Online Patch?

[klibby]

I've been working on an app for a game called EverQuest.... thats not really important to this question.. but anyway....

what I need to know how to do is... make something to compare files and the exe the user is running to files and the exe on my server, and patch the files and or exe as needed, (so when theres a patch it downloads only what it needs, and not the whole thing whenever there's a new version)

im not sure what this would take clientside or server side.... from what ive seen, it looks like it can be done with VB on the clientside, but on the serverside, whether you would need some kind of perl script, or something else, im not sure.

If any of you have EverQuest, check out the patching program they have when you run EverQuest, basically im trying to make something like that for my app (when you run everquest, if you have changed any of the files it compares... it sees something different and changes it back accordingly to match files on the server)


Please help,
Thank you
Kyle Libby
EQGuardians.com

 

[chiph]

I believe both Wise and InstallShield have ways for you to distribute online patches.

Wise is at:

http://www.wisesolutions.com/default.htm

InstallShield is at:

http://www.installshield.com

Chip H.

 

[klibby]

Thank you for the info... but what i really need... isnt something where they download a patch then install it.... what i need is something that will automatically compare the files on their computer to the files on the server.. and match accordingly to make them match..... this way you always have an up to date version... if a file gets corrupted, it will automatically fix it, and you avoid all those nasty 1.0.1-1.1.0.exe 1.0.0-2.0.0.exe 1.0.0-1.0.4.exe and all that junk