I have a client that wants a simple install for a small windows system tray application. They want the application to update automatically without asking the user. The app is small and the update should be minimal in size (most of the business logic and code will be behind a web service).
I have been eyeing Microsoft's ClickOnce technology since it seems built for such things. My question is can it update silently behind the scenes without the user knowing it did so? If not what's the best route to accomplish this? Is there another technology better suited?
I realize that updating without telling the user is subjective, but the client is adamant on this.
Yes, ClickOnce applications update automatically when a new version is deployed onto the server. There are multiple ways to force this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s22azw1e.aspx
Also take a look how to have your own gui to inform users about updates:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404263.aspx
Try this: set -MinVersion equals to -Version, then your App always will download a new version without asking the user.
Related
Context:
We want to force the installation of new versions of our MSIX bundled apps. Because of risk of data loss, we don't want to force close them but give users the option to save their work and install the update. Sometimes critical updates happen and we want to update the app ASAP (not wait until next morning).
The solution we have thought of is, using Intune to distribute .appinstaller files, which then will be in charge of installing and updating the app, using the built-in updating system.
Uploading a .appinstaller file via the portal is not supported (AFAIK)
Questions:
Is it possible to distribute .appinstaller files via Intune
Can you schedule app updates in Intune
Is it possible to gracefully close the app in stead of forcing it
Are we looking at it all wrong and are there better ways for facilitating our use case
Thank you for any help in advance!
This is a partial answer that focuses on questions 2 and 3. I am mostly using Azure as opposed to Intune, so I have no idea how to distribute it via Intune. Anyways, you can add a Package.appinstaller file to your MSIX project and specify both what schedule you want to have to update and to allow the user to save their data before the application shuts down and updates. The cool thing here is that this all seems to be handled through configurations as opposed to any code changes. For more information, see the two comprehensive resources that I found useful for one of my questions.
The link below really explains the answer for questions 2 and 3.
http://thewindowsupdate.com/2019/02/22/handling-application-updates-with-app-installer-and-msix-in-windows-10-19h1/
The link below explains some of the context too the answer above as it relates specifically to the version of Windows that is being targeted. This is relevant because if you target a lower version of Windows, then these features and configurations will not work.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/app-installer/update-settings
this may seem like a dumb question but im not that long into Notes/Domino.
I want to run Extension Library by openNTF. Now the question is, if i develop an application with it, can the application itself be used by other clients eventough they dont have the Ext. Lib. installed?
And when i say used i mean USED, not edited. And if not, do they need Ext.Lib.(client) too or can i just install it on the Server? Or do i have to install it on both?
Sorry for the bad english.
Thanks if you can answer :)
Using one of the OSGI Plug-ins (the Extension Library is one such plugins) means that the machine running the code will need to have that plug-in already installed.
This is an excellent first step from Stephan Wissel
You are going to need to set up an updatesite for your server in any case. If your users are using the Xpages application using the browser they won't need to install anything, if you are counting in using XPinc (XPages in Notes Client), then the library will need to be pushed to the user's local machines as well, typically with a widget catalog.
I'm thinking of developing a Windows Phone 7 application using PhoneGap and have a few questions around functionality available. I haven't developed a WP7 application before nor used PhoneGap so forgive me if some of the answers to these questions are obvious.
Does PhoneGap support the capability to update HTML/JS/CSS/Images hosted by the WP7 app? I imagine it's possible to easily download new content, but whether one can update or extend the existing files PhoneGap is using for the application is not clear. Given that the application functionality will be primarily driven by HTML/JS, I assume it's possible to download updated HTML/JS asynchronously and update the content on the device. In effect, this would be tantamount to updating the application without downloading a new version of the application through the MarketPlace. Assuming this is possible, what are the chances that an application which does this will pass the application verification process?
Are there any specific restrictions/guidelines that one should pay more attention to when developing an application using PhoneGap? I doubt there are but it would be helpful if anyone has any specific advice in this area.
