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Update:Users/Checking For Updates

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The Update Service:

  • checks for updates to the addons on a background timer
  • provides a means for the user to check for updates to the application
  • provide a set of controls for determining update behavior

Contents

The Background Timer [edit]

The system will automatically check for updates without user intervention:

  • every 24 hours

Regarding critical security updates, it would be useful to the user, if we could display a pop-up or similar sort (like what we have for-- " New updates available ") with the importance of this critical security update. This way we can inform the user the urgent need for the upgrade.

The Update Check [edit]

  1. generate update service URL
  2. determine if updates are available
  3. determine action
  4. download patches
  5. verify patches
  6. install patches

Update Service URL [edit]

The Service URL needs to incorporate data in these dimensions so as to reduce the complexity of the processing on the client side:

  • request version
  • app id
  • app version
  • addon id
  • addon version
  • target operating system
  • target architecture

e.g.

VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=1&id={8620c15f-30dc-4dba-a131-7c5d20cf4a29}&version=0.6.5&maxAppVersion=1.0%2B&appID={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}&appVersion=1.4&appOS=WINNT&appABI=x86-msvc

The Updates File [edit]

VersionCheck.php returns an XML file that tells about available updates. It is formatted like this: 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<RDF:RDF xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:em="http://www.mozilla.org/2004/em-rdf#">
<RDF:Description about="urn:mozilla:extension:{ffffffff-dddd-4dba-a131-aaaaaaaaaaaa}">
 <em:updates><RDF:Seq>
  <RDF:li resource="urn:mozilla:extension:{ffffffff-dddd-4dba-a131-aaaaaaaaaaaa}:0.1"/>
 </RDF:Seq></em:updates>
</RDF:Description>

<RDF:Description about="urn:mozilla:extension:{ffffffff-dddd-4dba-a131-aaaaaaaaaaaa}:0.1">
 <em:version>0.1</em:version>
 <em:targetApplication>

  <RDF:Description>
   <em:id>{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}</em:id>
   <em:minVersion>1.0</em:minVersion>
   <em:maxVersion>1.0+</em:maxVersion>
   <em:updateLink>http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/extensions/myaddon/addon-0.1-fx+mz+tb.xpi</em:updateLink>
  </RDF:Description>
 </em:targetApplication>

</RDF:Description>
</RDF:RDF>

This includes the UUID of the addon and the UUID of the application.

On the client side:

Preference Controls and State [edit]

  • extensions.update.enabled
trueEnables background update checking
falseDisables background update checking
  • app.update.interval
86400seconds between update checks
  • extensions.update.lastUpdateDate
1114648397seconds since epoch of last update time
  • extensions.update.severity.threshold
1???
  • extensions.update.url
https://addons.mozilla.org/update/VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=%REQ_VERSION%&id=%ITEM_ID%&version=%ITEM_VERSION%&maxAppVersion=%ITEM_MAXAPPVERSION%&appID=%APP_ID%&appVersion=%APP_VERSION%&appOS=%APP_OS%&appABI=%APP_ABI%
%REQ_VERSION% is the version of the request; %ITEM_ID% is the UUID of the addon; %ITEM_VERSION% is the version of the addon being inquired about; %ITEM_MAXAPPVERSION% is the maximum application version the addons is known to work with; %APP_ID% is the UUID of the application; %APP_VERSION% is the version of the application; %APP_OS% is the target OS; %APP_ABI is the target architecture%
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