April16 recently released the NetWebDownload .Net Component Visual Studio control.
The NetWebDownload .Net Component gives your Visual Studio application internet access, to enable you to provide updates, upgrades, support, etc via the internet.
The scenario below demonstrates how easy it is to allow your Visual Studio application to update via the internet. There are many other ways in which this functionality can be acheived, but we have demonstrated just one way of how simply it can be done using the NetWebDownload .Net Component.
The following is required:
- Your latest application build as a setup (New Version), stored on your website.
- A text file containing version information, file size, etc, stored on your website.
- An entry in the customer application installed machine registry, detailing the current application version.
Now we have all the information and files in place to allow us to check online for any new versions of your application that may be available. The procedure is as follows:
Step 1 - Updating your application online:
- Normally you would upload your latest application build as a setup onto your website for download via your website. Do this as you would normally.
- Also upload or update a small text file containing the latest application build version number and file size.
Step 2 - Detecting a new version is available for download:
- When your application runs on the customer machine, write the version number to the registry on load. If this is done each time it is loaded, your application will know that exactly which version the customer is running, and the customer hasn't updated themselves via some other means.
- Use NetWebDownload to check that there is an internet connection available, via the IsConnected property.
- Use NetWebDownload to check there is a path available to your website, via the IsDestinationReachable property.
- Use NetWebDownload to download the text file from your website containing the latest application build information, via the DownloadURL method.
- Your application reads the text file once downloaded, and compares the version number with version number stored in the registry.
- If a newer version is available on your website than the currently running version on the customers machine, inform your customer a newer version is available and can be automatically updated now. You can also inform the customer of the download size if you choose.
Step 3 - Updating your application automatically:
- Assuming your customer has chosen to update automatically, use NetWebDownload to download your latest application build setup file from your website, via the DownloadURL method.
- Keep your customer informed about the download progress via the DownloadURLInfo property.
- Once the download has completed, use the running application to run the downloaded setup, then close the running application to allow the setup to complete without any errors.
- Once the customer has completed the setup process, your application has been updated automatically using NetWebDownload.
Download our VB.Net demonstration application for more ideas on how NetWebDownload can be implemented.
If you haven't already done so, you'll need to download the NetWebDownload .Net Component to use with the demostration application.
The NetWebDownload .Net Component does the following:
Detects whether an internet connection is available.
Opens the default internet connection as the user default settings.
Opens the default internet connection overriding the user default settings.
Closes the default internet connection.
Detects whether and reports when a connection to the internet is made.
Reports whether a connection to the internet is configured, and how it is achieved.
Checks whether a specific URL can be reached and returns the result.
Downloads a specified file from the internet and saves it to a specified location on the local system.
Provides the owner application with continuously updated information about the download progress, such as time remaining, download file size, total file size, progress in %, and more.
The NetWebDownload .Net Component costs US$20, UKŁ10, €12. This also entitles the purchaser to receive all updates produced.
Related Pages:
NetWebDownload .Net Component Product Page
NetWebDownload .Net Component Object Browser
NetWebDownload .Net Component Licence
NetWebDownload .Net Component Disclaimer
Download NetWebDownload .Net Component
Purchase NetWebDownload .Net Component
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