Getting Started with Kapsel - Part 3 -- AppUpdate (SP09+)

[Dan_vL]

AppUpdate

The AppUpdate plugin is used to enable the contents under the www folder (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, images, etc.) of a deployed Kapsel app and its config.xml to be updated.  As an example, a new project named AppUpdateDemo will be created and used to demonstrate how to update a deployed app.  A Kapsel app with the AppUpdate plugin installed will check with the SMP 3.0 server on startup to see if there is a newer revision of the Kapsel app available.  The revision number of the Kapsel app is automatically incremented with each deployment to the SMP 3.0 server.  If the revision on the server is higher than the revision in the config.xml on the device or simulator, then a notification is shown asking the user if they wish to accept the update.

For additional details see C:\SAP\MobileSDK3\KapselSDK\docs\api\sap.AppUpdate.html or Using the AppUpdate Plugin.

The following steps will demonstrate this plugin.

• Follow the steps shown in Configuring a Kapsel App in the Management Cockpitto create an Application with the application ID of

  com.mycompany.appupdate

    This app does not use an OData endpoint so that can be set to a dummy URL such as

  http://www.mycompany.com

  and add the Basic SSO mechanism.
  
  
• Create a new project named AppUpdateDemo, add Android or iOS or both and add the AppUpdate plugin and optionally the logger plugin if you wish to view the messages logged by the AppUpdate plugin.  The log level is set to debug if sap.Logger is detected on line 12 of index.html.

  cordova create C:\Kapsel_Projects\AppUpdateDemo com.mycompany.appupdate AppUpdateDemo
  
  cd AppUpdateDemo
  
  cordova platform add android
  
  cordova plugin add kapsel-plugin-appupdate --searchpath %KAPSEL_HOME%/plugins
  
  cordova plugin add kapsel-plugin-logger --searchpath %KAPSEL_HOME%/plugins
  
  
  
  cordova create ~/Documents/Kapsel_Projects/AppUpdateDemo com.mycompany.appupdate AppUpdateDemo
  
  cd ~/Documents/Kapsel_Projects/AppUpdateDemo
  
  cordova platform add ios
  
  cordova plugin add kapsel-plugin-appupdate --searchpath $KAPSEL_HOME/plugins
  
  cordova plugin add kapsel-plugin-logger --searchpath $KAPSEL_HOME/plugins
  
  

• Replace the contents of  C:\Kapsel_Projects\AppUpdateDemo\www\index.html with index.html.
  
  Note the application ID is specified in index.html as

  var appId = "com.mycompany.appupdate";
  
  

  The user and password values do not matter in this example as an OData endpoint is not being used.
  
  
• Optionally modify the AppUpdateDemo\config.xml and add

  <preference name="hybridapprevision" value="0" />
  
  <preference name="sap-development-version" value="1.2.3" />

  Also update the description and email fields if desired.
  
  Due to a long delay on Android while assets are being copied during the first app update, it is recommended to either not specify hybridapprevision or use value="0".  When hybridapprevision is not present or set to 0, during the first client update, the client will request the server to send the complete contents of the www folder rather than just the files that changed between the revision that is reported on the client and the revision on the server.
  
  
• Prepare, build and deploy the app with the following command.

  cordova run android
  
  or
  
  cordova run ios

• In the All Output tab in Xcode or in the Android Device Monitor under the LogCat view, the debug output from the AppUpdate plugin can be seen.  Note that the LogCat view provides a feature to filter messages.  The filter shown below is based on the Tag SMP_APP_UPDATE.
  
  Notice above that when the app starts, the AppUpdate plugin checks with the SMP server to see if there is a newer revision of the app.  The current revision of the app is revision 0.  We have not yet deployed a version of the app to the server so a 404 error is returned.
  
  
• The Kapsel command line interface (CLI) provides a way to generate a zip file that contains the HTML files that make up the app.  This zip file can then either be uploaded to the SMP 3.0 server using the Management Cockpit or it can be uploaded using the Kapsel command line interface.  Open a command prompt or shell to the folder

  C:\SAP\MobileSDK3\KapselSDK\cli
  
  
  
   ~/SAP/MobileSDK3/KapselSDK/cli

  Run

  npm install -g

  On a Mac it may be necessary to run

  sudo npm -g install

  See the section Installing Apache Cordova with Node.js for additional details on setting proxy settings if your company uses a proxy server.
  
