Re: Updating the base NetBeans Platform for my application

@Peter

Are you really sure of this?

According to https://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-runtime-container.html

the basic required modules are:

Startup (org-netbeans-core-startup)—Provides the main method of
your application, as well as all the code needed for starting it
up.

Bootstrap (org-netbeans-bootstratp)—Enables the runtime container
to understand what a module is and how to load and compose them
into one application.

Filesystem API (org-openide-filesystems)—Gives your application a
virtual filesystem.

Module System API (org-openide-modules)—Gives you access to the
lifecycle of the modules in your application.

Lookup API (org-openide-util-lookup)—Provides a generic
communication mechanism for inter-modular interaction.

Utilities API (org-openide-util)—Includes several utility classes
shared between the other modules in the runtime container.

When I build my application via Maven with the release profile,
the target/netbeans_site/ folder contains .nbm files for each of
those.

So I assume that they will be updated. What else would need to be
updated?

Regards,

Johannes

On 06.05.2016 13:31, Peter Hansson wrote:

Clarification : I answered the question as if you
mean for your end users who has your application deployed.
That's how I understood the question.

On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 1:28 PM, Peter
Hansson <[email protected] >
wrote:

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!