Question

We have two applications.

1. Main.exe – which is the main application being updated
2. Update.exe – the program that runs to update Main.exe

My problem is preventing users from getting into the main.exe while updating.

Right now, I am checking for a flag file and if the flag file exists, application.exe immediately.

This is fine except it doesn’t tell the user anything, just kicks them out.

I were to issue a message, the time that it takes for them to respond to the message, the main.exe is in use and cannot be updated.

Any suggestions how I can professionally display a message that the update is in progress, application closing?

btw, I thought about using:

Private Function IsUpdatingPropane() As Boolean
    Try
        Dim UpdateInprocess As String = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetParentPath(Application.StartupPath) & "\update.inprocess"
        If File.Exists(UpdateInprocess) Then

            'Dim Proc As Process
            'Dim ProcInfo As New ProcessStartInfo(Configuration.DataFileLocations & Configuration.GasLibrary & "\vbmsg.exe")
            'ProcInfo.Arguments = String.Format("vbmsg.txt,{0},{1},NIL,NIL,NIL,OK,9996,9997", Configuration.UserId, Configuration.WorkstationId)
            'ProcInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal
            'ProcInfo.WorkingDirectory = Configuration.DataFileLocations & Configuration.GasLibrary
            'ProcInfo.UseShellExecute = False
            'Proc = Process.Start(ProcInfo)


            Application.Exit()
            Return True
        End If
        Return False
    Catch ex As Exception
        WriteException(ex)
        WriteDebugInfo("VerifyNotUpdatingPropane", "An error occurred while checking for update.inprocess file. Please contact SSS for assistance.", True, ex)
        Return True
    End Try
End Function

but what do I call to display the message?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Considering the data we have

1. Main.exe
2. Updater.exe

On update request from Main.exe the Main.exe launches Updater.exe end kills itself.
Updater.exe does it stuff. To resolving notification problem in case when user clicks on Main.exe again you can, for example, launch the second instance of Updater.exe with some special parameter, which actualy diplays a message and exit from Main.exe. In this case even if user will not close the notification dialog box for a while (cofee pause), you will have contemporary in memory 2 instances of Updater.exe. One is updating, the second simply shows the message and one time message closed leaves the memory.

In short, move message visualization inside Updater.exe itself, which appears only in case of presence of special command line parameter.

Hope this helps.