Any help would be appreciated.
1) The short answer is yes.
The long answer is that you will need to do some native (in this case C#) dev to make that happen. I don't know the specifics of PhoneGap, but I know you can call C# methods from the JS. So you would call a method to download the data and store it in the IsolatedStorage, and then maybe have a callback to the JS to let it know it's done. Otherwise, there may be a way to download the image in JS and pass it to the code behind, but unless the PhoneGap guys have specifically catered for this scenario then I highly highly doubt it.
1.2) Yes, this will pass cert just fine. It is not up to MS to determine how/why/when/where you get your content. They don't make any money out of you updating an app, so they won't care whether you work out your own content delivery system.
2) Maybe not exactly the answer you are looking for - but if you make an app in PhoneGap, or any other non-native way, the app-gods will strike you down. To put it simpler, PhoneGap and everything like it is crap. Not the actual framework (I'm sure they put a lot of work into it), but the results. Seriously, the moment you run a non-native app you can tell how terrible it is. I don't know how to stress this enough. It's really worth developing it natively to every platform.
I have a local desktop app that needs a UI overhaul, the data in this app is largely driven by a back end DB and the best tools available to make a user friendly UI for this kind of system seems to be to build it as a web app.
However, the primary function of this tool is to have the user make a choice from a list and then use that to kick off a perforce sync on their local machine.
This app needs to run on both Windows and OSX so, my first thought was to use a cross platform GUI framework like wxWidgets and embed a web view for all of the functionality apart from the sync step. However all the wx based web views I have found seem to be very limiting.
So, what are my other options? Is there anyway to invoke a p4 sync from a browser, or is a local app with an embedded web view my only viable choice?
You might be able to use the P4 Javascript API and build your app as a tool accessible from P4V. Not sure if the P4V part of that would be a deal breaker for you.
I'm not sure if the Javascript API is available outside of the context of P4V. If it is, then you should be able to use that to build whatever kind of web app that you want.
I ended up writing a browser plugin that invokes a p4 sync operation to solve this problem.
I used the firebreath framework to provide a javascript api that allows me to invoke a p4 sync on the users' local machine. To do this I needed to be able to have a p4.ini already present on the local machine and know it's location, or I needed to pass the user/pass and client workspace to the plugin.
This works fairly well, but it's not as clean as I would like, piping the output of the sync process to the browser seems to be slow, and the output seems to scroll for a lot longer than the process runs.
Is there any Remote wipe application which will be working on deleting the data in Emulator by sending an SMS from other emulator?? I found some of the free applications in android market on Remote Wipe.. But they are not working..
Please let me know if any of the application is working on Emulator
Thanks in advance
Uday
There is just one remote wipe application I have come across.
I have been trying to write one such application myself but I believe the permissions required are 2nd level and 3rd level permissions (check this link and this link). Thats is the reason I am unsuccessful as yet. I believe that you basically need to sign the package with the same signature as the OEM manufacturer to be able to grant those packages to your device.
If by an stroke of luck you do happen to make one successfully, please let us know the permission you have used to make such a thing possible! =)
Regards
Shouvik
EDIT: Okay I supposed I am wrong. I believe in android 2.2 it is possible to remote wipe your. I have not completely understood how to implement the function or the class yet, I plan to work on it as soon as I can spare some time. :)
Reply:
Well I have been looking at the SDK for some time now, and I can confidently tell you below 2.2, I am pretty sure there is no way I know of to remote wipe your data. I have although read on the mailers list that there is a function that enables a third party client to create a remote wipe application as you may have seen in my post above. I have actually use my own port of android on a device and have just used the brick, but if I do come across any reference that can show how you could achieve what you desire, I would be happy to leave a post here. Regards Shouvik.
Links
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/admin/DevicePolicyManager.html#wipeData%28int%
also for formatting the SD card I came across a permission that you can request, I guess you follow that you end up at the method.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#MOUNT_FORMAT_FILESYSTEMS