As far as I can see, you need to have a product installed on the client machine before the agent will be able to check for updates. - it seems it uses the product version number of the installed product to do the check for updates.
We have a range of products, and would like to be able to distribute these products by giving the end user a small application to run. This application should then check for the latest versions and "cause" an "update available". We would like to use this method, because that way, the installshield update service can take care of verifying passwords ect.
So my question is: Would it be possible to have access to a function that enumerates all the updates available for a product without taking into account the product version? If this would be possible, I can enumerate the available updates, and select the latest automatically.
Based on your email, it looks like you want to do what we call "entitlement" based distribution. In other words, customers are entitled to download certain applications and/ or updates more based on their customer id than the product installed. The scope of this type of distribution can be fairly large.
At the complex end, we have working with a medical software company who needs to send data updates to customers. The data updates are based on the subscriptions that the customer has purchased. To facilitate this, we have partnered with a company called Intraware. Intraware has expertise in entitlement based distibution. They integrate with back-end systems to know which installations and/or updates a customer is entitled to receive. Our partnership works well as the ISUS provides the application integration and Intraware provides the sofisticated entitlement management.
At the simple end, the Update Service provides a method to determine if a customer has purchased a support plan. We link out to your website. Your website does the look-up. This works very well for determining if your customer is entitled to receive updates.
Based on your email, I am guessing that you are squarely in the middle of this spectrum. Below, I made a few suggestions on how the make the ISUS work for you. However let me know if you want more information on joint InstallShield-Intraware solution.
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You are right that the ISUS works based on installed product and version. So, your use of the ISUS is a little different, but I think it may work. See if this makes sense...
Create an application that displays a list of two types of available programs to install:
NEW INSTALLATIONS 1. You register the stub product in the ISUS DB to do the initial distribution. Lets call it: Stub Product A - version 1.0 2. You assign all new product distribution to this stub product. 3. You condition the messages so that after the program is installed, the message will not be displayed again.
UPDATE INSTALLATIONS 1. Once the product is installed, you can query the ISUS using the installed product code and version 2. At this point, you would be using the ISUS like any normal product to distribute updates. 3. If you wanted to be really slick, you could enumerate the installed products on the local PC and provide one list of updates for all the installed products.
Hi, is this service officially available yet ? I am evaluating InstallShield currently and such a thing would really help me. We have patches released frequently that apply to specific customers (and not so critical to others, and hence they should not be bothered). Does this integration involve having some sort of a manifest on the client side ? I would like to go over a case study if you have one available.
>>To facilitate this, we have partnered with a company called >>Intraware. Intraware has expertise in entitlement based >>distibution. They I meant the integration with a 3rd party hosting service such as Intraware. Is is available ? Is it customizable - i.e what if i want to host updates on my enterprise server ?
