I developed some apps for Windows Phone (conversion from other plattforms) and when I finally wanted to upload the apps, I saw this BETA-Feature. You can upload your app and test it in real environment. Sound Great.
Now I have seen all the bugs in this process:
First of all, it seems I cannot convert this app if it is working properly to published app?
I have to crate a new app and I have to re-Enter all the descriptions in all languages and re-upload all screenshots?
Next big problem: I cannot re-use the app name? WTF? My app names are now reserved for these BETA-Apps?
What can I do? I want to convert the apps from BETA to PUBLISHED? Not possible? I have to RE-ENTER ALL INFORMATION IN ALL LANGUAGES? I have to re-upload EVERY Screenshot for EVERY language? I have to use a different name? Is this really the only possibility?
On MSDN you can find the description of the beta testing. So, the answer is yes, you need to reinput all data for the production version. In order to use application name in the production release, you can unpublish and delete your beta app. Then you can use its name.
In my own experience, I didn't add much information for the beta distribution. Also, I added suffix BETA to the app, which is in beta distribution. So beta testers can recognize the build.
Where can I find a list of BMC Remedy 3rd party integrations? I have found nothing on their website, and their sales department put me in touch with the customer services which wouldn't take my call because I didn't have a customer number.
My company is looking into using BMC Remedy as a customer incident system, and it would be nice if I could integrate it with some software. For example, we could have an internal development tracking system such as Jira, Redmine, MantisBT, Trak, etc. which would integrate with Remedy. Or, have Rememdy itself integrate with something like Hudson or CruiseControl.
So far, I've found nothing that seems to integrate with Remedy -- even with software packages that have a ton of integrations like Hudson and Jira. I don't really care if there are third party proprietary integrations, but I'd like to make sure they already exist and not All you have to do is hire someone at $400 to program everything for you. I want to make sure that there is something now and not be promised it can be done, then find out you really can't do it.
I may be a bit late to the party here, but I wanted to make this info available for anybody who happened to be searching for this answer in the future. BMC Remedy has an API in Java, which uses a native library in C, as well as bindings for Perl and other languages capable of calling native code. If you can integrate with any of those languages, you can write a custom integration program and integrate with that. As 'Gary L' mentioned, Remedy can also expose any form as a web service, which, in my experience, have simple interfaces.
Since the original question was asked, BMC have created a doc with a wealth of information on their Wiki. A Swedish company, RRR, has also collected every version of the Remedy Java API and required native libraries on a single page. It appear that you no longer need a support ID to access these pages and download the API files.
Hopefully somebody finds this helpful!
Your definition of "integrate" is different from their version. Their version of integration means that if a source system exposes its data, then you can configure ARS to retrieve that information and map it to classes (forms) within their system. They have a "generic" integration system that you have to customize. It has three broad areas:
If you can connect directly to a 3rd party database and see its schema, then you can perform
retrievals of that information. We use Oracle today.
They have a java API that allows you access the ARS system for custom code (I do a lot of this).
Flat CSV file importation of data from a source system into ARS (after export).
I looked at their online support for the systems you mention (Jira, Redmine, MantisBT, Trak) and do not see anything that would accomplish any of the three above without your own customizations. With the work that I've done on this system it doesn't surprise me.
I work on a project today that writes custom code doing the items above. It is a system that is configuration/development heavy for us. Your comment: "All you have to do is hire someone at $400 to program everything for you." is not too far off from what we have to do with the system.
There is another option for Remedy integration: Web Services.
BMC Remedy makes it easy to create web services (WSDL). It creates the SOAP and XML for you. When you buy Remedy Incident Management module, it includes out-of-the-box web services that will allow it to consume and/or publish web services which make it easy to integrate with other systems on the intranet or externally. There are BMC publications which provide details on ITSM integration --- but again you will need a customer/support ID to get it from BMC's website.
Yes and no to the Web Services integration. The Version 8 system I was working on had some web services available, and they were incomplete. So I was able to do a number of functions (mostly read-only), specifically for custom display and Change Request checking, and submission of a Change Request and a Work Order. But many functions had no web service, and I ended up brute-forcing through the web user interface (with a customized browser control) to change dates on tasks, or make tasks. Ugly, but effective. There are mid-tier JavaScript calls that can be used, if you know the secret function name and can deal with the dynamic naming convention in play. For Remedy users who are desperate for some integration, there are ways it can be done.
few OOTB integrations are possible with BMC Products but if you want to do it with other you have to write webservices(REST or SOAP)
Companies like IBM or cisco has made connectors for integration with Remedy.
