cordova - Phonegap Android app trigger update programmatically

Question

I am building an Android app that is hosted on a server outside Google Play. I need the app to check for new version and prompt user to update when the app starts.

I built a mechanism to check for new version (the app checks for a file on server and compares version) which is working well. Then I prompt user to update, but if user chooses to proceed with the update, I'm not able to trigger the download and installation of the apk.

I tried simply opening the apk url:

window.open(apkURL);

where the apkURL is the full http link to the .apk file hosted on server.

But it doesn't seem to do anything.

I've been researching but I don't find an answer on how to do this. I found some suggestions using native code, like this post Install Application programmatically on Android but I don't know how to do that from within my Phonegap app.

Intent promptInstall = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW)
.setData(Uri.parse("file:///path/to/your.apk"))
.setType("application/vnd.android.package-archive");
startActivity(promptInstall); 

Is this the right way to trigger the update? How can something like this be done from within a Phonegap app?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I finally managed to implement this, using the File api and the WebIntent plugin. I will post the solution here in case it helps anyone.

The code downloads the apk from a remote server to the download folder in the sdcard and then triggers the install.

window.requestFileSystem(LocalFileSystem.PERSISTENT, 0, function(fileSystem){
fileSystem.root.getFile('download/filename.apk', {
    create: true, 
    exclusive: false
  }, function(fileEntry) {
    var localPath = fileEntry.fullPath,
    fileTransfer = new FileTransfer();        
    fileTransfer.download(apkURL, localPath, function(entry) {
        window.plugins.webintent.startActivity({
            action: window.plugins.webintent.ACTION_VIEW,
            url: 'file://' + entry.fullPath,
            type: 'application/vnd.android.package-archive'
            },
            function(){},
            function(e){
                alert('Error launching app update');
            }
        );                              

    }, function (error) {
        alert("Error downloading APK: " + error.code);
  });
  }, function(evt){
      alert("Error downloading apk: " + evt.target.error.code);                                               
  });
}, function(evt){
alert("Error preparing to download apk: " + evt.target.error.code);
});