How does the Prism automatic version updater work?

 Starting with Prism 5 Windows and Prism 6 Mac, Prism can automatically check for updates, for example from release 6.03 to 6.07 

How to turn off checking for automatic updates

There are two alternative ways to tell Prism not to check for updates:

• Uncheck the option on the Internet tab of the preferences dialog. On Prism mac, this tab is called Prism Updates. 
• Use /U in the command line (Windows only)
• Turn off  the <check-for-updates> option in StartupConfig.xml (if you install Prism for many, ask us about this file)

How the automatic update system works (Windows)

If the preference is set to check for updates, on every launch Prism downloads a tiny file from:

      http://www.graphpad.com/autoupdates/Prism6win/versinfo.ini    (the digit "6" is whatever version you are running)

If the current version specified in that file is newer than the version actually running, Prism asks if you want to update. If you answer yes, it downloads the file WebInstallPrism6.exe file from the same server folder, and runs this application on your computer. That updating program downloads the new version of Prism from that same server folder. 

For obtaining versioninfo, downloading webinstall, and downloading the new installer, Prism communicates with the server using only the http protocol over port 80. 

In some cases Prism is not able to load and read the versinfo.ini or is not able to launch webinstall. Why? Perhaps it is due to some security settings of firewall on your computer or perhaps the corporate firewall forbids loading of .exe files. When this happens, Prism uses a different strategy to help you update. It opens the page http://www.graphpad.com/support/prism-6-updates/ in your web browser. This page tells you the latest version and gives you a download link. 

Read details about the SetupBuilder web updating system.

 

How the automatic update system works (Mac)

Please note that Prism 6 no longer works on Macintosh machines due to Apple's security policies.

Prism uses the default HTTP port (usually 80) to contact the autoupdate URL:

  http://www.graphpad.com/autoupdates/prism6mac/appcast.xml. 

There is no separate web updater application on Mac. If you confirm you wish to update, Prism downloads an installer and runs it to install the new version (overwriting the old).

Prism's update system uses the Sparkle framework.