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[Suggestion] Unblackboxing the Updater

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depp.jones
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[Suggestion] Unblackboxing the Updater

After I tested the new update feature and read some threads about issues with it (and some other aspects of installing apps) some ideas began to grow...

  • For now the updater simply works as expected as long as no errors occur (firewall etc.). To solve these is usually beyond the normal users skills.
  • There is no option to automatically repair a damaged app. Reinstalling manually seems obvious but is not thought of by some people.

I think some problems arise because the updater operates too much in background. It's quite a blackbox system. That seems ok as long it doesn't bother people with too much actions or information they may not understand or that may confuse them.
But it quite limits it's possible functionallity.

As the updater does at some point download a paf-installer it may be used to do that "forcibly". This way it could repair a defective installation by just installing the existing version again. Or just retry an update that gone wrong somehow.
At that point some kind of list of installed apps would come in handy. Make it a simple managing software and you could see their version, check if there are updates and manually or automatically update specific apps or all at once. Or just reinstall to repair.

In small it could be comparable to a simple App-Manager. I've seen something like that in Lupo Pensuite a while ago and found it very convenient (apart from Lupo being botched work generally). Or some part of Secunia PSI which simply lists installed Apps incl. information and provides some options including updates. Or th Add-On manager of Firefox. Or...

Placing a big "Auto"-button on top or hide the list per default would keep possible confusion for unexperienced users at bay.

... just some thoughts of mine. Wink

bye, dj

John T. Haller
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Already Planned

We've already got fixes in place for the next release. Within the next week or so, all the online installers will actually be downloaded by the updater itself (not the online PAF installer) eliminating the no proxy prompt for online installers, partial app install for online installers and similar bugs.

Remember this is a 'beta' for a reason. Any specific issues that aren't already reported should be in the main topic.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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