384321 - J2ME Client - versioning.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Mozilla Labs :: Joey, defect)

Description

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

when we produce a new build of the j2me client, how will users know...

Comment 1

[Michael Koch]

Good question.

I propose the following solution. After the midlet is started (and probably after login too) it looks what version it is itself (by looking into its MANIFEST.MF) and then asks the joey webservice if there is a newer version and what is its url.
Then the midlet can do a platform request on the url and exit itself. The user must then install that new midlet and restart the application.

Another solution might be that the server also returns the current version on successful login.

What do you think?

Comment 2

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

I already am hosting install version information for the firefox addon on our server, so it isn't a big deal to host something else for the midlet.  Let me know the format, and I can host it.

It would also be very nice if the build system generated this file.  I already copy all of dist to our server, so if the version file was part of this copy, less work for everyone.

Comment 3

[Michael Koch]

Does this mean all available midlets will have the same version?

Either we generate some file with infos about the all midlets or take the infos from the JAD file that would be downloaded. The JADs already have this info in the MIDlet-Version property.

Comment 4

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

i think all midlets should be versioned in sync.  At startup or weekly, the midlet checks to see if there is a more recent version of the midlet by fetching a file from a known location that contains a version string.

Comment 5

[Michael Koch]

I will change the build process to create one file called dist/version.txt. This will contain the version of the current build.

IMO the server should add a new response header to the answer on logins. This way we need no extra request cycle for this and we check for updates often enough.

The last outstanding problem is that you need to make sure to update the version number for all builds you put onto the server. But this is more an organizational problem.

What do you think?

Comment 6

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

yup.  all builds will be in lockstep wrt versioning.

Comment 7

[Michael Koch]

I commited the midlet implementation for this now. Important is that the download base url for all JAD files need to be compiled into the MIDlets. This means when you build with the joey.update.url property beind set to http://joey.labs.mozilla.com/app/webroot/ff/ (default) it will always try to download the JAD of the new version from there.

Comment 8

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

where is this value set Michael?

Comment 9

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

Joey has been retired.  Thanks for participating.

http://joey.labs.mozilla.com/