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I want to make my software autoupdate itself, but I don't have extensive webdesign skills, nor any available website/online hosting. I want to do it in C#/WPF.

So I was wondering if there could be a way to make an autoupdate service using google code, something clean. I'm guessing I'm not the first one to think of it.

I'd do it this way:

1) Use a WebBrowser (silently) and navigate to my google code page. On that page I'd put a field where I enter the latest version number. (I need to somehow find that number in the page's content).

2) I compare that number to the version currently installed (I could put the CURRENT_VER_NUMBER in a *.txt in the software's folder for example).

3) If I conclude that a new version is available, I download it from the "Downloads" tab of my google code project, unzip it, overwrite the files in the installation directory, and restart the app.

First of all, would that work fine? When I imaginate it, it sounds like dirty code.

Then, I wouldn't know how to navigate to the downloads tab, even less how to select the latest version there (maybe by doing a very strict file naming), and download it.

And last but not least, If the application is already running in order to perform the update check, I couldn't overwrite the files without quitting the application, does that mean I have to make some kind of "master app" that performs the check before starting my software? Sounds dirty too =/

Any input is very welcome,

Have a nice day.

Louis Kottmann
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  • Yes I heard of it, but doesn't it require me to create a web page? I'd like to keep it at my google code page. – Louis Kottmann Apr 22 '11 at 15:21
  • @Fatal - You do understand you won't be able to replace your application using the method you describe considering the application file itself would be in use. A method I used was download the updated files to a directory, launch a quick console application, and just replace the files. I personally would use an xml file to handle your file information worked well for me. – Security Hound Apr 22 '11 at 15:40
  • In theory, it sounds like it could work. You're going to run into the same kind of code scraping problems anyone has when running this kind of thing; in addition, you can 'restart' the app by simply invoking another program that will execute your exe (`System.Diagnostics.Process`, if I remember the namespace right), and then close your current running program. – Tejs Apr 22 '11 at 15:40
  • I was interested in what you guys would think about the pattern i described, seems like it should work. I'll update my post if the result is satisfying. – Louis Kottmann Apr 22 '11 at 16:22
  • I created a similar Auto-Updater for a Vb6 project. In my case, I embedded the link to Microsoft SkyDrive folder in the HTML metatags in my blogger template. In my App, I added a Check for Updates and wrote a C# class to fetch a page from my blog parse the metadata and then download the update file. The software update is a installer created using NSIS – Gary Kindel Apr 22 '11 at 17:11

3 Answers3

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I suggest you take a look at ClickOnce. It doesn't require you to create a webpage. You only need to host 2 files: a .manifest file that contains information about your app (version, name and a link to the package that contains your application) and the latest version of your application package. The only thing you need to do is host those 2 files and put a link on your Google Code page to that .manifest file. Users click that link and .net will automatically install or check for the latest version and update if necessary.

ZippyV
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  • Yes but I wanted to customize all this process, and as I said below, it's all done. My project is also available for everyone to use. – Louis Kottmann Apr 24 '11 at 22:07
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You may want to have a look at a library I wrote and released as open-source to do just that transparently - including an external update application to do the actual cold update. See http://www.code972.com/blog/2010/08/nappupdate-application-auto-update-framework-for-dotnet/

The code is at http://github.com/synhershko/NAppUpdate (Licensed under the Apache 2.0 license)

synhershko
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I ran into a few problems, but overall it was not so hard. I think the approach is clean so I'm putting it out there if anyone ever wants to achieve something similar.

You'll have to check out: https://code.google.com/p/theomniscientchimp/ where the full source is available, and of course adjust it for your project.

Thanks for the comments on my original post, made me feel confident i was doing it right =)

Louis Kottmann
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