Re: java application update software
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patrick wrote On 07/22/06 15:30,:
"Eric Sosman" <Eric.Sosman@sun.com> wrote in message
news:1153592612.435400@news1nwk...
patrick wrote On 07/21/06 16:36,:
I need installer software and update software for my java client
application.
So I can use InstallAnywhere or install4j to make the installer.
But what do people advise for automatic updates over the web.?
Is there an inexpensive cross platform solution that is simple and works
for
non business type updates over the web.??
You are describing "Java Web Start." Problem solved!
Excluding JWS.
Oh, ratzafratz.
(Perhaps if you'd explain your reasons for ruling out
JWS, people might be able to understand your requirements
better and offer some better suggestions. As it is, your
dismissal of JWS seems entirely capricious; we have no way
of knowing whether an alternative would encounter the same
objections you have to JWS, whatever they are.)
I want an idiot proof installer that isnt going to fail after
say 6 months on a clients PC and require a developer to figure out why.
"Idiot-proof" is beyond the reach of current technology,
not only in computers but everything else. The idiots are too
smart for us ...
As for failing after six months, I've never heard of any
such problem that's specific to JWS. Sure, the Web server that
serves up the app can vanish -- but that could happen to any
other network service your updater wanted to contact, too. And
if JWS can't for some reason find the server, it'll just keep
running the already-installed version. That's not as good as
getting the updated version, but if the machine with the new
version just isn't on the air any more I don't see how any
other scheme could do better.
People are used to conventional installers and finding the application in
Program Files.
People were used to doing arithmetic in Roman numerals,
too. Habits are hard to change, but not entirely inflexible.
Keep in mind, too, that people may be *used* to conventional
installers, but that doesn't prove they're *happy* with 'em.
People are "used" to CTL-ALT-DEL, right?
Ive used it. It is way too complex to implement also.
I've used it, and it seemed quite straightforward. The
two principal variations are to sign or not sign the apps;
that choice has consequences for how you do things like access
the local file system. Fortunately, Java's encapsulation lets
you segregate most details of this kind away from the main
body of the app; it just deals with Writers and InputStreams
and stuff, and needn't worry much about how they were obtained.
Too many ways the link can stop working.
If the link stops working, how will *any* scheme obtain
its updates? (Obligatory reference: RFC 1149 "Standard for
the transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers.")
JWS is scary.
Be brave. Visit the Wizard in the Emerald City, and ask
him to give you some Courage. If you approach it with some
confidence and a little swagger in your stride, you'll find
that JWS isn't intimidating at all. Really.
Perhaps there's something else out there that you'd find
less fear-inducing (I don't know), but I don't see how any
other network-based updating product will do any better than
JWS in the face of a dead Internet. To put it another way,
the product's behavior when there's no connectivity should
probably not be your big decision criterion.
Good luck! And keep your courage up ...
--
Eric.Sosman@sun.com