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SimplePrint  »   How does SimplePrint update itself?

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    • CommentAuthorArmagon
    • CommentTimeOct 19th 2007
     
    I am wondering what I need to do to ensure that SimplePrint will update itself. I want to be sure I understand 1) how it is supposed to work, and 2) if I'm doing anything obviously wrong.

    1. How is it supposed to work?

    This is my understanding of how it should work. If SimplePrint is set to mount the folder, it will check when the user logs in (?) to see if files have been updated. [Is that on login, or when the application is started? If the former, can a "check for updates" feature be added?] If the .csv file has been changed, it will know about it (and when you try to add new printers, they will show up as options in the list). If the SimplePrint application has been updated (including, perhaps, just having the settings changed), the local application will duplicate the server's copy.

    Relatedly, if I change an existing printer in the .csv file, will SimplePrint know? If I have a new printer package or driver, should I overwrite the existing one, or give the new one a different name?

    2. Am I doing anything obviously wrong?

    I had updated the .csv file on my server, and logged out and in in the hopes that SimplePrint would notice that it had changed. [I think I have the mount server option set; it certainly mounted when I tried to add printers.] It did not notice the change on the server. So, I updated the SimplePrint.app on the server, and repeated, but it was not noticed. Finally, when I copied SimplePrint back*, it knew about the printers I added.

    * Actually, there were permission problems. I didn't have access to all of the files. I propogated permission changes, and tried some other changes, but, even when the permissions seemed to be correct, the application still didn't seem to notice in the way I expected. [Incidently, is there a way to make sure that all files copied to an AFP folder have the permissions of the folder's owner, regardless of the permissions of the source files?]


    Thanks,
    Armagon
    • CommentAuthorCBarraford
    • CommentTimeOct 20th 2007
     
    Hi Armagon,
    The update works like this. Every time the user logs in and connects to the server it compares the version that is on the local computer with the version that is on the server. If the version on the server is newer, a dialog box pops up asking the user if they want to update. If they choose to update, the new app is downloaded to their desktop. Then the user needs to quit the program and move the application to their applications folder. I originally had a "Check for updates" feature and took it out because I felt it was pointless because the application checks itself everytime anyways. To envoke an update for testing, simple open package contents of the SimplePrint application on the server and manually change the info.plist file (Property List Editor that comes with the developers package from apple can do this). That is where the version number is stored, just give it a higher number.

    Also upon every login, the csv file on the server gets download to the local computer and then SimplePrint loads that data. So as soon as you update the file on the server, the next time anyone logs in should be seeing the new csv file with all the changes. If you're not seeing changes instantly, check permissions and make sure your editing it with Excel and not TextEdit. If you log in and you hear your computer make a beep sound, that means something went wrong, some error occurred. Quit SimplePrint and goto the console, in the user library logs, there should be a SimplePrint log logging errors that occur.

    As for your question in the end, not that I am aware of. I would just copy all the files over, goto the root folder of the files you just copied, and change the permissions there and "Apply to enclosed items"

    I hope this helps.
    • CommentAuthorArmagon
    • CommentTimeOct 20th 2007
     
    When you say "upon every login", you are referring to a user logging into OS X, right? (As opposed to, say, starting the application or connecting to the server?) If that is the case, seeing as we have people logged into laptops for months at a time, could it be made more frequent?
    • CommentAuthorCBarraford
    • CommentTimeOct 20th 2007
     
    no, when SimplePrint logs in and connects to the server, noy when osx logs in. Although it wouldn't be hard to have it update on login to osx as a login script.

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