Stable update notification

Support
#1

I brought his up earlier on the forum. For stable releases, we need to have a mechanism that will check whether a newer stable version is available and if so, notify the people (with an option to disable that check).

I suspect there are a lot of people who are using the older stable (4.11) and are not aware that a new stable is released, unless they are actively tracking the Slicer community. Or likewise there will be a new patch release of the stable (as I understood) soon, and people who are using 5.0.2 (current version), will not be notified of this.

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#2

^ Itā€™s an issue being tracked and currently in the Slicer 5.1 milestone. Itā€™s not going to be something for this Slicer 5.0.x release, but maybe for a future feature release. Slicer 5.0.x announcements will have to come from the community announcement which is one of the last steps to the release process which hasnā€™t been completed yet.

That issue was created around the time of whether to alert users automatically if there are updates available for extensions (not auto-updating, but alerting users of new versions of extensions). Currently checks for extension updates is a manual triggered action. Add "Update Extension" option under Manage Extensions Ā· Issue #5470 Ā· Slicer/Slicer Ā· GitHub

#3

Does anyone want to chine in on whether checking for updates should be on by default or only if a user opts in? Maybe thereā€™s should be a dialog box the first time you run slicer on a new machine asking for preference? (extra dialogs at start are annoying too of course).

#4

Checking for Updates for extension or releases?

Either, i would prefer it enabled, but when the message is displayed (i.e there is na update), offer to turn update check off.

That way it is up to the user about Not getting notified.

#5

Checking for extension updates currently happens when you go to the extension manager, which is itself a network operation, so no user approval is really required. Checking for updates of the application at startup would allow us to track how many times the software is used, which would be useful for us, but some people might consider it a privacy issue (although Iā€™m sure other software does it all the time and people donā€™t seem to care much anymore). I was wondering if anyone feels strongly one way or the other how we approach this.

#6

Based on this comment, it would need to be opt-in.

Iā€™ll provide information below about my current implementation to serve as ideas for Slicer.

I currently have support for auto version checking for my Slicer custom app by checking a release notes file on the web and comparing the latest version with version of my custom app being run. The update selection is saved as a user setting (False/True or missing if deferred decision by pressing ā€œCancelā€). They can manually check with an action in the menu bar at Help->Check For Updates.

[Application]
auto_version_check=False
last_update_check=2022-05-31 18:58:54.201097

image

If the user has selected ā€œManualā€, Iā€™m a little bit annoying and I will display a message on the status bar if they havenā€™t manually checked for a new version in the past 30 days. See code below.

long_number_days_since_last_check = 30
if time_since_last_check > timedelta(days=long_number_days_since_last_check):
    message = f"It has been over {long_number_days_since_last_check} days since the last check for a version update. Please go to Help->Check For Updates."
    slicer.util.mainWindow().statusBar().showMessage(message, 30000)  # shown for 30 seconds before cleared

If there is a update available I show release notes for all versions between the current version and the latest version available.
image

I allow the user to ā€œIgnoreā€ the version update (saved as a user setting) if they donā€™t care about the update (often minor bug fix releases) and if they have ā€œautomaticā€ check mode turned on, then they will only be alerted of the next available release.

[Application]
ignore_version=1.13.1

They can use the ā€œDownloadā€ button to automatically download the installer, close the current instance, and run the installer.

#7

Thanks @jamesobutler that behavior sounds pretty reasonable to me.

#8

I think there is a huge difference in terms privacy between going to a website and comparing a revision number and reporting to user that there is an update, vs doing telemetry on their usage habits.

A silent change (that is opt-in behavior) like this will defeat its primary purpose, which is to bring unengaged users more up-to-date with Slicer. First they have to know thatā€™s an option.

#9

The pop-up I described that asks the user to opt-in does not seem to be a silent option and seems to be a very respectful option with clear transparency.

#10

This is fine if it is executed right after the first run.

#11

Yes, or maybe after a few runs, with a message like ā€œYouā€™ve used Slicer 10 times now and we hope you are enjoying it. If you want to have Slicer automatically check for updates, click Ok.ā€. This way it wouldnā€™t be in your face the first time you start the app (we already have the ā€˜not for clinical useā€™ dialog).

Another option could be to check the date, and if the version is more than 6 months old offer to check for updates and/or turn on auto update check.

#12

If we are going to be this verbose, I suggest making it clear in the message why staying up-to-date is important. May be something like ā€œExtensions can only be updated for the latest stable release.ā€

#13

I would discourage any update notifications for Slicer Preview builds. We canā€™t be certain that the latest preview build is a better working option than the current Slicer Preview that a user may be using as there are periods of instability as various dependencies get updated. Then there would be no need for a statement like ā€œExtensions can only be updated for the latest stable releaseā€ because there would not be any update notifications for Preview builds.

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#14

Good topic, maybe we could put an update message on the welcome screen only if new stable builds are available:

image

Update notification dialog boxes are quite aggressive and may be disabled soon ? The click should download the new version, ideally with all previously loaded and matching extensions, and restart Slicer :slight_smile:

#15

I agree, everything I said is in context of Stable release.

#16

+1 for the idea of putting something on the welcome screen. Not too subtle or it could be missed, but better not to have a dialog.

#17

I agree that these are great ideas!

  • offer enabling auto-update in the welcome dialog and whenever doing manual update
  • slightly nudge the users to enable auto-update by displaying a ā€œcheck for updatesā€ button in Welcome module or in the status bar after every month or so
  • show what has changed since the running Slicer version and the latest Slicer version
  • allow the user to ignore specific application releases
  • explain why it is important to update (Slicer is constantly improved)
  • explain why statistics are computed from application and extension download count and location (demonstrating impact helps us getting grant funding; knowing which extensions are used helps us prioritizing developments)

Iā€™m working on implementing robust and quick auto-update check and auto-install is updates for extensions. Itā€™ll be ready in a few days. Auto-update of application version could be done at the same time as extension auto-update and could be controlled by the same opt-in for switch.

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