I had a need to get AutoUpdate functionality into one of my applications, so that meant a perusal of Google to find out what others were using. After checking out several options, I deceided that AutoUpgrader fit the bill nicely. There were plenty of options and events to help control the AutoUpdate process. There was also a trial version that supported Delphi 2005, so that made it easier to try it out to see how it works. It requires a text file on a server somewhere, defining the newest version available. If a new version exists on the server, the component downloads the new version (all the while, providing status information about the download), and restarts the application to use the newer one.

The only downside was that the component has a VersionNumber property that is used to compare versions. I would prefer that the component would be smart enough to retrieve the version information from the file and use that, but this is easily remedied by placing this line of code in the DataModule.OnCreate where the AutoUpgrader resides:

  // GetVersionInfo is a locally defined function to retrieve version info from the current Application
  AutoUpgrader1.VersionNumber := GetVersionInfo;