Faatal I know you plan on doing an auto updater eventually. I could probably find the time to write one for you if you wanted but I was thinking of doing a quick version checker that would just be a small program that resides in the system tray and checks your website for the current version number every so often and lets the user know when a new version is available so they could get it before starting a play session. Might help alleviate some of the complaints about not having an auto updater until you can get one out.

All I'd need from you to make this cake for me is to either add a meta tag to the download page. Something like <meta name="version" content="1.73" /> or add a line to the body itself if the meta tags are auto generated and you don't want to mess with them such as Current version = 1.73 and obviously you'd need to update that when you post a new release.

I'd already have written it but looking at the page source I don't see anything good as far as an anchor to web scrape the current version off of to make sure I'm getting the right number to compare.

Let me know if you're interested, I'm sure I could whip that up on short order. 

That sounds cool. 

We use a Content Management System provided by our web design/hosting company to update the pages. I can edit the source HTML directly, but couldn't you pull the

Version 1.731 is now available (July 18) off the home page?

That is always there and I wouldn't have to change 2 different things for releases. 

I never go to the home page :P yeah perfect. It's done, check your email Faatal.

I made a how to post with screens Carbonite Version Checker

I did a separate post so people don't get their hope up because of the title of this thread. ;)

I'm sure after Faatal has checked it all out and gives it final approval he will post it for downloading and put a link in that thread.

Enjoy!

BTW - Faatal if you ever change this wording "Version 1.731 is now available" other than the number I will have to change the version checker.
 

faatal:

We use a Content Management System provided by our web design/hosting company to update the pages. I can edit the source HTML directly, but couldn't you pull the

Version 1.731 is now available (July 18) off the home page?

That is always there and I wouldn't have to change 2 different things for releases. 

What about tagging the version number itself? Like with a <span id="cur_ver">1.731</span> or something to that effect. That way the version number is quick and easy to find and won't affect the formatting of the page in any way. It would also not necessitate that you keep the exact wording or anything.

Shlemm:

What about tagging the version number itself? Like with a <span id="cur_ver">1.731</span> or something to that effect.

He already did it and it works for his version checker. When we write an auto updater it will use whatever method makes sense.
 

Fair enough. I was just making a suggestion that in all honesty would've made me happy. While waiting for an official auto-updater I was planning on making my own and tagging the version number itself would have made it easier to find. :-)

Shlemm:

Fair enough. I was just making a suggestion that in all honesty would've made me happy. While waiting for an official auto-updater I was planning on making my own and tagging the version number itself would have made it easier to find. :-)

I don't know what you were planning on building it with but if it allows regular expressions

"Version (.+?) is now available"

will find anything between Version and is now available no matter how many characters. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Sabart:

I don't know what you were planning on building it with but if it allows regular expressions

"Version (.+?) is now available"

will find anything between Version and is now available no matter how many characters. Doesn't get much easier than that.

I was planning on using HTA and VBScript or something similar. Regexp is something i regularly use and the above works fine. But as you yourself noted, it only works as long as the wording doesn't change.

But I'll drop the matter now. I know when I'm fighting a losing battle. :-D

Shlemm:

I was planning on using HTA and VBScript or something similar. Regexp is something i regularly use and the above works fine. But as you yourself noted, it only works as long as the wording doesn't change.

But I'll drop the matter now. I know when I'm fighting a losing battle. :-D

Shlemm you say that like it's a big deal. It's not like that wording is likely to change anytime soon and even if it did it would take you as long to fix your script as it would take Faatal to edit the sentence. Yeah, it may have made it a little easier if the number was tagged which is why I asked for it in my original post but I certainly don't see how it's a deal breaker.

As far as the update checker goes Faatal was getting some DEP errors with the program I sent him so I downloaded a the new compiler version and did a rewrite and set it up how Ryan suggested in the other thread about it. It made more sense to have it run that way. Faatal has the new version and will check it out when he has a chance.  

Sabart:

Shlemm you say that like it's a big deal.

I'm sorry if I come across as jerk in this, it really isn't my intention. :-(  I find forums such as these difficult to communicate at times especially since English isn't my native language. What I write makes perfect sense in my head as I know how I want it to sound like. But it is next to impossible to convey that information with text only. Natural languages are literally up to interpretation of the reader.

Sabart:

but I certainly don't see how it's a deal breaker.

Sabart:

As far as the update checker goes Faatal was getting some DEP errors with the program I sent him so I downloaded a the new compiler version and did a rewrite and set it up how Ryan suggested in the other thread about it. It made more sense to have it run that way. Faatal has the new version and will check it out when he has a chance.

Shlemm:

It's not, hence the smilie. :-)

I'm sorry if I come across as jerk in this, it really isn't my intention. :-( 

Not at all man, it just sounded like you were going to let that stop you from doing it and that seemed silly. :)

Shlemm:

 

Now that DEP thing really can throw a spanner in the works, and I really hope you and Faatal can make the updater work. It would be such a huge benefit for the entire Carbonite community.

It's not an updater per se it will just let you know before you start playing if a new version is available so people don't get annoyed by getting logged in only to find out they should log out and update. I'd do an updater but you still have to log into the site and I can handle encrypting and storing the username/password in the windows registry you know how funny people can get about passwords so I felt it better left alone.

We are planning on displaying a warning message that the current version is about to expire rather than just suddenly expiring and forcing you to update right away.  An updater program is also planned but that probably won't happen until after the expansion.

Added expiration warning on login when less than 4 days left.

Sabart:

you know how funny people can get about passwords so I felt it better left alone.

Oh yeah. Why didn't I think of that. *slaps head*