Auto-update Feature Request

[Jack Bua]

Checking for and giving an update to the client at login is one of the biggest challenges I have faced on this platform yet. When I heard about the auto-update feature I was very excited, but quickly decided to avoid it until certain features were implemented.

Having built an app for my company's use only, I am presented with unique challenges like having to update an app and get it pushed to devices in the least amount of minutes possible. This is where auto-update could come in, but I would have to still account for app store updates as well.

Could it be possible to have the auto-update feature have a collection where it stores the latest version, date maybe even a changelog? Additionally, each user record also has an update date so determining when to show them a popup of new features or if the app store update prompting process should trigger or not.

Such a feature should be relatively easy to implement since the app is already looking to see if it needs an update. Similar to a DB service, it could just respond with a few fields. Such a feature would greatly expand the management capabilities of an app in a corporate environment, and doesnt seem like it would be a lot of work.

[maxkatz]

[quote:]
Could it be possible to have the auto-update feature have a collection where it stores the latest version, date maybe even a changelog?
[/quote]
Every device would register in this collection and specify which app version it's running?

[Jack Bua]

That could be a way, and have those records update each time the user updates

OR

each user's app version would be registered in the user's collection and updated when they login (or on a separate service).

[Jack Bua]

I would like to add to this. We recently determined that a web-app would better suit the needs of one of our company's locations, while the other should use the regular app. Surprisingly, it is MUCH faster, and unsurprisingly, it eliminates the hassle of individual app updates. So some users will have the app, others will have the web-app. It would be great to have some sort of distinction per user to determine how they are accessing the app (app or web) so my logic can determine when to prompt our users to update.

[maxkatz]

This is something you can quickly implement. You can check if the app is a Cordova app or not. Based on that, save a value (or token) into the database. This way you will know who is running the (hybrid) app and how is running the mobile web app.

[Jack Bua]

Thank you. I was able to get it working with:

if (typeof cordova == "undefined") {

Code: Select all

 //it's html5 

} else {

Code: Select all

 //it's hybrid  

}

Again, thank you. The rest of this feature request still stands.