custom_upgrader

Description:

custom upgrader

Custom Upgrader #
Flutter package for prompting users to upgrade when there is a newer version of the app in the store.


When a newer app version is availabe in the app store, a simple alert prompt or card is
displayed. With today's modern app stores, there is little need to persuade users to upgrade
because most are already using the auto upgrade feature. However, there may be times when
an app needs to be updated more quickly than usual, and nagging a user to upgrade will entice
the upgrade sooner. Also, with Flutter supporting more than just Android and iOS platforms in the
future, it will become more likely that users on other app stores need to be nagged about
upgrading.
UI #
The UI comes in two flavors: alert or card. The UpgradeAlert class is used to display the
popup alert prompt, and the UpgradeCard class is used to display the inline material design card.
Localization #
The text displayed in the upgrader package is localized in many languages, and supports customization.
Release Notes #
The release notes are displayed by default when a new version is available. On Android
the release notes are taken from the the WHAT'S NEW section on Google Play when
available, otherwise the main app description is used.
On iOS the release notes are taken from the App Store What's New section.
For appcast), the release notes are taken from the description field.
Alert Example #
Just wrap your body widget in the UpgradeAlert widget, and it will handle the rest.
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:custom_upgrader/custom_upgrader.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
MyApp({
Key key,
}) : super(key: key);

@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Upgrader Example',
home: Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text('Upgrader Example'),
),
body: UpgradeAlert(
child: Center(child: Text('Checking...')),
)
),
);
}
}
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Screenshot of alert #

Cupertino Alert Example #
You can also display a Cupertino style dialog by using the dialogStyle parameter.
body: UpgradeAlert(
dialogStyle: UpgradeDialogStyle.cupertino,
child: Center(child: Text('Checking...')),
)
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Screenshot of Cupertino alert #

Card Example #
Just return an UpgradeCard widget in your build method and a material design card will be displayed
when an update is detected. The widget will have width and height of 0.0 when no update is detected.
return Container(
margin: EdgeInsets.fromLTRB(12.0, 0.0, 12.0, 0.0),
child: UpgradeCard());
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Screenshot of card #

Customization #
The UpgradeAlert widget can be customized by setting parameters in the constructor of the
UpgradeAlert widget.

appcastConfig: the appcast configuration, defaults to null
client: an HTTP Client that can be replaced for mock testing, defaults to null
durationUntilAlertAgain: duration until alerting user again, which defaults to 3 days
debugDisplayAlways: always force the upgrade to be available, defaults to false
debugDisplayOnce: display the upgrade at least once once, defaults to false
debugLogging: display logging statements, which defaults to false
messages: optional localized messages used for display in upgrader
onIgnore: called when the ignore button is tapped, defaults to null
onLater: called when the later button is tapped, defaults to null
onUpdate: called when the update button is tapped, defaults to null
shouldPopScope: called when the back button is tapped, defaults to null
showIgnore: hide or show Ignore button, which defaults to true
showLater: hide or show Later button, which defaults to true
showReleaseNotes: hide or show release notes, which defaults to true
canDismissDialog: can alert dialog be dismissed on tap outside of the alert dialog, which defaults to false (not used by UpgradeCard)
countryCode: the country code that will override the system locale, which defaults to null (iOS only)
minAppVersion: the minimum app version supported by this app. Earlier versions of this app will be forced to update to the current version. Defaults to null.
dialogStyle: the upgrade dialog style, either material or cupertino, defaults to material, used only by UpgradeAlert, works on Android and iOS.

Android Back Button #
When using the UpgradeAlert widget, the Android back button will not
dismiss the alert dialog by default. To allow the back button to dismiss the
dialog, use shouldPopScope and return true like this:
UpgradeAlert(
shouldPopScope: () => true,
);
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iOS Country Code #
When your app is not in the iOS US App Store, which is the default, you must use
the countryCode parameter mentioned above. The upgrader package does not know
which country app store to use because it is not provided by Apple. It assumes
the app is in the US App Store.
Limitations #
These widgets work on both Android and iOS. When running on Android the Google
Play Store will provide the latest app version.
When running on iOS the App Store will provide the
latest app version. In all cases, the widget will display the prompt at the
appropriate times.
On Android, the version number is often not available from the Google Play
Store, such as with the
Google Maps
app. In this case, the version is listed as Varies with device. That is not a
valid version for upgrader and cannot be used. The upgrader widget will not be
displayed in this case.
There is an appcast that can be used to remotely configure the
latest app version. See appcast below for more details.
Appcast #
The class Appcast, in this Flutter package, is used by the Upgrader widgets
to download app details from an appcast,
based on the Sparkle framework by Andy Matuschak.
You can read the Sparkle documentation here:
https://sparkle-project.org/documentation/publishing/.
An appcast is an RSS feed with one channel that has a collection of items that each describe
one app version. The appcast will decscribe each app version and will provide the latest app
version to Upgrader that indicates when an upgrade should be recommended.
The appcast must be hosted on a server that can be reached by everyone from the app. The appcast
XML file can be autogenerated during the release process, or just manually updated after a release
is available on the app store.
The Appcast class can be used stand alone or as part of Upgrader.
Appcast Example #
This is an Appcast example for Android.
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
// On Android, setup the Appcast.
// On iOS, the default behavior will be to use the App Store version.
final appcastURL =
'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/larryaasen/upgrader/master/test/testappcast.xml';
final cfg = AppcastConfiguration(url: appcastURL, supportedOS: ['android']);

