Library Update checking for your Bukkit dev plugin!

Hey there,
lots of people want to know how to enable update checking for Bukkit dev plugin, so I've decided to make a library (inspired by betterphp's Update Checking) and a quick tutorial how to use it So let's start!

First, go to your package and create a new class called UpdateChecker and replace auto-generated stuff with this code:

Code:java

package /*Insert your package name here*/;
 
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
 
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
 
import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
 
public class UpdateChecker {
    private /*Main*/ plugin;
    private URL filedsFeed;
 
    private String version;
    private String link;
 
    public UpdateChecker(/*Main*/ plugin, String url) {
        this.plugin = plugin;
 
        try {
            this.filedsFeed = new URL(url);
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
 
    public boolean updateNeeded() {
        try {
            InputStream input = this.filedsFeed.openConnection()
                    .getInputStream();
            Document document = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
                    .newDocumentBuilder().parse(input);
 
            Node latestFile = document.getElementsByTagName("item").item(0);
            NodeList children = latestFile.getChildNodes();
 
            this.version = children.item(1).getTextContent()
                    .replaceAll("[^0-9.]", "");
            this.link = children.item(3).getTextContent();
 
            if(!plugin.getDescription().getVersion().equals(version)) {
                return true;
            }
 
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            plugin.getLogger().info("Update checker: Something went wrong!");
            return false;
        }
 
        return false;
    }
 
    public String getVersion() {
        return this.version;
    }
 
    public String getLink() {
        return this.link;
    }
}

or copy it from here. Then replace all /*Main*/ with your main class name and change the package in first line.

Then you need to add this value to your config.yml file*:

Code:

checkForUpdates: true

Add your UpdateChecker before onEnable:

Code:

protected UpdateChecker updateChecker;

and add this code to your onEnable:

Code:

boolean checkForUpdates = this.getConfig().getBoolean("checkForUpdates");
String updateCheckUrl = "http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/your_plugin_name(lower-cased)/files.rss";
if (checkForUpdates) {
    this.updateChecker = new UpdateChecker(this, updateCheckUrl);
    if (this.updateChecker.updateNeeded()) {
        this.getLogger().info("New version ("
                + this.updateChecker.getVersion()
                + ") has been released, get it from "
                + this.updateChecker.getLink() + "!");
    }
}

* As Bukkit dev policy says, we must set update checking to be configurable if we want our plugin be accepted.

That's all! It should work
Now reload the server and see the magic!



If you've got any problem, just tell me

 

Nice Once I made my own updater that downloads a .txt file from dropbox, check the versions and directly download the update to /plugins/update

 

@FisheyLP Thank you!

 

@PDKnight
Well done , I do have one note though:

Code:

boolean checkForUpdates = this.getConfig().contains("checkForUpdates") ? (this.getConfig()    .getString("checkForUpdates").equals("true") ? true : false) : false;

can just be

Code:

boolean checkForUpdates = this.getConfig().getBoolean("checkForUpdates");

Because when the config doesn't contain the value it returns false, so you don't have to make the check yourself or use a string.

 

@megamichiel I know about it, but what will be in checkForUpdates when checkForUpdates in config is set to "blah"?

 

Then even .getBoolean() won't work because it can't cast "blah" to boolean

 

Am I the only one getting errors from this?
I am getting 2 errors, one from: if(!(plugin).getDescription().getVersion().equals(version)) {
The error is on plugin.getDescription. where it is saying, "The method getDescription() is undefined for the type Main"
The second one is: plugin.getLogger().info("Update checker: Something went wrong!");
The error is on plugin.getLogger where it is saying, "The method getLogger() is undefined for the type Main"
I have followed the directions and I still can't fix it. It is telling me that I can add the cast (Object) to plugin (the one before getLogger and getDescription

 

@PDKnight

Code:

public boolean getBoolean(String path) {
  Object def = getDefault(path);
  return getBoolean(path, (def instanceof Boolean) ? (Boolean) def : false);
}

This is the code from MemorySection, if it's null or not a boolean it's always false.

 

@MCnumi @megamichiel I've repaired my code, change all /*Main*/s to your main class name

Cheers,
PDKnight

 

Thanks!!

Also:

public class /*FILENAMEHERE*\ extends JavaPlugin implements Listener {
protected UpdateChecker updateChecker;
public void onEnable() {
getServer().getPluginManager().registerEvents(this, this);
// send them a message saying the latest update!!!
boolean checkForUpdates = this.getConfig().getBoolean("checkForUpdates");
String updateCheckUrl = "http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/your_plugin_name(lower-cased)/files.rss";
if (checkForUpdates) {
this.updateChecker = new UpdateChecker(this, updateCheckUrl);
if (this.updateChecker.updateNeeded()) {
this.getLogger().info("New version ("
+ this.updateChecker.getVersion()
+ " has been released, get it from "
+ this.updateChecker.getLink() + "!");
make sure to make the second updateCheckUrl Spelled EXACTLY like that.
you made URL all caps on the second one. I had to fix it.

 

@MCnumi Thanks. Anyway, if you're making your plugin in Eclipse, it will tell you you that variable does not exist, but thanks though