More transparency about versioning and updates, please

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#1

Hi,

I just sporadically look if there have been updates to the webgui. The webgui itself does not directly show which version it is. To be honest, I didn’t even find version information via the web interface.
Where do I typically go? I click “download” and visit Duplicacy - but the page does not tell what I would expect:

a) Date of release
b) What’s new

So without further exploration I cannot see if there is a new version and what has been changed. And “further exploration” is something to avoid. We all know, in backup solutions, there is a lot of unwanted explorations necessary on user side…

Thx

4 Likes
Is this project dead?
#2

The version number is shown at the bottom of the Dashboard page.

I usually post a release note when each release is out, such as Duplicacy Web Edition 1.3.0 is available. There used to be a single page for all versions: Older Duplicacy releases. Maybe we should bring this page back?

#3

Or just sticky the most recent one? That should be sufficient imo.

1 Like
#4

I believe a good solution would be to make every forum user subscribed to the category #announcement. In this way, everybody will always be notified.

I’ve been known to come with drastic measures when they are not needed, so I’m pinging here @Christoph and @towerbr as well for their input.

#5

An acceptable solution would be for duplicacy-web to check for updates itself and somewhere on the dashboard page, maybe next to the version number, display a gentle notification (even more gently than e.g. Plex does) when the new version is available and provide means (such as some sort of in-app popup to see it immediately) list of changes from the current version. This will address a number of issues:

  1. Users who don’t open duplicacy-web often don’t need to know about updates, so they don’t get notified. Extra notifications are evil.
  2. Users who do – have a quick way to check the changelist to see if it is worth updating. There should be a way to “skip this version” to stop being notified about it. Can’t speak fro all users but I’m sure there is a big chunk of folks who like myself don’t update any software unless they absolutely have to (or are really extremely bored)). And “have to” is usually only if bug fixes address issues that affect said users workflow or if there is a new feature they like so much that perceived benefit overweighs the risk of time loss fighting new unknown bugs that may sneak with the new update (not broken – don’t fix approach)

The notification about new version can also be included in the emailed backup reports for those who do want to know about that. Again, this should be opt-in to minimize noise.

Somewhat tangential: I think duplicacy_web should check for duplicacy_cli update more often than on start – on some unattended systems (and I of course mean Synology disk stations and alike) it may run for months uninterrupted and in case there is critical update in the CLI engine it would be great to have it auto-update (if the user choses to).

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#6

Looking at the topics in the #announcement category, they all seem important to me:

https://forum.duplicacy.com/c/announcement/

I don’t think your suggestion is “drastic”, on the contrary, I think it’s very reasonable.

#7

I confess that I had never seen it. It’s very hidden at the bottom of this page. The default for this type of information is to be in an “About”. It could be the last menu item on the left, after “Forum”.

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#8

Notification of #announcement - that means: Mail? I don’t know, my mail is a mess, I’d honestly prefer an about-page with at least a link to the last changes, additionally an (at least manual) update check hyperlink.

Totally overlooked the version information in the Dashboard page. WTF, mine says “Duplicacy Web Edition 1.1.0” - I have always updated… EDIT: Weird, I installed again, now webui is 1.3.0. Solved.

#9

Certainly in Windows-land, apps generally have some settings which allow you to set “check for updates” and the frequency it does it.

Personally i think that’s the best approach. It puts control in the hands of the user.

I guess those who pay for a license get an email? (that will likely include me soon).

#10

Today, all my browsers say " Duplicacy Web Edition 1.1.0" - I wonder why.
Task manager (Process Explorer) agrees.
c:\Users\me\AppData\Local\DuplicacyWebEdition\duplicacy_web_win_x64_1.1.0.exe
has been started. In the same dir, an 1.3.0 exe is availabe.

I wonder what the autostart mechanism is.

EDIT: It was my mistake. Because I make use of encrypted drives, Duplicacy has to start after a specific drive exists. --> I started the old version with an autostart script.