Overview

It's easy to add update support for your software.

Just create two files in a text editor, one that is kept on your server, and one that is included with your program (on the user's pc), and another

1) The remote file on your server is a tiny file which just contains the current version of your program available on the web.  It is usually named versioninfo.xml and looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<root>

 <Program_Version>1.11.01</Program_Version>

 <Program_Release_Month>6</Program_Release_Month>

 <Program_Release_Day>20</Program_Release_Day>

 <Program_Release_Year>2007</Program_Release_Year>

</root>

This is the file that the update program will be downloading in order to see if an update for your program is available.

2) The local file that will come with your program should be named something unique to your program and end with the extension .dcupdate (for example XyzzyEditor.dcupdate).  An example of this file is:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<Local>

 <!-- basic info to display in updater, including using the program exe to get icon -->

 <Label>XyzzyEditor by Fake Company</Label>

 <IconFile>xyzzy.exe</IconFile>

 <!-- version info of locally installed current version, and simple remote version file -->

 <Version>1.10.01</Version>

 <VersionFileRemote>http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/xyzzyeditor/versioninfo.xml</VersionFileRemote>

 <!-- where to get more info about the app remotely, only queried once an update is discovered -->

 <InfoFileRemote>http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/xyzzyeditor/pad_file.xml</InfoFileRemote>

 <WebPage>http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/xyzzyeditor/index.html</WebPage>

 <!-- ok how to conduct updates; could be: "run" (download and run program), or "visit" (visit website), or "unzip" (download zip and unpack over files) -->

 <UpdateMethod>run</UpdateMethod>

 <CloseForUpdate>xyzzy.exe</CloseForUpdate>

 <UpdateFile>http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/xyzzyeditor/downloads/XyzzySetup.exe</UpdateFile>

</Local>

Some of the info in the example .dcupdate file above is optional, and just provides some extra info for the updater and user.  The most important parts are the <Version> and <VersionFileRemote> entries.  They must specify the current installed version of the program, and a url to the versioninfo.xml file above.

If your program doesn't come with a setup program, but instead is just a zip file, that's fine too, just provide the zip file name for the <UpdateFile> entry.  If you like you can change the <UpdateMethod> to Visit if you just want user to visit your site on an update.

See the next section for a checklist on how to release a new update.