Is there any documentation for how the updater works?
I am interested in the ability to make the updater check alternative portable app directories, but unfortunately do not know delphi. However, I do a lot of web development, so was thinking I would take a swing at developing a portable app directory management solution. Then if I can complete that, maybe I will take a swing at learning enough delphi to hack a solution together.
I am assuming I can sniff the traffic and decode the request/response, but was thinking it might be better to build off actual documentation instead.
Thanks!
Joe
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The code is written in NSIS and available from the platform page. It is decently well commented.
By alternate directories, do you mean alternate directories on the drive or online? If on the drive, we may at some point support additional directories in addition to the default. If online, we encourage developers to submit all software to the official central repository we maintain so everyone can get access to everything. There aren't any other legal repositories of PAF software to speak of.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I did mean online, and will accept that my use case is an outlier.
I would say however, that as the portable apps platform gains more use, visibility and acceptance, you might consider allowing private repositories. For companies like mine this would represent a way to internally manage our legal, licensed applications alongside the platform, and all its open source free software into a single interface.
I should also say that you have created something very useful, and everyone's work is really appreciated. Every customer who has seen me using it has become a convert.
Thanks all!
Joe
The ability for paid partners to use private repositories as well as blacklist or whitelist apps from the central repository is being launched in the next few months. We have much of the code done internally already.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Your use-case is kind-of unusual, but I can see how it might be useful. It's actually pretty easy to change where the Updater gets it's database (updater.ini, which is now kept inside updater.7z) but you'll have to find/make your own way to keep your separate database up-to-date unless you're going to do it manually (like John does currently) which isn't too extremely difficult, but could definitely be improved upon.
I'd like to see a DevTest aware updater at some point but again the difficult part is in keeping the database up-to-date.
(I might make it if nobody else does before I get to it.)
So if you make some tool for generating/updating the Updater database I (and possibly John?) would be interested in seeing it.
~3D1T0R
The issue with any Development Test updater isn't keeping up with all the dev tests. It's the fact that most of the development tests are hosted on locations that do not support direct download from the updater.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I think hosting is not such a huge issue, because there are free hosts which allow for direct downloads such as from the updater, we could simply list a few hosts that are considered 'supported' and developers would have to upload to one of them if their app is to be included in the updater.
Or we could even go another route, and have the DevTest Updater supply links to the DevTest Threads so that the user can download them themselves, this way users could at least see that a new DevTest has been published easily, even if they can't directly download them from the Updater. (I suppose if we were to do it this way it might be better to call it an 'Update Checker' than an Updater, but that's really just semantics.)
~3D1T0R
The only reliable free hosts I know of that supports direct downloads is SourceForge and github, and they're only for open source software. I don't know of any reliable freeware hosts that support direct download.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
What do you think of the second option I mentioned?
Where testers could use a Development Test Update Checker, which would supply a list of the DevTests that they have installed which have updates available, and supply links to the forum threads associated with them so that the tester could at least see what updates were available without having to check each forum thread manually?
~3D1T0R