Linking up 2 different publisher IDs

[mikelitus]

Hi,

My problem is quite simple, but haven't been able to find any answer for this anywhere.

I'm in a situation where my application has been submitted and been live on Ovi for some time - The application is live using 'Publisher ID A'.

I now need to submit an updated version of my app using a new publisher ID (let's call it Publisher ID B).

For new users I'm not concerned. They will just download the app without any issues, but I'm concerned about the user journey for current users.

As far as I can see I will end up with a situation where old users will get an update which won't overwrite the current app, and therefore end up with my app installed twice on their handset (old and new version).

So, my question - how can I avoid this? Can I link up 2 different Publisher IDs somehow?

Would be great to hear your thoughts on this. Surely other people must have had similar situations.

[jscurtis]

It’s very unlikely that the user will end up with two versions both installed at once. Much more likely that the new version will fail to install.

To be able to have two versions at the same time, they would need different UIDs and files installed to sys\bin need to have a unique name. That’s why its common practice to name your exe SOMEAPP_20001234.exe where 20001234 is your UID (from Symbian signed) so your exe names is unique.

Have you changed the UID for your app with new publisher ID?

I assume that your package type is SA ?

This is from the developer lib:

"When upgrading using a package of type SA, the original package is entirely replaced by the new one. Any files not re-delivered by the new package are removed from the device. After the upgrade has completed, the new package cannot be removed separately from the original; to remove the upgrade, the entire package must be removed.


If the upgrade causes an executable to be removed, the corresponding private directory is deleted. Any directories and files that were created by the application outside of its private directory are not removed. It is the responsibility of the application to clean these up. It is therefore recommended that files created by an application should be located in the application's private directory.

If the upgrade causes an executable to be replaced, the private directory is untouched.

The version number of the upgrading package should be higher than that of the original. To be identified as an upgrade, the upgrading package file must have the same package UID, global vendor name, and package name as the original. If the package UID differs, then it will be considered to be an unrelated package, not an upgrade. If the package UID is the same but the vendor name or package name differs, then the installer will report an error."

[symbianyucca]

the problem there is actually that you would need to get that new publicer ID to be matched with the Symbian signed account. Simply because, you can sign wuth a Symbian accout only applications that are using UIDs assigned for the account. Thus if Symbian signed allowes you to have the new publicer ID for the account you are using the UIDs from, then it is possible. Gotta say that I'm not fully aware on how that goes, nor would I know the excat reason for changing the publicer ID.

Anyway, you could always also try using the uninstall APIs, and as soon as user starts the new version, tell the user that you need to uninstall the old one, before they can utilize the new version. And if the user does not want to uninstall the old version, then just exit the new version. That way only one of them would be used at anytime.