Improving UK Controller Plugin Updates
Entry posted by Andy Ford in Web Services ·
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Believe it or not, the UK Controller Plugin was released almost two and a half years ago. How time flies! In that time we've seen 35 releases to the EuroScope plugin itself and over 100 releases for the API (think of the API as the brain of the plugin that sits on our server).
Right now, every time we release an update to the UK Controller Plugin you need to download the new DLL and load it into EuroScope.
This has a number of disadvantages including:
- You have to go and download the plugin every time
- If we release too quickly, we inconvenience members by constantly forcing them to update to keep up with us
- The DLL included within the UK Controller Pack quickly becomes outdated and can confuse new members
So. We're doing something about it.
We will shortly be releasing UK Controller Plugin version 3.0.0.
After overcoming a number of technical challenges (which probably explain why no other plugins we know of have tried this), we have managed to come up with a way that allows the UK Controller Plugin to update itself automatically!
When you download UKCP 3.0.0, you are actually downloading a bit of a shell. A skeleton of a plugin. This skeleton then works out which version it needs and will automatically run that version for you.
Whenever an update is available, the plugin will let you know when you start EuroScope. You can simply click "Yes" when asked whether you would like to update now to be on the latest version. If you choose to click No, UKCP will be disabled until you update to the latest version. Given that upgrading is so quick and easy, we will only be supporting those on the latest version of UKCP. Attempting to use any other versions will result in the plugin being disabled.
If you are curious about what the latest updated contains, you can check out the Change Log. This can be accessed from the OP menu at the bottom right of EuroScope when the plugin is loaded.
When UKCP 3.0.0 is available, you'll be prompted to download it from our website next time you load up EuroScope. This will hopefully be the last time you update the UKCP DLL yourself!
p.s. within this update, we have also improved the way that the plugin keeps its logs. You shouldn't need to worry about this, but it will be really helpful for us if you ever report an issue.
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