Firmware update flow misleading and redundant

seth_flic

Regardless of whether a firmware update is actually available, the "Check for New Firmware" button available from the hub "Settings" page will always report "Ready to Install! This will update your hub firmware to the latest version" with a confusingly labeled "Check Firmware" button (didn't I just do this?). When pressed, this results in a "Could not update" screen with the text "Firmware already latest version".

This experience is confusing and has unncessary steps. Instead, you could automatically check for the existence of a new version on page load and show the result of that next to or under the current version on the settings page (preferably with a link to its release notes), changing the "Check for New Firmware" button to "Install Update".

seth_flic

@Emil How often is the settings UI collectively opened that this traffic could genuinely be a concern? This could be a super lightweight request, even just an http HEAD method to a CDN cached response that includes the version in one of the headers.

But let's say that even this traffic is too much, and you must avoid any network activity on Settings load. As soon as the "Check for New Firmware" button is pressed on the settings page, you could initiate this version check call to get the most recent version number. The next page should tell you either 1) that a new version is available and ready to be installed with an "Install" button (also showing the current version, the new version you will be installing, and a link to the release notes), or 2) that you already have the latest version with a "Back to Settings" button (e.g. "4.2.13 is already the latest version"). If there is a network issue, you could report that here with a "Retry" button.

If you are already checking and automatically updating the firmware every 24 hours, that information should be shown in the interface, too. Maybe an info button next to the "Hub Version" on that settings page that explains this. Ideally you would also show a log of the last N firmware updates, or the timestamp of the most recently installed update and link to its release notes at the very least.

Emil

@seth_flic We already check the firmware automatically once every 24 hours and update it if a new version is available.

The "Ready to install" message indicates that it the hub has internet and therefore can install (if there is a firmware update available).

We have made a few iterations of this UI but apparently it's still not 100% good. We would like to avoid making an internet request to check if a firmware is available every time the settings UI is opened. If you have a better idea of how the UI should look like that does not involve making an internet request before actually starting the update, let us know.