Just adding more detail here:
I also do a ton of direct SQL for remedy integration.
If you're careful and know what you're doing, you can have a stored proc create legal/valid records in a remedy table. (If you do it wrong, the records won't load in the client and in older versions of the windows client can actually crash the client software.)
Is there any API or tool that can automate software updating? It should take care of checking for updates from a URL for a provided list of files and downloading and replacing the ones that need updating. It would also be nice if it contained an authentication module so that only authorized parties could access the updates. It should be language-agnostic - takes a list of files without extra knowledge except their versions and replaces them with newly downloaded copies if on the site there are newer versions.
I'm specifically interested in something for the Windows platform, that would run on Win Xp to Win 7.
This makes me think about apt-get ...
take a look here, as well: Is there an auto-update framework for C++/Win32/MFC (like Sparkle)?
I did see some articles a while back about embedding subversion into your application to manage version control.
Edit:
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.developer.html
Subversion has a modular design: it's implemented as a collection of libraries written in C. Each library has a well-defined purpose and application programming interface (API), and that interface is available not only for Subversion itself to use, but for any software that wishes to embed or otherwise programmatically control Subversion. Additionally, Subversion's API is available not only to other C programs, but also to programs written in higher-level languages such as Python, Perl, Java, and Ruby."
Just saw UpdateNode launching a pretty cool update and messaging system. It seems to be cross platform and free for Open Source.
UPDATE, did some further analysis on that, posted at: https://stackoverflow.com/a/22528011/3257300
For windows, I'd use Google Update, also known as omaha.
Since you didn't tag this question as windows, I'd also mention a UpdateEngine for Mac.
And (best of all) apt, which is available for free on all Debian-based Linux and BSD distributions, like Ubuntu
There is open source project WIPT inspired by APT of Debian Linux.
Head over to Launchpad and use a PPA: it is a Debian/Ubuntu repository management platform. Of course this is not really platform independent but it is language wise :-)
You should take a look at ClickThrough, I don't know much about it but it sounds similar to what you're looking for. As for authorization, I would imagine this to be handled by your webserver based on the URL.
InstallShield has an offering. Never used it but researched it a few years back but we decided on a roll your own solution.
InstallShield Update Manager
InstallShield Update Service
You didn't state what platform you needed this for. The easiest way I can think of doing this is with subversion using rsync.
The concept is to write a post-commit hook for subversion. This script would update a "working folder" on the repository machine and then use rsync to update the differences to another machine.
Data protection and authentication would be set up using rsync over ssh.
If this is for windows, you could try doing the same with cygwin installs on the two machines.
Good luck.
If you use .NET, I'm a happy customer of AppLife Update
CRONw is a scheduled execution service for Windows. (Sorry, I can't link it, I'm apparently limited to 1 as a new user. It's hosted on Sourceforge.)
Powershell is a Windows scripting language (Microsoft-official) that allows you to do most system administration operations you could conceivably want to do. It is very easy to pick up even if you haven't worked with it before.
I would say your best bet is to write a simple update script in Powershell and, optionally, set it up as a crontask so you don't have to manually execute it.
IIRC, Powershell is an optional install on XP, and CRONw requires you be running a 32-bit system. You didn't say, so I'd guess you're doing 32-bit, but the alternative bears mentioning.
And in all this, I'm assuming that the URLs you're describing are designed for this purpose - if they're not and you don't own them, it will rapidly become more suffering than you're willing to bear. (Making a computer navigate a human-readable website usually does.)
Many programs include an auto-updater, where the program occasionally looks online for updates, and then downloads and applies any updates that are found. Program bugs are fixed, supporting files are modified, and things are (usually) made better.
Unfortunately no matter how hard I look, I can't find information on this process anywhere. It seems like the auto-updaters that have been implemented have either been proprietary or not considered important.
It seems fairly easy to implement the system that looks for updates on a network and downloads them if they are available. That part of the auto-updater will change significantly from implementation to implementation. The question is what are the different approaches of applying patches. Just downloading files and replacing old ones with new ones, running a migration script that was downloaded, monkey patching parts of the system, etc.? Concepts are preferred, but examples in Java, C, Python, Ruby, Lisp, etc. would be appreciated.
I think that "language agnostic" is going to be a limiting factor here. Applications come in so many shapes and sizes that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. I have implemented several auto-updaters in several languages, and no two were similar.
