Re: Packagers: Handling upgrade checks

Packagers,

As you probably know, pgAdmin 4 checks for updates upon startup, and
if a newer version is available, directs the user to www.pgadmin.org
to download it.

The is a problem if your pgAdmin came with a PostgreSQL installer (as
you can't download them from our website), and potentially mildly
annoying if you're a .deb or .rpm user.

There are a couple of ways to optimise the experience for users here
(one of which I just committed). I'll leave it up to each of you to
choose what you want to do (Sandeep, I would suggest that the EDB
installers use method 2).

Method 1: Simply disable the upgrade check, and leave that to the
operating systems update tools. To do this, create (or edit) a
config_distro.py file that is installed alongside the config.py file
from the pgAdmin source and include the line;

UPGRADE_CHECK_ENABLED = False

Method 2: For well known and trusted distributions we can support a
custom check for your distribution. This involves 2 parts:

1) Let me know that you want a custom check, and I'll setup access for
you to manage the version data on the pgAdmin website. We'll agree on
a custom key for that data within the JSON file the website hosts.

2) Create (or edit) a config_distro.py file that is installed
alongside the config.py file from the pgAdmin source and include the
line;

UPGRADE_CHECK_KEY = '<your key>'

With this method, a different section of the JSON datafile will be
checked by your distribution of pgAdmin, thus allowing you to control
both when it tells users a new version is available, and the URL to
which they are directed.

Thanks!

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company