Alter update mechanism to avoid REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES

[bellerbrock]

Description

Provide a summary of your changes including motivation and context.
If these changes fix a bug or resolves a feature request, be sure to link to that issue.

Removes REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES permission and sends user to directory with downloaded apk file to manually install updates.

Closes #655

Type of change

What type of changes does your code introduce? Put an x in boxes that apply.

• CHANGE (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• FEATURE (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• BUGFIX (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• ENHANCEMENT (non-breaking change which improves existing functionality)
• NONE (if none of the other choices apply. Example, tooling, build system, CI, docs, etc.)

Checklist:

• I have performed a self-review of my code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have updated relevant documentation

Changelog entry

Please add a one-line changelog entry below. This will be copied to the changelog file during the release process.

<bugfix>Fixed issue with in-app updates</bugfix>

[github-actions]

🤖 Pull request artifacts

file	commit
pr664-6-github-release-updates-Field-Book.apk	46dd32c

[trife]

It's really frustrating that we can't use the request_install_packages since your first iteration worked so well. The current implementation unfortunately doesn't prompt for the install after selected the apk- likely due to the missing permission. Unless I'm doing something wrong, we probably need to go to a simpler approach.

The easiest will probably be 1) detect an updated version and then 2) open the link to the newest version in the device browser since it inherently the ability to install packages. When "About" is opened, you can run the version checker in the background and change the title to "Update available" or "Running latest version".

[bellerbrock]

Yeah, it is a bummer. The functionality you're seeing is what's expected so far, it took a lot of trial and error to get the updates directory opened correctly but even then the apk files within it have not been installable from that view.

In my testing so far the intent types have been ACTION_VIEW, ACTION_CONTENT_VIEW, ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE, along with various permission grants. None have worked, and unfortunately the only alternative I'm seeing, ACTION_INSTALL_PACKAGE, requires the REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES permission in the manifest (at least in modern android versions).

I like the plan B of running the version checker in the background when About is opened, then providing an 'Update Available' link to the newest version or a 'Running latest version' message. I'll work on that

[bellerbrock]

@trife ok, the plan b approach is implemented now if you want to test it.