Sparkle 1.1 review
DownloadWith a few notable exceptions, most Mac software has really lame update functionality.
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With a few notable exceptions, most Mac software has really lame update functionality. Programs will usually just tell you that there’s a new version available, point you at the web site, and make you do the rest. I’m trying to fix that.
Sparkle is a module that developers can stick in their Cocoa applications (five-step install!) to get instant self-update functionality. By that, I mean that your app will be able to update itself, not just check for new versions: it’ll read the update information from an appcast on your server, download, extract, install, restart, and even offer to show the users release notes before they decide if they want to update.
It’s free, it’s easy, and it’ll make using a Mac better for everyone, so go for it!
Here are some key features of "Sparkle":
True self-updating—no action required from the user.
Supports appcasts for release information. Appcasts are cool.
Extracts updates from .tar, .tbz, and .tgz archives.
Displays a detailed status window to the user.
Can display release notes to the user before updating.
Seamless app integration—there’s no mention of Sparkle anywhere; your app’s name and icon are inserted everywhere automatically.
Really, really easy to install.
You don’t have to put any glue code for Sparkle anywhere in your project (it’s all through IB), so it’s trivial to upgrade or remove the module.
(Should be) good about error handling in bad conditions.
What's New:
Optimized framework size: now only 1.4mb with all localizations and 384kb with only English (an English-only version is in the Extras folder).
Added a new SUStatusChecker class for programmatically determining if a new version is available (see the docs); thanks, Evan Schoenberg!
Added support for apps using SIGCHLD; thanks, Augie Fackler!
Added a zh_CN update from JT Lee
Added a Polish update from Piotr Chylinski
Fixed DMG support for images with /Applications symlinks.
Fixed a really stupid interval-checking bug that could cause repeated hits to the appcast.
Fixed a bug where the check interval would be inconsistent if a value of 0 was stored in the user defaults.
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