I have an app published in the Play and App store, now I am in the work of publishing a new version for the app to both Play (Android) and App stores (iOS). Now, I want all the users to update to the new version when they use the app and not allow them to continue using the older version of the app without updating to the newer version.
Can anyone suggest me on how to force the users to update the app to the latest version once it is released in Play and App stores?
We must stop the old versions in the Play and App store.
For the future to do not stop (if we have some host - we should have it :) ):
good luck
I don't know whether it is professional way or not., but this is the idea which struck my mind.
Add a variable with that app's version in App.cs or Mainpage.cs and and API with the current version as response.
Now check with the app's version and current version and redirect to homepage / any other page.
var version = 1.0;
var currentversion = 2.0; /* from API */
if(version == currentversion)
{
Navigation.PushModalAsync(new HomePage());
}
else
{
Navigation.PushModalAsync(new UpdatePage());
}
How I am doing it my app is, when app starting in MyActivity I have code below
private void CompareVersion()
{
double currentVersion = 0d;
double appStoreversion =Convert.ToDouble(CosntValues.PlayStoreValues);
bool IsUpdateRequired = false;
if (Context.PackageName != null)
{
PackageInfo info = Context.PackageManager.GetPackageInfo(Context.PackageName, PackageInfoFlags.Activities);
string currentVersionStrig = info.VersionName;
currentVersion = Convert.ToDouble(currentVersionStrig);
}
try
{
if (IsUpdateRequired == false)
{
if (CheckNetConnection.IsNetConnected())
{
using (var webClient = new System.Net.WebClient())
{
var task = new VersionChecker();
task.Execute();
if ((appStoreversion.ToString() != currentVersion.ToString() && (appStoreversion > currentVersion)))
{
IsUpdateRequired = true;
}
}
}
}
if (IsUpdateRequired)
{
Activity.RunOnUiThread(() =>
{
AlertDialog dialog = null;
var Alertdialog = new Android.App.AlertDialog.Builder(Context);
Alertdialog.SetTitle("Update Available");
Alertdialog.SetMessage($"A new version of [" + appStoreversion + "] is available. Please update to version [" + appStoreversion + "] now.");
Alertdialog.SetNegativeButton("Cancel", (sender, e) =>
{
if (dialog == null)
{
dialog = Alertdialog.Create();
}
dialog.Dismiss();
});
Alertdialog.SetPositiveButton("Update", async (sender, e) =>
{
string appPackage = string.Empty;
try
{
appPackage = Application.Context.PackageName;
await Utilities.Logout(this.Activity);
var ints = new Intent(Intent.ActionView, Android.Net.Uri.Parse("market://details?id=" + appPackage));
ints.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.ClearTop);
ints.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.NoAnimation);
ints.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.NewTask);
Application.Context.StartActivity(ints);
//StartActivity(new Intent(Intent.ActionView, Android.Net.Uri.Parse("market://details?id=" + "com.sisapp.in.sisapp")));
}
catch (ActivityNotFoundException)
{
var apppack = Application.Context.PackageName;
//Default to the the actual web page in case google play store app is not installed
//StartActivity(new Intent(Intent.ActionView, Android.Net.Uri.Parse("https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=" + "com.app.in.app")));
await Utilities.Logout(this.Activity);
var ints = new Intent(Intent.ActionView, Android.Net.Uri.Parse("market://details?id=" + appPackage));
ints.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.ClearTop);
ints.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.NoAnimation);
ints.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.NewTask);
Application.Context.StartActivity(ints);
}
//this kills the app
Android.OS.Process.KillProcess(Android.OS.Process.MyPid());
System.Environment.Exit(1);
});
if (dialog == null)
dialog = Alertdialog.Create();
dialog.Show();
});
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
var objLog = new LogService();
objLog.MobileLog(ex, SISConst.UserName);
}
}
Followed by two separate above used classes
public class VersionChecker : AsyncTask
{
protected override Java.Lang.Object DoInBackground(params Java.Lang.Object[] @params)
{
var val1 = Jsoup.Connect("https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=" + "com.app.in.app" + "&hl=en")
.Timeout(30000).UserAgent("Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WindowsNT 5.1; en-US; rv1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6").Referrer("http://www.google.com")
.Get();
var val2 = val1.Select(".htlgb");
var val3 = val2.Get(7).ToString();
//here mobile app version is of 3 values like 2.1, 4.2 etc
var version = val3.Substring(val3.IndexOf(">") + 1, 3); //fetching only 3 values ex 1.1
CosntValues.PlayStoreValues = version;
return version;
}
}
public static class CosntValues
{
public static string PlayStoreValues { get; set; }
}
Disclaimer: Use your app package name & above code is statically supporting for 3 digit version like 1.1, 1.2 etc. Hope it help you
With this plugin I found a good solution and works perfectly in production. I strongly recommend this plugin. With this solution you can even give the user the possibility to go to the store right from your app
For example:
var isLatest = await CrossLatestVersion.Current.IsUsingLatestVersion();
if (!isLatest) //If the user does not have the last version
{
var update = await DisplayAlert("New version available", "There is a new version of our app. Would you like to download it?", "Yes", "No");
if (update)
{
//Open the store
await CrossLatestVersion.Current.OpenAppInStore();
}
}