return MaterialApp(
title: 'Upgrader Example',
home: Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text('Upgrader Example'),
),
body: UpgradeAlert(
appcastConfig: cfg,
child: Center(child: Text('Checking...')),
)),
);
}
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Appcast Sample File #
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:sparkle="http://www.andymatuschak.org/xml-namespaces/sparkle">
<channel>
<title>Debt Now App - Appcast</title>
<item>
<title>Version 1.15.0</title>
<description>Minor updates and improvements.</description>
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Dec 2018 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<enclosure url="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moonwink.treasury" sparkle:version="1.15.0" sparkle:os="android" />
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
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Appcast Class #
final appcast = Appcast();
final items = await appcast.parseAppcastItemsFromUri('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/larryaasen/upgrader/master/test/testappcast.xml');
final bestItem = appcast.bestItem();
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Customizing the display #
The strings displayed in upgrader can be customzied by extending the UpgraderMessages class
to provide custom values.
As an example, to replace the Ignore button with a custom value, first create a new
class that extends UpgraderMessages, and override the buttonTitleIgnore function. Next,
when calling UpgradeAlert (or UpgradeCard), add the paramter messages with an instance
of your extended class. Here is an example:
class MyUpgraderMessages extends UpgraderMessages {
@override
String get buttonTitleIgnore => 'My Ignore';
}

UpgradeAlert(messages: MyUpgraderMessages());
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Language localization #
The strings displayed in upgrader are already localized in various languages. New languages will be
supported in the future with minor updates.
Languages supported:

English ('en')
Arabic ('ar')
Bengali ('bn')
Filipino ('fil')
French ('fr')
German ('de')
Hungarian ('hu')
Indonesian ('id')
Italian ('it')
Kazakh ('kk')
Korean ('ko')
Persian ('fa')
Polish ('pl')
Portuguese ('pt')
Russian ('ru')
Spanish ('es')
Tamil ('ta')
Turkish ('tr')
Ukrainian ('uk')
Vietnamese ('vi')

The upgrader package can be supplied with additional languages in your code by extending the UpgraderMessages class
to provide custom values.
As an example, to add the Spanish (es) language (which is already provided), first create a new
class that extends UpgraderMessages, and override the message function. Next, add a string for
each of the messages. Finally, when calling UpgradeAlert (or UpgradeCard), add the paramter messages with an instance
of your extended class. Here is an example:
class MySpanishMessages extends UpgraderMessages {
/// Override the message function to provide custom language localization.
@override
String message(UpgraderMessage messageKey) {
if (languageCode == 'es') {
switch (messageKey) {
case UpgraderMessage.body:
return 'es A new version of {{appName}} is available!';
case UpgraderMessage.buttonTitleIgnore:
return 'es Ignore';
case UpgraderMessage.buttonTitleLater:
return 'es Later';
case UpgraderMessage.buttonTitleUpdate:
return 'es Update Now';
case UpgraderMessage.prompt:
return 'es Want to update?';
case UpgraderMessage.title:
return 'es Update App?';
}
}
// Messages that are not provided above can still use the default values.
return super.message(messageKey);
}
}

UpgradeAlert(messages: MySpanishMessages());
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You can even force the upgrade package to use a specific language, instead of the
system language on the device. Just pass the language code to an instance of
UpgraderMessages when displaying the alert or card. Here is an example:
UpgradeAlert(messages: UpgraderMessages(code: 'es'));
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iTunes Search API #
There is a class in this Flutter package used by the upgrader widgets to download app details
from the
iTunes Search API.
The class ITunesSearchAPI can be used standalone to query iTunes for app details.
ITunesSearchAPI Example #
final iTunes = ITunesSearchAPI();
final resultsFuture = iTunes.lookupByBundleId('com.google.Maps');
resultsFuture.then((results) {
print('results: $results');
});
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Results #

Command Line App - Android #
There is a command line app used to display the results from Google Play Store. The code is located in
bin/playstore_lookup.dart, and can be run from the command line like this:
$ dart playstore_lookup.dart id=com.google.android.apps.mapslite
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Results:
playstore_lookup releaseNotes: • Support plus.codes URLs• Bug fixes
playstore_lookup version: 152.0.0
...
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Command Line App - iOS #
There is a command line app used to display the results from iTunes Search. The code is located in
bin/itunes_lookup.dart, and can be run from the command line like this:
$ dart itunes_lookup.dart bundleid=com.google.Maps
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Results:
upgrader: download: https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.google.Maps
upgrader: response statusCode: 200
itunes_lookup bundleId: com.google.Maps
itunes_lookup releaseNotes: Thanks for using Google Maps!
itunes_lookup trackViewUrl: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-maps-transit-food/id585027354?uo=4
itunes_lookup version: 5.58
itunes_lookup all results:
{resultCount: 1, results:
...
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Contributing #
All comments and pull requests are welcome.