Example Scenario for Providing Updates

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Using an Atom Feed

By using an atom feed one has greater flexibility in terms of where the actual updates are hosted. For example, a company which has published many extensions, may utilize just one atom feed which are referenced by all extensions. The location of this atom feed must be well chosen, because changing it may break the automatic update. Then the Extension Manager cannot obtain update information for these extensions anymore. For this reason, the company could set up a dedicated server which is guaranteed to be available in the foreseeable future. The actual extensions can then be hosted on different servers. The atom feed file needs only be edited if an update information file is moved to a different place, or when update information for new extensions become available.

If no actual update is available, for example, there is just version 1.0, then the update information could still refer to this extension. This does not do any harm because the Extension Manager compares the version number of the installed extension and the version which is contained in the update information, in order to display only real updates.

The location of the extension used as update could be the same as the location where customers download the extension for the first time. For example, there could be a web site which contains links to extensions. Let's assume one link is:

 http://mycomp/extension.oxt

The extension references a feed at:

 http://openoffice.org/extensions/updatefeed.xml

The feed contains the reference to the update information:

 http://mycomp/updates/extension.update.xml

and this file refers to the update which is again:

 http://mycomp/extension.oxt

If now version 2.0 of the extension becomes available, then the publisher could simply replace the extension at http://mycomp/extension.oxt and change the update information so that it reflects the new version. This way, users download always the latest version from the website and the Extension Manager can use this extension as update for an older version which is already installed.

Content on this page is licensed under the Public Documentation License (PDL).
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