Check for latest version

[torhus]

Discussed in #29

^{Originally posted by The-Gig October 12, 2022}
The idea is simple: adding a button to allow players to see if a new version of MonsterBrowser has been released.
I suppose the button could just check for an URL pointing to a text file (hosted somewhere in this github?) where you would just write the number of the latest official release, and show that string into a dialog window. So people could easily know that there is a new version available, and the window could contain a link to https://github.com/torhus/monster-browser/releases.

I don't know, maybe it may be part of an "About/Info" menu/screen, where you could also place links to https://sites.google.com/site/monsterbrowser, https://github.com/torhus/monster-browser, and to the included readme.txt and changelog.txt?

[The-Gig]

Hi, I see you added "check for new version on startup" in Settings. That's perfectly fine, but I haven't fond a command to force check for updates...
I mean, if I usually don't want the check at startup (maybe fearing it may slow down opening the program), but today I want to check whether there is a new version... I have to enable the checkbox, close and open the program to see if there are updates, then disable the option again. That's not super comfortable.
Maybe a "check now" button next to the checkbox?

Furthermore, the "check for new" (servers) button can still be mistaked for "check for new version"...

[torhus]

If you don't want to have the automatic check enabled, why not check the web site, or watch the repository for releases? The automatic update checker actually downloads https://api.github.com/repos/torhus/monster-browser/releases/latest , a 5 kB files that takes less than a second to download. So I wouldn't worry.

By the way, clicking OK after enabling the updater will start it.

I suppose I could change the main button labels to "Get servers" and "Refresh servers", if that's better. But a longer text will make the buttons much larger, which I would like to avoid

[The-Gig]

Well, let me think...

1. A single button to click is faster than opening the browser and typing a website.
   Of course, if the program included an hyperlink to the website, that might be better than doing by hand.
2. True, the check is fast, but people might not know.
3. A popup opening up when you start a program, when you only want to use that program quickly, can be annoying.
4. Most programs I can think about which feature built-in update check have both automatic and manual check features, I thought that was quite standard.

Just M2C, of course!
Don't feel obliged to anything, of course! ;)

[torhus]

Yes, but MB has a minimalist interface, no menu bar :)

[The-Gig]

... but it has got the Setting windows, which has got room for a button even without enlarging it I think. :)

About "get servers/refresh servers", sounds good I think.