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Have update skip certain applications

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March 4, 2012 - 6:12pm
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nascent
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Have update skip certain applications

I love the updating functionality of the suite, it's the main reason I use it. However there are some applications I don't wish updated, newer isn't always better. VLC2 requires .net, portable browser versions kept for web testing, and others.

It'd be great if there were an update exclusions list or something that resided in the suite's folder, or depending on how the update system works, perhaps a flag in the individual app's ini (AppnamePortable.ini) files.

It's indeed possible to just put apps you wish not to update in a different location, but the way I have everything set up, with a launcher and usb syncing and network syncing etc, it'd be a huge pain. I think it'd be a great option to add, and I'm sure some would appreciate it as much as I would.

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March 4, 2012 - 6:24pm
John T. Haller
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Other Folders

VLC 2 doesn't require .NET. That'd be silly. It does have a .NET library included that allows .NET apps to call it and has since 1.0.

For browsers, it's best to stick to one of the tracks. For Chrome, we have stable, beta and dev. For Firefox we have Legacy (3.6), Stable (10) and Test/Beta (11). All those are auto-updated and great for testing. We'll be adding in Firefox ESR (aka 10 for a year with patches) once 11 goes official. Those handle most situations of needing to test as those are most of the used browsers. If you ever have one you want to keep just for testing, you can always install to an alternate directory (FirefoxPortable9 for example). Just make sure you ONLY use it for testing on your own sites. Anything else is an insane security risk as all browsers except currently maintained ones have major security holes that are actively taken advantage of.

We want to make it difficult for users not to be on the latest version as that's the only ones we support. And the only ones that are likely to be safe. As an alternative, you can install to an alternate location. At some point, we will add the ability to exclude certain apps from auto-updates (so you don't have to uncheck them). We'll need to create a big scary warning and have it translated first, though.

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

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March 4, 2012 - 6:40pm
(Reply to #2)
nascent
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At some point, we will add


At some point, we will add the ability to exclude certain apps from auto-updates

Brilliant. Many thanks, can't wait!

VLC 2 doesn't require .NET. That'd be silly. It does have a .NET library included that allows .NET apps to call it and has since 1.0.

Ok, I was misinformed, I had read that 2.0 required net for it's new gui, but if that's incorrect my mistake. I was jsut using it for an example, there's actually many apps I use that I require older versions for personal reasons, I use the latest vlc, I was just trying to find more common examples to use.

For browsers, it's best to stick to one of the tracks.

That's great for testing your site on the latest versions ,but many web devs want the site to be tested in multiple versions of each browser for maximum compatibility.

We want to make it difficult for users not to be on the latest version as that's the only ones we support.

That's great and all, but many, if not what I'd assume most, of your users don't use the suite at all, I only downloaded individual apps for many years, only recently getting the suite for the updating benefits. Also, the update exclusions would be manually added, so only people knowing what they're doing could have apps skipped.

Anyway, thanks for the response and the confirmation of the future feature, I greatly admire your work and your products, and can't wait for future releases.

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March 5, 2012 - 11:34am
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Addressed

You glossed over the part where I addressed this:

That's great for testing your site on the latest versions ,but many web devs want the site to be tested in multiple versions of each browser for maximum compatibility.

You can already do that right now. We support all the stable versions (including legacy) that any user should legitimately be using. If you want to test additional insecure versions (example, Firefox 7/8/9, Chrome 10, etc), you can manually download and install them to FirefoxPortable7 or similar and they will remain at the version you selected. Just treat the main directories of each (FirefoxPortable, GoogleChromePortable) as the current stable release of each. As the vast majority of users auto-upgrade now, those should be your primary targets for testing. Just install the outdated/insecure ones alongside it to specific folders for testing those. Just be absolutely sure you don't visit any other websites.

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

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November 16, 2012 - 4:16pm
(Reply to #4)
nascent
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re:

re: https://portableapps.com/node/31438#comment-201293

I'm getting sick of the spam here. I get an email at least once a week for this. it's great you delete it afterwards but it's not good enough, I subscribe to topics for things I'm really interesting in keeping an eye on, but I'm on the verge of cancelling all subscriptions.

Please can you review this. I love the close-knit community feel of portableapps.com but I can't stands no more.

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November 16, 2012 - 4:44pm
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Doing What We Can

We get upwards of 3,000 spam messages per day now. That's messages posted after solving a registration reCaptcha and verifying with a valid email that's sent to and a confirmation link clicked to create an account. They then post a spam message and, if Mollom isn't 100% sure it is spam, they are presented with another Captcha before the messages is posted. 95-55% of the messages are never seen and handled by Mollom. The rest are manually dealt with by the team here and will trigger an email about a topic being updated. For the curious, spammers pay pennies to folks in 3rd world countries to solve captchas now.

We're doing what we can by having a captcha, having email confirmation, and having a spam filter (Mollom) to start with. Without those, we'd likely see 10s of thousands of spam messages hitting the system. Additionally, we now blacklist the IPs of anyone posting spam from accessing the site at all. This should help decrease spam over time.

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

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November 16, 2012 - 5:18pm
(Reply to #6)
Aluísio A. S. G.
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Regression

I've noticed more spam activity since a few days ago.
Is that a Mollom regression or the total spam volume has increased as well?

EDIT: ah, I *always* get a captcha to solve.

Previously known as kAlug.

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November 16, 2012 - 5:32pm
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Increase

There's been a monumental increase in spam. To levels high enough to approach a DDoS at times. Blocking the relevant IPs and netblocks in China and the Ukraine is helping quite a bit now, though.

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

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November 16, 2012 - 6:22pm
(Reply to #8)
nascent
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I really do appreciate the

I really do appreciate the work that going into spam fighting and everything else that you guys do, but it's just kinda rendering the email notification useless to me. I don't want you to disable it or anything, but is there really nothing that can be done to make the email notifications time delayed so that spam can be blocked first or something?

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November 16, 2012 - 6:25pm
(Reply to #9)
John T. Haller
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Account Settings

In your personal account settings, you can set it however you want. One digest per day. Only sending every X minutes. Etc. It's up to you.

All I can do at the server level is turn notifications off entirely.

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

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