Disabling update messages for Dot Net Viewer

[jj]

Our customer support group just sent me a ticket from a customer who is running our product in a Citrix environment. They are running our product from a Citrix server and each of their individual users has an individual profile. The Dot Net Viewer lives in the individual users' profiles, such as "C:\Documents and Settings\<user_profile>\Application Data\MadCap Software\Help Viewer." Our customer is testing a new version of our software where I introduced a converted version of our old WinHelp in Dot Net Help format. Here is a direct quote from our customer's support ticket:

"New findings...The new PHX 8 help application is not playing well in our environment. Our business users will not have privileges to do this update in Citrix. Is there any way to stop the dynamic update messages?....We really do not like the idea of having our business users install updates to software and “reboot”."

They sent us a copy of the "There are new update(s) available for MadCap Help Viewer V4, Do you want to view them?" dialog.

Our clients are large insurance companies that keep a strict hold on what users can do and we try to respect their policies. I have to find a solution for them somehow.

Is there a way to disable the connection that asks for the updates that I missed somehow? Or, is there another solution for installing the Viewer on a centralized server that would circumvent this issue altogether?

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light.

[KevinDAmery]

My suspicion is you would need to do a feature request to have the viewer not prompt for updates.

http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[Richard Ferrell]

If you have Firewall block register.madcapsoftware.com port 80 you should not be prompted for the updates, but this will also Stop any other Madcap software product from getting the updates.

[KevinDAmery]

So this would mean that they would have to tell all of their customers to block that address on port 80? I'm not sure I'd want to be involved in that customer communications exchange....

[RamonS]

Wouldn't it be sufficient to just redirect the URL register.madcapsoftware.com to 127.0.0.1 in the local hosts file? That basically lets the request time out unless one runs the MadCap registration service on the local machine, which hopefully is not the case. Still, that means a change on the system, but less intrusive and much easier to do than forking around in firewall settings. Also, since this is an app used via Citrix the change should be limited to the application servers.

[KevinDAmery]

I dunno about you, but I would be hesitant to ask a customer to change a hosts file too, even though directing something to 127.0.0.1 is harmless.

The OP's original query was about how to avoid their customers getting disturbing messages that they won't be able to respond to due to rights restrictions. I'm not sure that a company that implements restricted network rights like that will be open to hosts file changes either, regardless of the nature of those changes. (And of course changing the hosts file silently as part of your install is a really unfriendly thing to do from a security stand point....)

[RamonS]

I didn't want to imply that my proposal is the best thing since sliced bread, but it may be something that is easier to implement and limited to the Citrix box running the app. Ideally, MadCap offers means to have the viewer not even try to get updates. I think it is a bit pointless for the viewer anyway even when newer versions are backward compatible with old output. What may be better is to just have a link in the viewer's Help menu that looks for updates. That way customers have control over it. Even better if during installation one can disable that option as well or specify an update behavior (automatic/manual/disabled).