Check for Updates Privacy Information
An Oracle JDeveloper How To
Document
January, 2006
Introduction
Oracle JDeveloper 10g Release 3 (10.1.3) contains a new feature called
Check for Updates that allows you to easily discover, download, and
install new JDeveloper functionality and up-to-date patches. Oracle and
third parties regularly add extensions for users to download via Check
for Updates, so it's useful to keep checking periodically. In fact, you
can even allow JDeveloper to automatically Check for Updates when you
start the product, and notify you if updates or new extensions are
available.
When you use the Check for Updates feature, JDeveloper
issues an HTTP style request to the Oracle server where the update
center is located, in a very similar way to browsing a URL from your
web browser. The automatic Check for Updates feature is enabled by
default, so JDeveloper will issue an HTTP request on initial startup. In the interest of full disclosure, this document
describes what information is sent to the server as part of that
request, and how you can opt out of sending the requests if you are
uncomfortable with it.
What Information is Sent
In order to provide the best possible service to our
users, JDeveloper sends a few pieces of data as part of any Check for
Updates command in addition to what is sent in a typical HTTP request.
The following is an example of the HTTP_USER_AGENT information
dispatched over the network from JDeveloper:
JDeveloper/10.1.3.0.4 (Windows XP 5.1; x86; Java 1.5.0_05; NM; ea6bb3e3-0108-1000-8001-8223676a65f7; Studio Edition) 10.1.3.36.64
\-------------------/ \--------------/ \--/ \------------/ \-/ \-----------------------------------/ \-------------/ \----------/
| | | | | | | |
Product/Version OS Arch JavaVer Flags GUID Edition Build
- Product/Version = This is the name of the product and
the marketing version.
- OS = This is a typical part of the HTTP_USER_AGENT field
for most HTTP requests. It represents the name of the operating system
used by the client.
- Arch = This is the operating system architecture of the
machine used to make the request.
- JavaVer = This is the version of Java being used to
run the IDE.
- Flags = These flags are used to signify whether this is
the first time Check for Updates is being used, and whether it was
initiated as part of the automatic check at startup or manually.
Possible values are:
- Y | N: Whether this is the first time Check for Updates is
being used for this version.
- M | A: Whether this Check for Updates request was performed
manually (Help > Check for Updates), or as part of the automatic
Check for Updates at startup.
- GUID = This is a randomly generated value created the
first time Check for Updates is used and resent in subsequent requests.
The GUID contains no identifying information and cannot be
re-associated to a particular user or machine. It is used by the Check
for Updates feature to distinguish between users.
- Edition = This is the edition of the product being used.
Possible values are Java Edition, J2EE Edition, Studio
Edition.
- Build = This is the internal build number of the version
of the product being used.
Note that this document describes only the content
JDeveloper adds to the HTTP header as part of the HTTP_USER_AGENT
field. Additional, non-identifying information is also sent in
accordance with the HTTP
specification.
How to Disable the Feature
If you wish that this information not be sent, you
should not use the Check for Updates feature as part of the automatic
startup or manually (Help > Check for Updates). To disable the
automatic Check for Updates, go to Tools > Preferences and
select the Extensions node in the tree. From there, you can deselect
the Automatically Check for Updates option. Note, this only prevents
subsequent automatic checks. To prevent JDeveloper from checking for
updates from the initial startup, start JDeveloper using the
commandline:
jdev -J-Dide.cfu.autoskip=true
Then, proceed to Tools > Preferences and disable automatic
checking for updates as described above.
After disabling the automatic Check for Updates, and to look for
updates without using the manual approach (Help > Check for
Updates), you can point a browser to:
In using this approach, you will not get the benefit of JDeveloper only
displaying extensions that are valid for your environment.
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