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T-Plan Robot Enterprise 4.0.2 Doc Collection
GUI Reference
10/06/15

T-Plan Robot Enterprise 4.0.2  Update & Upgrade

Contents
  1. Update & Upgrade Window
  2. Auto Updater

1. Update & Upgrade Window

The Update & Upgrade window exposes T-Plan Robot Enterprise releases from the T-Plan release server and allows to download new software versions and/or upgrade the current installation. To open the window select Tools -> Update & Upgrade in the main GUI menu.

Whenever the window is opened, it contacts the T-Plan release server to receive so called release descriptor with information on all public releases of T-Plan Robot Enterprise. If there's no internet connection, the window displays a warning message and exits.

The release data is displayed in form of a tree where releases are grouped by the version (such as for example 2.3, 2.3.1 etc). The list is by default filtered to display just those releases that are compatible with your current operating system. This behavior can be changed in the window preferences (see (3) below) to enable download of software for other platforms.

Update Manager
      Window
  1. Release tree shows available releases. The currently installed release is displayed in green and marked as "current". If the window identifies a new suitable update release, it displays it in magenta and marks it as "recommended".
  2. Release descripion shows a short description of the selected release.
  3. Preferences button opens the Update & Upgrade preferences in the Preferences window. There are several parameters which control behavior of this window and the Auto Updater feature.
  4. Download & Save button downloads the selected release and saves it to the local file system. This is designed to support users who intend to create an additional installation from a standalone ZIP release or who prefer to apply the update manually (for example those who create customized company builds or pick up just the Java libraries). This feature also  enables to download releases which can not be used for direct update, such as for example releases with Windows Installer (.exe) or releases in Mac OS X application format (.dmg). For instructions on manual installation or update see the Release Notes document.
  5. Download & Install button downloads the selected release and prepares update or reinstall of the current Robot installation. No changes are made to the software at this point and the update is applied only after the window is closed with OK and the application gets restarted. The update process is described in details later on in this help topic.

    The Download & Install button is enabled only if the selected release is identified as a patch one (typically a standalone release in ZIP format), it is compatible with the local OS and the application has sufficient write permissions to the current installation path. If the button is disabled for a particular release, it can be still downloaded through the Download & Save button and installed manually.
  6. OK button saves the scheduled update and prepares the update process. If no update has been set up through Download & Install, the button is disabled.
  7. Cancel closes the window and cancels the update (if scheduled).
  8. Help opens this help topic.


An update process initiated through the Download & Install button goes through three stages:
  1. Download of the selected package from the T-Plan release server to the local file system. The download progress is indicated by a simple window as is shown below.

    Download progress
          window

    Each downloaded binary is checked for integrity through an CRC32 check sum. If the file is corrupted, the window displays an error and skips the update.

    As downloads are by default stored to an OS-specific temporary location, they get deleted after system restart. To make the update feature save all binaries to a permanent location set up the Download Directory parameter in the Update & Upgrade preferences.
  2. An update task is created and configured. It is a standalone thread (routine) which registers with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to get called as part of the Java shut down sequence. A successful set up of the update task gets reflected in the GUI. The release tree of the Update & Upgrade window displays the corresponding release in red and marks it as "ready to install". The OK button gets enabled and the Download & Install button changes into Cancel Installation:

    Update &
          Upgrade with update

    To save the planned update leave the window with OK.
  3. As the update task is called on Java exit, the actual update of installed files is not carried on until the application is properly finished through the Exit menu item or through the OS provided Close button in the window header. The update can be actually cancelled or changed through the Update & Upgrade window until the application gets finished. Do not kill the Robot application through the system means such as the Task Manager on Windows or xkill on Unix/Linux because it will cancel the update task.

    The update is performed in several steps:
    1. A back up directory is created in the OS specified temporary path.
    2. The update task processes contents of the package and updates the specified Robot installation. A back up copy of each file is created before it gets updated. If the update process crashes with an error, it restores the original installation from the back up location.
    3. A log with the update result and details is displayed in web browser.

TROUBLESHOOTING


If the update fails, check the log for errors which are typically in form of a Java exception stack trace. Most update problems are caused by insufficient file permissions. If the update stopped on a particular file, check its permissions and make sure that the update process has the right to read and write to the file. If you experience any other errors, contact the T-Plan support for help.

If the update log does not open in web browser, it is likely that Robot's web browser settings are not configured properly. The log file is named like tpr_install_logXXXXXXXXXXXX.html and it is located in the OS temporary folder (usually C:\Windows\Temp on Windows or /tmp on Unix/Linux). To get the temporary path eventually start Robot's GUI, open Help->About, select the System Information tab and look for value of the java.io.tmpdir property.

If you need to restore any of the original application files, for example if you have customized the start scripts, you may retrieve them from the back up directory which is listed at the beginning of the update log. Be aware that the back up location is likely to get deleted after OS restart.

2. Auto Updater

Auto Updater checks the online release list for updates at configured time intervals. This process runs only when the Robot is started in GUI mode with no automation being executed. If there's a new update release available, tit displays an informational message notifying the user of the release.

Auto Updater new
      release message

The default time interval is set to 2 weeks. It can be configured in the Update & Upgrade panel in the Preferences window. To disable the feature set the time period to "Never".