Updating Haivision Helper

Updates to Haivision Helper may include new features, bug fixes, and/or security enhancements.

For the macOS and Windows User versions, at a configurable interval (default: every 24 hours starting from when the user logs in) Haivision Helper contacts the update server and submits an anonymous system profile containing information such as platform type, OS version, memory, and language. It then downloads and installs the latest applicable update.

There are currently three options for updating the Haivision Helper application:

• Haivision update server — By default, each instance of Haivision Helper sends out a daily update request.
• Your own update server — If required, updates for Haivision Helper can be hosted on a non-Haivision server, and Haivision Tech Support can assist with the setup. Only a basic web server is needed to serve three files. The necessary files are supplied by Haivision on an as-needed basis. The Helper is then configured by setting the environment variable HAIVISION_HELPER_UPDATE_URL to point to the hosted location. See Environment Variables for details. When hosting your own update server, the following options are available:
  • Optional pop-up window containing HTML-formatted release notes, and giving the user the option of accepting, delaying, or skipping the update.
    

    

  • Optional "Silent update" setting that allows updates to be installed automatically in the background with no intervention needed by the user.
  • Optional "Accept critical updates", whereby the “Skip This Version” option in the update pop-up window is disabled.
• Manual updates — Automatic updates can be disabled and network admins can re-deploy updated versions manually in the same fashion as the initial deployment.

Important

The Windows and macOS Enterprise versions of Haivision Helper do not support automatic updates. You may update the Windows and macOS Enterprise versions the same way it was initially installed/deployed onto your system.

Beta Builds

For Haivision customers who wish to participate in beta testing, beta versions of the software can also be installed via the update process, allowing users to take advantage of improvements ahead of the next official release. The update manifest can contain builds tagged as "beta". Helper always tries to update to the highest version build contained in the manifest file and will filter out beta builds unless the "Include Beta Builds" setting is checked in the Haivision Helper web interface.