The most general philosophy is that the application checks with some home location (web address, web query, corporate network location, etc.) to either ask if it's version is current, or ask what the most current version is. If the answer calls for an update, that process will be different for each situation.
A popular alternative is to invite the home location to run a script when the application is initiated. The script can check the version, download updates if necessary, and ask for usage feedback, for example.
We can probably help better if you narrow the parameters.
UPDATE: The approach to "patching" also depends on the nature of the application, and there's a very wide diversity here. If you have a single executable file, for instance, then it's probably most practical to replace the executable. If your application has many files, you should look for ways to minimize the number of files replaced. If your application is highly customized or parameterized, you should strive to minimize the re-tailoring effort. If your application employs interpreted code (such as an Excel VBA application or MS Access MDB application), then you may be able to replace parts of the code. In a Java application you may only need to replace a JAR file, or even a subset of the JAR contents. You'll also need to have a way to recognize the current client version, and update it appropriately. I could go on and on, but I hope you see my point about diversity. This is one of those many times when the best answer usually starts with "Well, it depends ...!" That's why so many answers include "Please narrow the parameters."
Be sure to also consider the security implications of sucking down information about the update, as well as the update binaries themselves.
Do you trust the source of the download? You maybe phoning home to got your update, but what if there is a man in the middle who redirects to a malicious server. An HTTPS or similar secure connection will help, but double checking the bits that you eventually download by using a digital signature check is recommended.
First you need a file on your application home web site with the latest version.
The best way I think to have special SQL table for this task and populate it automatically after publishing new version / nightly build completion.
Your application creates new thread which requests built-in http link with version and compares in with current. In .NET use can use code like this:
Version GetLatestVersion() {
HttpWebRequestrequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(new Uri(new Uri(http://example.net), "version.txt));
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
if (request.HaveResponse)
{
StreamReader stream = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream(), Encoding.Default);
return new Version(stream.ReadLine());
}
else
{
return null;
}
}
Version latest = GetLatestVersion();
Version current = new Version(Application.ProductVersion);
if (current < latest)
{
// you need an update
}
else
{
// you are up-to-date
}
In this example, version.php in only one plain string like 1.0.1.0.
Another tip I can give - how to download an update.
I like very much next idea: in the resources of your application there is a string of CLR-code which you compile on-the-fly (using CodeDom) to a temporary folder, main application calls it and goes to close. Updater reads arguments, settings or registry and downloads new modules. And calls main application which deletes all temporary files. Done!
(But everything here is about .NET)
The simplest solutions (used by many programs) is running the uninstaller for the previous version and the running the installer for the new one (optionally skipping questions which the user has already answered, like the EULA). The only catch is that the new version must be able to read the configuration options from the old version.
Also, on Windows you can't delete an executable file which is in use, so you probably will want to drop a small executable in Temp folder, which runs the whole process and then delete it at the end from the instance of the new version which got launched (or just register it to be deleted at the next reboot).
Because auto updating is a common scenario, most languages have at least one package available to support this. (Below I list some of the available packages)
One of the really nice idea's is the ClickOnce distribution for .NET, it's an installer which sandboxes your application and installs in the user context, so no administrator rights required. You can configure the ClickOnce in your publish to check for updates each application start.
Java has Java Web Start which offers the same kind of functionality for java applets.
Delphi has numerous articles about auto-updating, Torry has a list of WebUpdate components, for instance GoUpdater seems to have a very wide range of functionality.
They all use a website/network share to check for a new version and than retrieve either a patch or a complete install file and run it. So you should try to find a nice package for your application, to save you the hassle of developing and maintaining your own solution.
The simplest approach would be to have your program query a server (website) to see if there is an update. If there is an update you could display a message to the user that prompts them to download a newer version and provides a link.
An alternative and more complex solution would be to create a small windows service (or unix daemon) that checks periodically to see if there are updates, this service can download the update and launch the installer.
The general architecture is that you have a central server that you control that knows the latest version and where to get it. Then the programs query the server. I am not going to include sample code because it is highly defendant on the server and the format you choose. It is not terrible difficult though.
This is not so much a complete answer, but rather one example of auto-updating mechanism I implemented recently. The situation is a little different from the tradition Firefox-type of user application, since it was an internal tool used at work.
Basically, it's a little script that manages a queue of Subversion branches to be built and packaged in an installer. It reads a little file, where the names of the branches are written, takes the first one, re-writes it at the end of the file, and launches the build process, which involves calling a bunch of scripts. The configuration for each branch to build is written in a .INI file, stored in a Subversion repository along with the tool itself.
