About AppLife Update

Stay connected with your deployed .NET applications.

AppLife Update is an updating solution for .NET software applications.  Using AppLife Update, you can easily enable your applications to discover, download, and apply updates automatically.  It handles all of the challenges of updating .NET software. Update publishing, discovery, download, application shutdown, automatic proxy detection, elevated user privileges, Vista UAC prompt handling, and custom update actions are included.  AppLife Update is fully documented and ships with three Quick Start example applications to get you updating your applications very quickly.

AppLife Update is a complete update solution that’s ready for integration into your product.  It is one of the easiest solutions to integrate and use and the pricing and licensing model offers a sound business choice over developing your own.

Using AppLife Update, you can easily enable your applications to discover, download, and apply updates automatically with little or no user interaction. You can use AppLife Update actions to actually perform the update process of your software, or you can use Windows Installer packages. You can even use a completely custom executable to perform the update process.

Create & Publish
Update your software easily using AppLife Update actions, Windows Installer files, or your own updating application.

  • AppLife Update Action Lists - Replace files, register COM components, modify Xml documents and more by adding the ready-to-use actions into an update project. Perform any custom actions your application requires with the extremely easy to use custom action infrastructure. Action list updates makes your automatic software update process extremely easy to implement.
  • Windows Installer Updates - Deploy your Msi and Msp updates. AppLife Update will package these files into an update package and deploy them to your clients appropriately. Take advantage of the flexible update deployment architecture to accomplish your updates.
  • Custom Updates - If you are using a completely custom update utility for your application, use AppLife Update to distribute your updater to your clients. Take advantage of the flexible deployment architecture to accomplish your updates.
  • Automated Processes - Using the AppLife Update command line utility, you can easily automate building and publishing your software updates. Integrate building your updates right into your build process. MSBuild Actions and FinalBuilder actions can be downloaded.

The AppLife Update process is very transparent. AppLife Update compiles all of the files that are necessary to update your software into an update package. Information describing each update package is published so that the AppLife update component in your application can discover available updates. Once discovered, AppLife Update will download updates for you. Keep peace-of-mind that your application is secure as each update package is signed using public-private key cryptography. Your software will only apply updates after the package is validated that it is intact and originated from you.

Discover & Download
Integrate automatic update features into your .Net applications using the AppLife Update Controller component. The Update Controller does all of the work of discovering and downloading updates for you. You can serve updates to your software from any file or web server.

  • Programming Your Application - AppLife Update features are integrated into your application source code by referencing a single assembly. The Update Controller allows you to easily implement updating features with a single line of code. The flexible AppLife Update architecture also allows you to totally customize the user experience. You can check for updates synchronously or asynchronously from within your own forms. You can handle events during the update process that allow you to perform custom tasks such as checking licensing or saving unfinished work. You are in total control of the process.
  • Update From any Server - Any file server can operate as your update server. There are NO specific server requirements to use AppLife Update. Use http, ftp, UNC, or file paths for serving up your updates. Use Windows servers or Linux servers.
  • Downloading Updates - Use the standard AppLife Update download form or create your own custom form. AppLife Update downloading is easily customized by using synchronous or asynchronous downloading methods. It does all of the difficult thread handling for you. Automatically detect proxy settings or set them manually. AppLife Update makes it very easy to integrate clean and robust automatic network updating features into your .Net applications.

The Update Controller can be freely distributed without royalties with your software. The Update Controller API is fully documented and the software includes three Quick Start example applications that demonstrate implementation of the most common features.

Validate & Apply
The AppLife Update Controller validates every downloaded update package to ensure integrity and source. After validation, updates are applied using an AppLife Update Action List, the Windows Installer, or your own custom update executable.

  • Cryptographic Validation - After the update package is downloaded from your update server, the Update Controller in your application validates the update by checking its signature with the application's public cryptographic key. Only after validating the update, can it be applied.
  • Shutdown All Instances - Applying an update first closes all instances of the application being updated so that its files can be replaced. Before closing, you can handle an event to ensure each instance is ready to be closed. You can perform tasks such as saving work in progress, closing other applications, or writing your own logs. If any instance is not ready for closing, you can even cancel the update process.
  • VistaUAC Ready - With AppLife Update action list updates, your automatic update process is ready for Windows Vista and the User Account Control (UAC).
  • Elevated Privileges - The AppLife Update Service can elevate user privileges during the application of your AppLife Update action list updates. Elevating privileges allows standard users to update your software without administrative support. AppLife Update makes it easy to deploy the service with your software by including a Merge Module (msm) that installs the service and registers your application for elevation. The AppLife Update service will only update applications that are administratively registered.

Applife Update action list updates are applied on your clients with a clean and simple user interface that keeps the user informed of progress during the update process. You can brand the update user interface screen by applying your logo and application name to the form. Each applied update is fully transacted and logged. AppLife Update securely and reliably applies updates to your software on your client computers.