Hi Neal, What you need to remember is that the main unit code is to cover the needs of the GUI of the main form and the DLL will take care of areas you wish to update for the future. I'd put the update code in the main form code unit and load the DLL as part of the activation of the main unit. When you wish to download a new update, i'd unload DLL, download then reload the new DLL. Having said this, this is precisely where the term "DLL Hell" came from. It might be good to have code to revert to a previous dll just in case to cover all bases or at least, put a DLL version function into the DLL.
Looks like Doug beat me to this! <g> Cheers, Charlie ----- Original Message ----- From: Neal Campbell To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:14 PM Subject: Re: [delphi-en] Problem with ShellExecute Hi Charlie Please excuse my newness to the list and Delphi programming (I am returning after 10+ years). In the DLL example, how would that work? The main program will call the functions in the DLL to determine if a new release is available and downloads it, while quitting the main program? How does the DLL stay alive when you kill the main program so that you can delete/init it with the new version? I need to do this myself and am learning from this email chain tremendously? Why hasn't someone created a small framework for this like we have for OS X (Sparkle)? Thanks Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Charlie Chambers <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Bobby, > Another idea is to put the update functions/procedures into a DLL > and just update the DLL as opposed to the full exe. > > Cheers, > Charlie > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Bobby Clarke > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 8:09 AM > Subject: [delphi-en] Problem with ShellExecute > > I wanted to provide a web update facility for my program B.exe and > decided that the easiest way was to write a small control program, > A.exe, which checked the web for updates to program B.exe and then > starts, via ShellExecute, the latest version of B, perhaps B009.exe. > > This all works very well. The problem comes when I try to update the > control program A.exe. Clearly the new version must be called A.exe so > that all the shortcuts work. I can download A.new and the only task now > is to delete A.exe and rename A.new to A.exe. I have written a small > console program C.exe that does this. The problem is knowing how to > start C.exe. If I start with a ShellExecute from A.exe, the file A.exe > seems to be locked even after A has finished and even if C.exe waits for > two minutes before trying to change the A filenames. The A filenames > themselves are not locked as I can change using Windows Explorer during > the 2 minute wait. I can even change the names by hand-starting a > different occurrence of C.exe. Starting C from B fails as the A file is > still locked. > > I could place C.exe to be run on the next re-boot, but this seems messy > and interferes with the user's control of his PC. Is there another > option? All suggestions welcome. How do others update programs using the > web? > > Bobby Clarke > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
