Unattended OWS update?

The public knowledge pool and discussion forum of the OWS community. Do not post confidential information here!
javaapp
Posts: 39
Joined: 20 May 2020, 18:34

Unattended OWS update?

Post by javaapp »

I'm playing around with OWS' update checking and installation. When an update check triggers I see that the user is presented with a dialog asking if they would like to update. This is followed by a series of wizards that step through the process. The final steps are the normal installation process including questions about jnlp/jnlpx, etc.

Is it possible for an update to run unattended? We do not want the users to be bothered or to be able to override settings (like jnlp vs jnlpx)

John

javaapp
Posts: 39
Joined: 20 May 2020, 18:34

Re: Unattended OWS update?

Post by javaapp »

[Followup to my own post]

An one other question: Is it possible to force an OWS update?

We will be locking down end-users pretty tightly with a locked-down deployment.config hosted on our server, so they will not be allowed to update OWS electively and we will set the update settings to NEVER. If we decide that we want our end-users to update OWS we could set the update properties to make this trigger the next time they run an application or OWS settings
ows.update.activated=true
ows.update.strategy.settings=ON_EVERY_START
ows.update.strategy.launch=ON_EVERY_START
My question: Is there a way to force an OWS update when the user runs the application or OWS settings? From the behavior I observe now, the user is prompted whether or not to perform the update and has the freedom to refuse.

Thanks!

Stephan Classen
Posts: 232
Joined: 27 Mar 2020, 09:55

Re: Unattended OWS update?

Post by Stephan Classen »

you are right.
OWS is geared towards end user which have full control over their computer.
I think it would be possible to add an option to force update.

But since this is a very specific use case of yours we most likely will not prioritize this a feature request very high.
There is always the possibility to sponsor such a feature.
Please have a look at https://openwebstart.com/support/#paid-support-packages
If you are interested in a quote you can contact us at openwebstart@karakun.com

javaapp
Posts: 39
Joined: 20 May 2020, 18:34

Re: Unattended OWS update?

Post by javaapp »

Thanks for the information regarding "forced" updates. I'll discuss with my company the possibility of becoming a sponsor.

Regarding the original question: Is it possible for an OWS update to run attended (after the user clicks to allow the update I mean)?

Stephan Classen
Posts: 232
Joined: 27 Mar 2020, 09:55

Re: Unattended OWS update?

Post by Stephan Classen »

not sure, we use install4j and its update mechanism.
A quick glance at the documentation suggests that there is a way for doing unattended updates.

javaapp
Posts: 39
Joined: 20 May 2020, 18:34

Re: Unattended OWS update?

Post by javaapp »

In my experiments, I can certainly perform the initial install of OpenWebstart unattended. However, later on when an update check triggers, the subsequent install (update) of OpenWebStart is done interactively.

It would be nice to be able to make that update run unattended as well.

Post Reply