MarvelClient Upgrade Initiator

As the name suggest, MarvelClient Upgrade was first designed to upgrade existing Notes clients.

Soon, we discovered that an upgrade package should and could be used for initial deployments on new end user machines, too.

That's what the Initiator component is all about.

In short, Initiator allows you to

Deploy an upgrade package on a network resource or portable media (e.g., USB stick or external drive) and run it from there
Distribute only two small files (MCUpgrade.exe and MCUpgrade.zip) and have MarvelClient Upgrade fetch the installer files from a central location
Embed a static upgrade package into your initial deployment images for end user machines, so that your end users enjoy a best practices installed Notes client from day one
Create a static upgrade package for your software deployment solution, which checks for updates from a central location

MarvelClient Upgrade Initiator is configured as follows from within the Distribution tab in the MarvelClient Upgrade Configuration Wizard:

Do not use Initiator
Disables all Initiator functionality, meaning that MarvelClient Upgrade will not check for updates in a central location (=the Initiator source)
Use same Initiator source (default)
Enables all Initiator functionality and checks for updates in the same source as specified under Source from where end user clients download on the Distribution tab
Use different Initiator source
Enables all Initiator functionality, but checks for updates in the source specified in the then visible field underneath.
Note that file sources (mapped/mounted and UNC), http(s) and ftp(s) are supported, where file and http (not https!) sources support pause, as well as resume.
Enable local fallback
If enabled, and Initiator cannot connect to the Initiator source or find any upgrade configuration (MCUpgrade.zip) therein, it will install the "local" package.

How Initiator works in detail

When MarvelClient Upgrade is launched with Initiator enabled, it will perform the following steps:

Unzip MCUpgrade.zip to the OS temporary folder and read MCUpgrade.ini:UpgradeDirectory and MCUpgrade.ini:UpgradePackageName
Connect to the Initiator Source, download and unzip MCUpgrade.zip to the UpgradeDirectory and read MCUpgrade.ini:UpgradePackageName
If download in 2. was successful and UpgradePackageName from 1. and 2. differs, UpgradePackageName of Initiator Source is used, in all other cases local UpgradePackageName
If download in 2. was not successful and local fallback is disabled, Upgrade will exit.
Next, Initiator checks for whether the UpgradePackageName was already installed successfully (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\panagenda\MarvelClient\Upgrade\SuccessfulUpgrades\UpgradePackageName)
If UpgradePackageName was already installed successfully, MarvelClient Upgrade will exit.
Note: You can force a re-install by creating a file MCRepeat.txt in the folder from where you launch MCUpgrade.
Upgrade Initiator will now download any missing files into UpgradeDirectory.
After successful download of all files, Initiator will update MCUpgrade.exe in UpgradeDirectory if the launched executable is newer than the downloaded one (or MCUpgrade.exe did not exist in Initiator source)
Upgrade will now re-launch in UpgradeDirectory