  Change directories to the directory containing the project and run the below commands to generate a zip file containing the HTML files that make up the application and then upload the zip file to the SMP 3.0 server.

  kapsel package
  
  kapsel deploy com.mycompany.appupdate localhost:8083 smpAdmin s3pAdmin
  
  

  The package command can optionally take a platform such as android or iOS.  The parameters to the deploy command are the SMP 3.0 server host name, the app ID, the user id, and password for the SMP 3.0 server.  After running this command the Management Cockpit will show that revision 1 has been uploaded to the server.
  
  
  Close and reopen the app. This time when the AppUpdate plugin will see that revision 1 is available.
  
  
  Notice above that the response also indicates where to download the app from.  If you are using a reverse proxy server between the devices and the SMP server, you may need to include a rule for the reverse proxy to rewrite this address.  See also Apache Module mod_substitute.  In the below example the apache reverse proxy server is at smpqa12-03.sybase.com and the SMP server is installed on smpqa-win12-03.sybase.com:8080

  <Location />
  
     AddOutputFilterByType SUBSTITUTE application/json
  
     Substitute "s|smpqa-win12-03.sybase.com:8080|smpqa12-03.sybase.com|ni"
  
  </Location>
  
  

  
  The www folder on the Android device or simulator is read only and cannot be updated directly, so the first app update causes the entire contents of the www folder to be copied to a new location causing the size of the deployed application to increase. Updates after the first update should be proportional to the size of the new files being added.
  
  At this point the version of the application on the device is the same as the version on the server.
  
  
  
  
• Update  C:\Kapsel_Projects\AppUpdateDemo\www\index.html and change the body's background-color to some other color such as silver.

  <style type="text/css">  
  body {
  
      background-color: silver;
  
    }
  
  </style>

• Copy the contents of the www folder to the platform specific www folder of the project using prepare.

  cordova prepare
  
  

• Deploy a new version of app to the SMP 3.0 server.

  kapsel package
  
  kapsel deploy com.mycompany.appupdate localhost:8083 smpAdmin s3pAdmin

  
  
  
  Close and reopen the AppUpdateDemo app.
  
  
  The debug output from the AppUpdate plugin shows that the client has revision 1 and the server has revision 2.  It also lists the changed files which in this case is index.html.
  

• Note that only the changed index.html file is sent from the SMP server to the device.
  
  Note, rather than having the end user ok the update, the update can happen without the user being asked to ok it by overriding the sap.AppUpdate.onupdateready event.

  // Override default handler
  
  sap.AppUpdate.onupdateready = function(e) {
  
     // No notification just reload
  
     console.log("Apply update");
  
     sap.AppUpdate.reloadApp();
  
  }
  
  

  See comments in appupdate.js for further details.
  
  

Testing Changes before Deploying

• Note, it is important to test the changes before publishing them to the server.  If an error is introduced, it could cause the application to break and potentially prevent future updates from being downloaded.  You can also validate your JavaScript with tools like JSLint, or JSHint.  CSS can be validated with CSS Lint.  If you encounter a problem after an update has occurred and you are using an iOS simulator, the contents of the update can be viewed at the following location.

  /Users/user_name/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/602C969F-F0CD-4043-AFBF-583C62F5A8BA/data/Containers/Data/Application/97CE6DBB-50F1-451E-A503-B5E79F4C7302/Documents/SMP/appupdate/app/www

  Note, the above location can be seen as the first line in the Xcode All Output window.
  
  If using an Android emulator, the updated files can be viewed at the following location.

  data\data\com.mycompany.appupdate\files\download\www
  
  

  One technique to aid with this problem is to open an error page that can check for new updates if an error is detected.
  Replace the contents of  C:\Kapsel_Projects\AppUpdateDemo\www\index.html with index2.html and add error.html.
  Line 12 can be uncommented which makes a call to a non-existent JavaScript method.  The app that now has an error in it can be packaged and deployed to the SMP 3.0 server.  When the app is reopened, the newer version is uploaded and the error handler detects an error and redirects to the error page.
  
  
  Correct the error, package and deploy the app.
  Now press check for updates and notice that app has recovered from the error.
  
  
  
• As of SP09 of the SMP server, there is now an ability to deploy a revision to a select set of test users before the revision is fully deployed to all users.
  
    This functionality is available in the SMP Management Cockpit and is not currently available when using the kapsel deploy command.
  
  
  As shown above once a zip file is uploaded, it can be either staged so it is available only to test users or it can be deployed so that the revision is pushed out to all users.
  
  
  As shown above, the Is Tester flag can be set for a user.

Back to Getting Started With Kapsel