[Diggory Laycock]

Here's an idea:

How about if every app had a standard entry in their Plist that was a URI to an XML file on the web (maintained by the software developer).

This XML file would contain meta-data about the current version etc...

Then you could have a system-wide app that checked the version of any installed apps periodically - and commony used apps when they were launched.

The beauty of this system would be that the apps themselves would not have to be launched to be checked - and it would not be reliant on a central DB (like versiontracker et al. )

[sandsl]

Good idea.

[Brass]

Already exists! I tried it out with one of my apps and it worked okay. I stopped using it however when I got no feedback from users when I asked them if anyone used it.

I decided it was too much trouble to update the version info elswhere (as part of my deployment routine) if nobody in user-land used it.

I forget the name of the software... extended software updater, or something like that.

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by Brass:
Already exists! I tried it out with one of my apps and it worked okay. I stopped using it however when I got no feedback from users when I asked them if anyone used it.

I decided it was too much trouble to update the version info elswhere (as part of my deployment routine) if nobody in user-land used it.

I forget the name of the software... extended software updater, or something like that.

I'm not as original as I thought I was!

If the sites like VT were to accept this kind of file then updating would be even easier - you'd tell them that the file was updated - and they could use the data from the file. I doubt they'd do it though - as it would undermine their revenue streams (VT Pro etc..)

...

i've found the product that you are talking about:

http://alphaomega.software.free.fr/e...20Updater.html

It seems to use a closed format (which is a shame):

- to create a file called "Updater.esud" (which in fact can be named the way you want, not necessarily Updater.esud, but that must have the extension .esud) and include it in your application bundle (in the Content folder that you can open with a right click (that already contains at least an Info.plist file)),
- to create a file called "version.txt" .....

My idea is slightly different (in philosophy) - I wouldn't want to make an update app - or start a DB-driven site that catalogues versions. I'd like to set an open standard that would mean other people could make update apps.

This way developers only have to code one "version file" - and users could choose which ever app they preferred - as long as it conformed to the standards.

Like the web - actually I must admit I got the idea from Tim Berners-Lee's lecture on "The Semantic Web" - which was about RDF - meta-data for data on the net.

[Brass]

For memory, the format was not particularly closed. It was not XML, but was a text file (I think). You could therefore create the file(s) by hand or with any other application if you wanted to, and in theory, could write another application that would use them if you wanted to.

However, using the generator utility to create the file made sure it was in the required format.

[Kristoff]

Java Web Start?

Of course, only works for Java apps.