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Demo In-console downloader I made for Portable Apps

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nerd101
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Demo In-console downloader I made for Portable Apps

I'm not sure if I should be posting this here, but this place seems to be the most relevant.

A feature that I would love to see in Portable Apps is in-console downloading, app browsing and installing. For fun, I went ahead and created a demo of this myself. I sent an email to Portable Apps asking them what they though of my ideas, also sending them screenshots and a download link for the demo I made. I am hoping that one day something like this will be included in Portable Apps. I would like the community's opinion on this matter and my demo.

Instad of typing out everything again, I shall paste the email I sent to Portable Apps which will tell you everything about the demo and give you links to screenies and downloads.

The Letter:
Dear Recipient,

I love portable apps; and I want to help make it even better. One thing that I noticed in portable apps is that when you click "Get more apps", the user is just linked to a web page and all downloads are hosted on SourceForge.net, which some users find tedious at times. I think that something that Portable Apps should have is the ability to download and install software (seemingly) within portable apps itself, with Portable Apps having a unique online "app store" where the user can browse through and download portable apps directly through the portable apps console. For fun, I decided to have a go at making something like this myself. There is a demo download of everything I am going to speak of at the bottom of this email. I have created a "technology demo" of this "apps store" (you can find the demo at the bottom of the page). The demo has only one app available for download - Mozilla Firefox (it temporarily downloads from a Softpedia mirror.) The demo allows the user to select Firefox from a "list", view information on it and download and install it directly through the program demo. I have made some screen shots of the demo, which you can find here:

"The app store interface"
1: http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae98/EvilCabbage/store1.png
"The downloading dialog
2: http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae98/EvilCabbage/store2.png
"The store blending with the main console of portable apps"
3: http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae98/EvilCabbage/store3.png

Demo Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?1vzzdgnzmmu

About the Demo:
Firstly, the demo was created in Multimedia Fusion Developer 2. You will need this program and the download extension to open the included source files.
Secondly, please run "store.exe", instead of "download.exe". "store.exe" is the main application for the store and the downloader requires that you run the store first for it to work.

I hope you like this demo, because (with your permission) I would really like to create a proper version of the store and downloader system that will be included with a future version of Portable Apps.

I am registered on the portable apps site as "nerd101".

Thanks and My Regards
-Henry Fagan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, what do you guys think?

NathanJ79
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...

First and foremost, they are working on a program/feature called PortableApps.com Updater (or PA.c App Updater) that will mostly do this. A beta version which mostly works (I used an older version) exists in the beta testing forum. This will be an integrated feature down the road.

You may have noticed that your screenshot (look at the first one) is broken. Take "OS" off and it would look OK. The only OS they have up here is just instructions to make an old version of Mac OS 7 (I think) boot off a flash drive. It's questionable and illegal if you don't have a legal copy anyway. Most users seem to support scrapping the category, and effort hasn't been made to get actual, working and legal portable Linux distros up there, so it's safe to skip.

Also, downloading regular Firefox won't help, but you might be able to pull Portable Firefox from the Sourceforge mirrors. SF may even have an API for this.

BuddhaChu
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welcome

Heya Henry, welcome to the forums!

I understand what you're trying to accomplish which is add in an "App Store" widget to the PortableApps platform. I think the difference between what you're trying to do and the "Updater" others are working on is (AFAIK), you need to download and install the app first, then you can update it with the Updater. Your concept is it shows the apps in an "Apps Store" where people can download just the Platform and install from there.

(I think I got all that right...correct me on the Updater or this software if need be.)

I think you should contact John Haller (scroll to the bottom of this page and use the Developer email) and ask him about working with the PortableApps Updater team and create an Apps Store widget for the Platform where you can both install software and update it. (Side note: the Updater part needs to be standalone for those of us that install PortableApps to the same directory, but don't use the Platform menu to launch them.)

In other words, you have programming skillz and energy we need to get focused in the right direction to benefit PortableApps in some way. Contacting John Haller will get the ball rolling in the right direction.

You do know the PortableApps Platform is coded in Delphi (Object Pascal) right? Do you know that programming language?

Once again, welcome to the PortableApps forums! Smile

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John T. Haller
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Similar

We have similar functionality in the PortableApps.com Updater... ie., it can add apps (download and install) in addition to update apps, all within the same interface. The interface is a bit limited and this functionality will be disabled in the 2.0 build. It will probably be rebuilt in Delphi to function similarly to Adding new apps in Ubuntu at a later date.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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