Add string comparison for Update platform

[chemelli74]

Current implementation of version comparison is based on AwesomeVersion:

https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/edad766fd3c30cd88676898e5219fff394e9c7ff/homeassistant/components/update/__init__.py#L182-L185

For some devices, ex. Shelly gen 1 devices, this always fails with AwesomeVersionCompareException.

Strings are as follow:

• latest_version: "20230913-111730/v1.14.0-gcb84623"
• installer_version: "20231107-162609/v1.14.1-rc1-g0617c15"

Note: Shelly gen2/3 devices work fine as the strings are "2.1.0" and "2.2.0-beta7".

Proposed change is to introduce the ability to make a pure string comparison.
Here the PR with the implementation: home-assistant/core#124797

[chemelli74]

Another option could be to introduce 2 new methods that are optionally implemented by each integration:

• latest_version_parsing()
• installed_version_parsing()

and modify only the state method:

latest_version_parsing = self.latest_version_parsing or self.latest_version
installed_version_parsing = self.installed_version_parsing or self.installed_version
 try:
            newer = _version_is_newer(latest_version_parsing, installed_version_parsing)
        except AwesomeVersionCompareException:
            # Can't compare versions, already tried exact match
            return STATE_ON
        return STATE_ON if newer else STATE_OFF

[emontnemery]

Another proposal: Make the _version_is_newer function a method of UpdateEntity so integrations can override it. Would that work @chemelli74 ?

[chemelli74]

Yes, I would say so.