Un-Publish/Deprecate vs. Install Other Version

[James@Work]

When I un-publish or deprecate a package I would expect that it would not be visible to the end users to select for install. However, after first trying deprecate and then Un-Publish I learned that they are all still on the list of "Install Other Version" found by right-clicking on a package. Even worse, I learned that these packages (Un-Publish & Deprecate) are all still available to the user since copies remain in the ProgramData (C:\ProgramData\JKI\VIPM\cache) directory.

 

So, I need recommendations on the best practice to remove these (Un-Published & Deprecated) versions from the right-click listing and the best process to use for deleting them from the cache directory. From testing, I learned the right-click menu is created from the cache directory. And, I should be able to delete cached versions with a post install action. However, this will mean continually modifying my post install action VIs every time I deprecate or un-publish a version of one of my packages.

 

I'm hoping there is an automated method/setting I have overlooked that deletes deprecated & un-published versions from the local cache.

 

Thanks and regards,

 

James R. Jones

Halliburton Energy Services

[Jim Kring]

Hi James,

 

There's a setting for showing or hiding deprecated packages. Do you have "Show deprecated packages" enabled? If this setting is FALSE, then I think all deprecated packages are not shown in the Install Other Version list.

 

[James@Work]

Jim,

 

I don't have that option checked, however, that wouldn't correct the issue I am trying to address.

 

If I Un-Publish or Deprecate a package from the Repository Manager I would expect that end users would not be able to use or re-install that package. However, since the right-click menu (list of packages) is built from package versions in the cache directory, any packages they have previously installed remain visible and can be re-installed from the cached copy. So, if I have a package version that had a critical bug, I cannot make certain that it is no longer used by simply using Un-Publish or Deprecate.

 

I guess I'll try creating a post install action to delete all previous package versions from the cache directory.

 

Thanks for the response.

 

James

[Jim Kring]

Hi James,

 

Here's the reasoning behind the current behavior:

 

- If a user installs a package, it gets added to the package cache (regardless of where it came from: double-clicked from the desktop or downloaded from a repository)

- The package list gets populated from a combination of the repository and what's found in the cache.

 

Now, it might make sense to tweak this behavior, such that deprecated packages (as defined by a repository) are flushed from the cache. I think that this behavior would meet your needs and wouldn't have any negative side-effects (except that people who choose to actively install a deprecated package would need to download it again, since it wouldn't ever be cached).

 

Additionally, it might be helpful if unpublished packages (when we query the repo and we detect that it was in the repo previously but no longer in the repo) were flushed from the cache. This would be a little trickier, since we would have to catch the event at the time the package is unpublished (we would see the package is published and then it disappears from the repository's package list).

 

I'll pass the ideas along to the JKI team.

[James@Work]

^{I hadn't worked on this issue until today and found I need data for the Post-Install custom Action.vi}

^{Is the Package Version available in the Variant data?}

 

^{If not, is there a way to get this information programmatically?}

 

^{Thanks for any suggestions.}

 

^James