checker.

Does the AutomaticUpdater has enough IPC magic with wyUpdate going on to possibly act has a complete front to it? (e.g events about both download and installation progress, when it's all done etc)

Yes, it has events, properties, and methods for all possible use cases. See the AutomaticUpdater Members document.

Just to be sure: Can wyUpdate can silently both check for updates and install them? or is only the "update check" silent?

wyUpdate can only silently check. However, with minimal modification to the wyUpdate source you can modify it to silently install updates. If you want we can work with you to design this.