Overview about the empower® Auto Updater

Available from Version: 8.4

Operating System: Windows

Required Permissions: IT Admin

Important

The customizing cannot be updated without performing a version update.

Automated updates enable the simultaneous replacement of a version with a new customizing. For this purpose, the empower^® Auto Updater can be used.

Requirements

Currently, the Auto Updater is supported for the per User installations. With a per User Installation, all solutions and products use the Auto Updater.

In addition, webview 2 for edge needs to be installed and in use in order to configure and use the Auto Updater.

Design

The Auto Updater consists of two components:
A client management API which is always installed with the backend. Updates are provided via this API. The Auto Updater. The Auto Updater is installed by default if one of the installer types mentioned above is in use.

Function

When the application is started, the last time of the update check is read and it is checked if the interval has already expired.

There are different types of intervals:

Interval after a restart of the application by the installation via the Auto Updater: 5 minutes
Interval in case of an error: 4 hours
Interval when Office applications are still running: 2 minutes
Interval when unrepairable errors occur and the user is notified: 7 days
Default interval: 1 day

At the beginning of each update check, the current configuration is loaded from the backend.

Then, the Auto Updater checks if a new version is available. If there is a new version, the version is downloaded.

In case of errors in the download process, a certain number of download attempts is made (5 by default).

Each retry is rescheduled with the error interval.

After the download, a check is executed to ensure that all Office applications are closed. This is done by checking the processes at a specific interval (2 minutes by default).

The process is aborted after a configurable number of attempts (120 by default).

After this check has been successful, the installation starts.

Since the Auto Updater is closed during the installation, it is scheduled to check the successful installation after 5 minutes.

There will be only a maximum number of installation attempts (5 by default).

Note

For further information regarding the user interface of the empower^® Auto Updater, see Use the Auto Updater.