Publishing a release

How a website administrator puts an installer up for download: uploading a build, deciding how far back users may go, and taking a bad build down again.

Website admin Only a website administrator can see the Releases page or reach anything behind it. Resellers, organisation administrators and end users have no way in and no link to one.

Before the first release: storage

Installers are not kept in the product database — they live in cloud storage that the server has to be told about. Until that is done the page shows:

Release storage is not configured
Uploading is disabled, the message names the settings the server is missing, and any releases already in the catalogue are still listed — so a half-configured server never looks empty when it is not.

This is not something you fix in the browser. Whoever runs the server sets the storage address and credentials in the server's configuration and restarts it; the message on the page names what is missing. Once it is set, the page tells you which storage it is writing to, so what you are about to upload to is never a guess.

Publishing one build

Build the installers first and keep the checksum the build produced — you will compare it in a moment.
Open Releases in the admin navigation.
Fill in Upload a release:
- Product — the desktop agent, or the CAD system the add-in is for. One upload per product: a CAD installer and the agent installer are separate entries.
- Version — the four-part version the build carries, for example 1.2.0.0. The page offers the number it finds in the file name; check it against the file, because this is the number the update check compares. A wrong number here either hides a new build or nags everybody about an old one.
- Release notes — plain text, shown under the product on the downloads page. Users read this; write it for them.
- Installer file — the installer itself, up to 1 GB.
Press Upload and wait. The page streams the file to storage and holds until storage confirms it — a 30 MB installer takes a few seconds on an office connection, a 400 MB one takes minutes. Do not leave the page while it runs.
When it finishes, the page prints the size and the SHA-256 the server computed as the bytes went past. Compare it with the hash from the build. If they differ, the file that arrived is not the file that was built — delete the entry and upload again.

The release is live the moment that line appears. It is in the public version check, so every running agent and add-in will see it at its next daily check, and it is on the downloads page for everyone whose licence covers it.

Re-uploading the same product and version replaces that entry and overwrites the file. That is for correcting a bad build under the same number. It is not a way to keep two different files at one version — the second one wins and the first is gone.

How far back users may go

Users are offered the three most recent versions of each installer, by version number; a hidden release does not count towards the three. There is nothing to set. When you publish a fourth, the oldest drops off the downloads page but stays in storage and in the list below — nothing is ever deleted automatically. A version outside the three is not reachable by guessing an address.

Older versions on request

A user who needs an older build asks for it from the Downloads page. That opens an ordinary support request, routed like any other (to the user's reseller, or to the global queue), and it appears in Older versions on request on this page with the ticket number, the requester and the version asked for.

Choose the release to give — the list holds every release of that product in storage, and the one matching the version asked for is pre-selected.
Press Grant. The requester, and nobody else, can download that release for seven days. A reply on the support request tells them where to find it.

A grant is refused if the requester's licence does not cover that product, and it never overrides the licence afterwards: if the licence lapses, the grant stops working. A reseller can grant the requests of its own customers the same way, through the support desk; a reseller employee cannot grant their own request.

The published list

Published lists everything in the catalogue, hidden entries included, with three actions:

Action	What it does	When to use it
Hide	Removes the release from everything except this page: the downloads page, the public version check, and any download link. The entry and the file stay.	A build that turned out bad. It can be brought back.
Unhide	Puts it back.	When the panic turned out to be something else.
Delete	Removes the catalogue entry and the stored file. If storage refuses the delete, the entry still goes and the page says so — the catalogue never promises a file that is not there.	Permanently. There is no undo.

Neither hiding nor deleting touches anyone who already installed that build. Nothing is uninstalled or rolled back remotely; hiding only stops it being offered from now on.

What a user sees afterwards

The three most recent versions of the installer for each CAD system on their licence, and of the desktop agent if they hold any CAD system at all, plus any older version granted to them — each with its version, release date, size and SHA-256, and a Download button. The button asks for a link valid for ten minutes that goes straight to storage; the portal never carries the bytes. Out of subscription, the page shows no links and explains why. See Downloads for the user's side.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means
“Release storage is not configured”	The server has no storage settings. Uploading is disabled until whoever runs the server sets them and restarts it.
The upload fails with a storage error	The credentials the server holds cannot write where they are pointed, or that place does not exist. Storage configuration, not a problem with your file.
A user says “nothing to download” but holds a licence	Check the CAD system is not hidden on the server settings page, that their subscription is active, and that their trial has not run out.
“That version is no longer offered”	That build is older than the three offered and was not granted to that user (or the grant expired). Grant it from Older versions on request.
A download link stopped working	It expired. Links are ten minutes long by design; pressing Download again issues a fresh one.
Nobody is being told about a new build	Check the Version on the entry. The update check compares numbers; a build published under a number that is not higher than the installed one is, correctly, not an update.