[Tutorial] How I check to see if there are updates available!

PC Gaming
1

I just wanted to run through a quick tutorial on how I check to see if there is an update available for an application of mine. I suppose it’s less of a tutorial and more of a code share. I shoot for asynchronous methods all the time. You’ll have two options, depending on which framework you’re targeting.

.NET Framework 4.0 
private void CheckForUpdates()
{
    // Checking for an update...
    string str = "";

    Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
    {
        try
        {
            using (var client = new WebClient())
                str = client.DownloadString("PASTEBIN URL");
        }
        catch (WebException)
        {
            // Failed checking for an update.
            return;
        }
    }).ContinueWith(task =>
    {
        var assemblyVersion = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
        var downloadVersion = Version.Parse(str);

        if (assemblyVersion < downloadVersion)
            // An update is available!
        else
            // The application is up to date!
    });
}

[details=.NET Framework 4.5]This framework introduces a new function to the WebClient class which allows us to make use of the async and await keywords.

private async void CheckForUpdates()
{
    // Checking for an update...
    string str = "";

    try
    {
        using (var client = new WebClient())
            str = await client.DownloadStringTaskAsync("PASTEBIN URL");
    }
    catch (WebException)
    {
        // Failed checking for an update.
        return;
    }

    var assemblyVersion = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
    var downloadVersion = Version.Parse(str);

    if (assemblyVersion < downloadVersion)
        // An update is available!
    else
        // The application is up to date!
}

[/details]

Unless you have a server on which you can host a text file of the most recent version, I would use Pastebin because you can have a static URL hosting raw data despite changing the data itself. For example, this paste is what I use to host the most recent version and that URL is where I download the string from.

Of course, this doesn’t actually handle updating. I just redirect the user to the download page and let them take care of everything. But if you find a better way, share it here!