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Re: Command-line Update

Posted by karenacollins on Apr 28, 2015; 9:37am
URL: http://astroimagej.170.s1.nabble.com/Command-line-Update-tp132p266.html

Hi Matt,

I got sidetracked looking for a way to update the Info.plist file when the update feature is used. I think I can see a path now. I would like to get that working before I issue a new fresh install package (hopefully on Tuesday evening).

Karen

On 4/27/2015 1:22 PM, hansen_m [via AstroImageJ] wrote:
Hi Karen,

Yes, a faculty member that uses the software has requested we update to v3.1 because of features he needs for his class. I'm not very familiar with the software beyond just deploying and updating it so I don't know exactly which feature he needs. The option to disable the update feature would be useful because users in our labs wouldn't have permissions to upgrade the software anyway, and that might avoid some confusion but I think we would still get requests from faculty to update to the latest version.

I'm not sure exactly how your self update mechanism works but I think it would make sense to bump the version values of CFBundleVersion and CFBundleShortVersionString listed in the Info.plist file at the end of a successful self update. Having accurate version numbers on applications is how we are able to report on what is currently installed and know when an update is needed. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to differentiate between v3.0 and v3.1 of AstroImageJ. Could the process of building and testing the new individual platform install packages be automated in any way? Shell scripts, CI systems, command line tools, etc.?

I think the crux of it is we deploy hundreds of software packages in our labs and can't always keep up with watching for and deploying all the latest versions. So what we currently do is setup jobs to scrape each web page nightly and look for new versions of software, once found it will automatically download and be prepared in our software distribution system where we can test it and deploy it to the labs soon after. So having those standalone installers for each version helps us be more proactive rather than waiting for a frustrated user to report that a certain piece of software is out of date and scrambling to get it deployed before the class starts.

Thanks for your support. I understand working on this isn't your full time role but I just wanted to give you some background into how it is being used at Penn State and how we deploy it to our labs. It seems to be a very valuable teaching tool for our instructors.

Thanks,

Matt Hansen
Systems Administrator
Penn State University


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