Raymond Camden's Blog Rss

One AIR annoyance

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Posted in | Posted on 03-27-2008 | 2,633 views

So this is a minor nit - I really do love AIR, but I've noticed something funny. I go to install an application - one that I've installed before, and the installer tells me:

Ok, no big deal, I'll just move the old file or pick another file, but nope, you can't do that, because the installer dies right there! Why not let the user go back and correct the install folder? Or move the file? Sure it takes me all of 5 seconds to do this and rerun the installer, but I wish it wouldn't abort the process because of a simple problem like that.

Ok, so this isn't a complaint just about AIR - I've seen other applications do this as well, but I figured that if I complain about it, maybe someone will point out that I simply created my installer wrong.

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salvatore fusto said on 03-27-2008 at 9:13 AM #
ray,
may be you have to update the old app.
salvatore
Raymond Camden said on 03-27-2008 at 9:16 AM #
I don't think it's an update issue - but a name conflict issue.
Gareth said on 03-27-2008 at 9:22 AM #
I thought I saw the option to uninstall the previous app when I tried to install an AIR app recently (I thought it might have checked the version also, but I'm not positive). I could be completely dreaming though :)
Sidney de Koning said on 03-27-2008 at 9:50 AM #
I had this box appear a couple of times to my app. What killed it was the inconsistency in version numbering. (in the XML descriptor file). To fix it; just increment the verison number with a point (1.0.1, 1.0.2 etc)
Sidney de Koning said on 03-27-2008 at 9:52 AM #
<pressed submit to fast>
What you get then is when installing, saying that there is a conflict, since you have version 1.0.1 and it wants to install 1.0.2. Then you get prompted with the choice to either overwrite or keep the file.

Hope this works for you,

Cheers, Sidney
Raymond Camden said on 03-27-2008 at 9:53 AM #
But that's not my point SIdney - and again - other apps do this as well. Why should the installer just stop? Yes, it can't install there - but it should ask me to provide a _new_ location.

Does that distinction make sense?

Again, I'm being picky - I _love_ AIR.
David McGuigan said on 03-27-2008 at 1:03 PM #
No, you're right.

I don't think it should even say "an error has occured".

What it should do is DETECT beforehand and just tell you that "an application with that name already exists at the select location", then give you an editable text field pre-populated with a variation that will make the install work (ex: previousAppName_2) as well as cancel, "overwrite the previous installation", and "choose a new installation directory" buttons.

But it's AIR 1, so I'll pretend I never noticed and still tell everyone that AIR is perfect and the solution to all of the world's problems.
Gareth Edwards said on 03-27-2008 at 5:11 PM #
Something looks wrong here, this is the text that I see when trying to install your application more than once.

"The same version of the application you opened already exists on this system.

Would you like to run the version already installed?"

If you are updating your application, it is advised that the version number in your app.xml changes so that the air runtime can treat it as an update.
Gary Funk said on 03-27-2008 at 9:48 PM #
Ray, I have had the same error and I can only think that is is because the previos version was installed under one of the AIR betas. On some machines I've had to go into the registry and rip out the guts.

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