[REQ] Appcasting or Sparkle for automatic updates of rubies?

thinkbuild

Greetings and a heafty thanks to all of the amazing ruby wizards out there.

I was just wondering if it might be possible to somehow establish some kind of appcasting or sparkle-based method to let users know when you have adjusted or upgraded your scripts. Although I really enjoy looking at this formum, I think it would be fantastic if you (sorry! I am no programmer ;( might be able to establish such as system, but implimented in such a way (as a cross-platform framework?) which would then check on SU startup for updates to ALL installed rubies.

See:

http://connectedflow.com/appcasting/
http://www.thomaskeller.biz/blog/2007/08/04/taking-appcasts-to-the-next-level/
or (for Mac)
http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/
http://metaquark.de/appfresh/

Hope all are well,

Jason

thomthom

That'd be nice actually. Getting info when a ruby is updated. If Ruby Depot and Smustard implemented RSS feed of the script upload and updates, it would be a nice feature.

thinkbuild

Might it also be possible to set up an RSS linked to SketchUcation too...?

thomthom

Will we also get "My posts" a.k.a. egosearch as RSS also?

thinkbuild

Great news Coen! Are you looking at this functionality being integrated into SU directly (as via Sparkle &co.?) Or will it just be an RSS for manual updating?

azuby

Yes, it is possible:

to notify you of new updates
to "download" the updates
to "install" the updates

For the SCP* (Sketchup Community Plugin) I've added a simple update mechanism for link lists - this also could be used to get single, non-crypted script files. In combination with a little bit server-side programming (hopefully in Ruby, but unfortunately most poeple use PHP ) you could upload you scripts directly to your webspace without modifying other code and have them ready for automatically downloads.

azuby

SCP: It's open, you can digg into it

thomthom

The page that list the posts you've made. http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/search.php?search_id=egosearch <- this one
It'd be nice to have that as a feed.

thinkbuild

Greetings everyone.

@thinkbuild said:

Great news Coen! Are you looking at this functionality being integrated into SU directly (as via Sparkle &co.?) Or will it just be an RSS for manual updating?

@coen said:

I can't disclose details right now but it will be integrated into the new site we're working on. NOT inside SketchUp.

The Ruby guru's need to come up with an installer (I think Jim already created one actually) and which notifies the user if a script installed by the installer has been updated. But this is not my cup of tea. I just design and code web sites. I don't know the first thing about C++ or Ruby.

I think that the ideas you are talking about are very interesting and will certainly increase usefullness of the already hugely useful GSCF.

BUT my question is different - another topic, even, perhaps. I'm trying to find out if (or maybe even suggest) that the ruby community try to create some kind of standard aggregated database of updates, hosted somewhere (like here or another place), which is then "automagically" updated within Sketchup. Think: cydia on jailbroken iphones, or the Mac OS X software update systems...or maybe, the best example is for Firefox Add-ons...

It might work like this: each script has an identity number or so, assigned centrally in a software depository. (maybe this becomes a part of Smustard...?) Wherever. Then, on start, a script checks which id's are installed, and checks this against the list of known updates at the depository. If a match is made, the user is informed, and asked if they want to update - that's it.

So, although I am excited about the future developments to the "backend" of this forum, what I am really asking is if there could be some kind of agreement amoung ruby magicians to create a system like this.

Another place where this could be useful might be Fredo6's language library system - which, as I understand it, is really like a framework for translation (see the conversation about translating the eagerly awaited Windowizer 4 .... )

Hopefully my question/suggestion is clear...

best to all,

Jason

thinkbuild

Any more thoughts out there on this subject? Just curious...