Because this tool runs on several computers, I wanted a way to update it automatically on all machines as soon as I made a change either to the tool itself, or to the configuration scripts.
The way I implemented it was simple: when I launch the tool, it becomes an "outer shell". This outer shell does 2 very simple things:
svn update on itself and on the configuration files
launch itself again, this time as the "inner shell", the one that actually handles one configuration (and then exits again).
This very simple update-myself-in-a-loop system has served us very well for a few months now. It's very elegant, because it is self-contained: the auto-updater is the program itself. Because "outer shell" (the auto-updater part) is so simple, it doesn't matter that it does not benefit from the updates as the "inner shell" (which gets executed from the updated source file every time).
One thing that hasn't really been mentioned is that you should seriously consider that the user running your program might not actually have sufficient privileges to upgrade it. This should be pretty common at least for business users, probably less so for home users.
I'm always working with a (self-imposed) limited account for security reasons and it always pisses me off that most auto-updaters simply assume that I'm running as admin and then after downloading just fail and offer no other way of performing the update other than actually closing the program and running it again in an administrative context. Most do not even cache the downloaded update and have to do it all over again.
It'd be much better if the auto-updater would simply prompt for admin credentials when needed and get on with it.
I'm going to assume answer for Windows.
This way seems to work well.
In the installer do:
1. Create a manual-start service that runs as LocalSystem that when started does the update then stops.
2. Change the service permissions so all users can start the service (if all users should be able to update w/o admin rights).
3. Change the main program to check for updates when started using a simple mechanism. If it detects an update, prompt if the user wants to apply it.
4. If user accepts the update, start the service.
If the architecture allows for it, create a way to monitor the update as it is running.
In a Java-Webstart setting you start a JNLP file which then triggers the download of the Jar files needed to run the application. Everytime webstart checks if there are newer versions of the Jars and would download them replacing the locally cached ones. With a tool named jardiff you will create only diffs towards the newer jars and distribute these via the server (e.g. only get an update).
Pros:
always up to date
Cons:
you need an application server (tomcat, JBoss) in order to distribute the files
you need an internet connection in order to get the application
Reading Carl Seleborgs answer gave me some ideas how a generic code-repository could be useful.
svn comes with a tool called svnsync, which sort of behaves like an svn export but keeps track of the actual revision your export is at.
Someone could utilize this system in order to only fetch the changed files from the users actual revision.
In actuality, you will have a repository with the binaries compiled, and running svnsync will only fetch the binaries that has been modified. It might also be able to merge local changes to text-based configuration files with new configuration-options.
The function of installing a patch to a program is basically one of the basic functions of an installer. Installer software is documented in numerous places but usually on a per-installer basis: There the Microsoft Installer (with Install Shield Extensions), Ruby gems, Java .jar files, the various Linux package manager systems (RPM, Apt-get)and others.
These are all complex systems which solve the problem of patching program in general but for slightly different systems. To decide what is best for you, consider which of these system your application most resembles. Rolling your own is fine but looking at these systems is a place to start.
You can write an internal module of your application to do updates. You can write an external mini application to do updates.
Also look at .NET on-the-fly compilation technology, it makes possible to create such mini application on-the-fly on demand. For example, http://fly.sf.net/
You can use my solution (part of the Target Eye project).
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/310530/Target-Eye-Revealed-part-Target-Eyes-Unique-Auto
If your software is open sourced, and target Linux or developers. It is interesting to install your software as a git repo. And having it pull the stable branch occasionally or everytime when it is launched.
This is particular easy when your application is managed via npm, sbt, mavan, stack, elm-package or alike.
After hours of searching some working solution for this problem I've finally implemented auto update mechanism for python script that works on Linux and Windows.
In short - the script before running actual work checks for update on S3 and if it's available downloads it, unzips, creates or updates the symlink (or junction on Windows) and re-runs the script with already the new version with original arguments.
The full source code and the explanation can be found here.
If you are searching for an cross-platform software update solution, take a look at www.updatenode.com
Some highlights:
free for Open Source projects
cross-platform & Open Source update client tool
localized already for the most important languages
easy to integrate and easy to handle
cloud based management platform to define and manage updates
provides additionally support for displaying messages (inform about new events, products, etc.)
web interface is open (you can create your own client using the service)
many usage statistics, as used operating systems, geo location, version usage, etc.
Android API for mobile App updates
Just try it.
BTW, I am part of the dev team for the open source client. :)