Re: Updating the base NetBeans Platform for my application

The short answer is no. You cannot change the core (aka the bootstrap) of
your application without releasing the whole application again. Just look
to the NetBeans IDE as an example of this: You cannot use the Update Center
mechanism to upgrade from NB IDE v7 to V8, not even from say v8.0 to v8.1.
The Update Center mechanism updates modules, not the core itself.

I bet this is an often asked for feature. I myself would like to be able to
do not only NB platform upgrade seamlessly but I would like as well to
seamlessly upgrade the JVM that I bundle with the application. My user base
is conservative and not necessarily IT experts. Getting them to install the
application in the first place was a struggle. Asking them to re-do this
process is painful and I fear I'll loose some users over this.


Truth be told this feature would probably have been integrated into NB
Platform years ago if it was simple to do. It isn't. Write-access is at
least one of the problems that would need to solved.

Your best bet is to release a new module (or change existing module) via
your Update Center. In this module you would then alert the user that a
brand new version is available (with download instructions and so on). Give
the user a verbal instruction of what he needs to do. People have tried
automating this but you'll only get so far. You can do the download for him
and you can even auto-execute the installer-exe you've just downloaded but
there's - AFAIK - no way to programmatically remove the existing version of
a NB Platform application from within your new installer. And at this point
in time your old application is still executing. So, you see, there are
certain problems that need to be overcome.


Peter

On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 5:44 PM, Lorthirk <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hello. My application currently resides on NetBeans Platform 7.4, and I'd
> need a method implemented in NetBeans Platform 8.1.
>
> Is there a way to update the modules of the NetBeans Platform itself via
> the update manager, or do I have to release a new installer?
>
> Thanks!
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