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The version check system listener makes calls to the pentaho-commons jar file pentaho-versionchecker.jar. This jar file makes an http request to a webservice at pentaho.com which returns a list of available updates based on the release-flags and your operating system, determined by the java system property "os.name". To avoid repeated update notifications, a properties file is created in the user's home directory under .pentaho/.vercheck, which contains a unique identifier and a list of updates that have already been detected and logged.
WebService Call to Pentaho.com
The webservice call to pentaho is simply an HTTP GET request with the following GET parameters:
- protocolVer - specifies the Version Checker Protocol Version, currently 1.0
- depth - a masked bit value consisting of the type of updates to receive. The mask list includes:
- All OS Releases = 1
- Verbose Output = 2
- Major Releases = 4
- Minor Releases = 8
- RC Releases = 16
- GA Releases = 32
- Milestone Releases = 64
- Windows Releases = 128
- Mac Releases = 256
- Linux Releases = 512
- vi - a generated md5 checksum which is used to verify the authenticity of the request
- guid - a randomly generated unique identifier
- prodid -the product id to version check, POBS is the id for the BI Platform
- version - The full version string of the current version of the product
Here is an example parameter string that is sent to the server:
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?protocolVer=1.0&depth=152&vi=1142fca564f52589b9bc1b7be48c6321&guid=3b24b273-654d-11dc-9441-d1cf5202d758&prodID=POBS&version=1.6.0.RC3.831
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Disabling the Version Checker
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