ember-app-version

This addon exposes a service that polls a URL to determine if a newer version of the Ember app than the one that is currently running in the user's browser is available. The app can then decide to reload itself, show the user a message prompting to reload, etc.

Depending on config, the service can read JSON at the URL (including traversing a configured path to version data) or just plain text. It is currently unopinionated about version numbers and just performs a simple comparison. If the URL version mismatches the browser version it will assume the URL version is newer.

Also - this addon will work with https://github.com/ember-cli-deploy/ember-cli-deploy-json-config out the box with a couple of config tweaks (see below).

Addon is useful when:

• there is a critical hotfix that needs to pushed to all users
• users have kept a tab open in their browser for days/weeks/years and their current version is becoming unstable as the API/etc changes
• you have a shiny new feature and need emotional validation from knowing all your users are forced to use it immediately. Without exception.

Installation

• ember install ember-app-version

Usage

Using the app-version service:

• isNewer: Flag used to trigger actions like showing a message or reloading when a new version of the app is available.
• latestVersion: The retrieved latest version.
• start(): Start polling the URL for versions.
• restart(): Restarts the polling (the initial pollDelay will be used again).
• stop(): Stops polling.

Configuration

This addon uses the Ember CLI project's configuration as defined in config/environment.js.

Configuration Parameters

• pollInterval (Default: 300000 5 minutes): In ms. Interval between polls to the URL.
• pollDelay (Default: 1800000 30 minutes): In ms. Initial delay before polling starts. A freshly loaded app should be assumed to be latest version so no need to start polling straight away.
• autostart (Default: true): Start the polling service on app load.
• isEnabled (Default: true): Whether the service is enabled or not. E.g this should probably be disabled in the development environment.
• url (Default: version.json): The URL to be polled. Can be relative or absolute.
• versionPath (Default: version): The path to traverse to obtain the version value. If value for this, reponse is is treated as JSON. If null, treated as plain text.
• extractConfigFromIndexJSON (Default: false): Special case setting when using ember-cli-deploy-json-config. Set to true to extract the config from the payload.
• fetchOptions (Default: {}): Allows you to set options on the fetch request. E.g you can control cache options, headers, cors mode, etc.

Example configuration for ember-cli-deploy-json-config

Install https://github.com/ember-cli-deploy/ember-cli-deploy-json-config along with the rest of your deploy pipeline

...
  "app-version": {
    url: "index.json",
    versionPath: "APP.version",
    extractConfigFromIndexJSON: true,
    fetchOptions: {
        cache: "no-store"
    }
  }
...

Example

A common pattern is to create a component in your app and insert it into application.hbs. For example:

application.hbs

{{app-new-version}}
{{outlet}}

component.js

...
export default Component.extend({
  appVersion: inject("app-version"),

  actions: {
    reload() {
      set(this, "isReloading", true);
      window.location.reload(true);
    },

    dismiss() {
      get(this, "appVersion").restart();
    }
  }
});

template.hbs

{{#if appVersion.isNewer}}
  <h1>There is a new version of the app available</h1>
  <button {{action "reload"}}>Reload</button>
  <button {{action "dismiss"}}>Do it later</button>
{{/if}}

Running

• ember serve
• Visit your app at http://localhost:4200.

Running Tests

• npm test (Runs ember try:each to test your addon against multiple Ember versions)
• ember test
• ember test --server

Building

• ember build

For more information on using ember-cli, visit https://ember-cli.com/.