Using permalinks for publishing software
I was surprised that I’ve found that many application developers are missing important things about the way they are publishing their new application installers (or releases if they do not have installers) on the web.
Use a permanent path to the current release, without versions, like: “http://myproject.org/latest.zip”
I will try to explain a simple and effective set of rules that can really improve the delivery of the latest versions of your application to the users.
- Do not name your installer setup.exe, use something like projectname_setup.exe or similar.
- Do not use the version in the setup name but put the version on the first page of the installer.
- Provide a permanent URL (permalink) for your latest release. This URL must link always to the latest versions of your installer. If you really want to change this URL you must provide a 301 or 302 HTTP redirect to the new URL.
- Make sure that your installer supports unattended mode (silent mode)
- Make sure it doesn’t require you to uninstall an existing older version of the software. If you really have to do this you must do it silently.
If you want to keep a history of your old releases you can implement this by having verioned filenames and by keeping a symlink from the latest.zip file to the current version.
How to setup your own scheduled install / update task
The batch sequence bellow can be added as a scheduled task. It’s very effective: it will download a newer version only when needed and will install it silently. Sometime simple things are working much better that complex ones – so no updater service or other things to slow down your computer.
@echo off
rem This line does download the latest version
wget --timestamp http://myproject.org/download/myproject.exe
rem This lines does an silent install of the latest version
myproject.exe /SILENT
The unattended parameters differs between different installers you may use:
- NullSoft Installation Systems (NSIS): /S
- MSI: /s /v”/qb”
- InstallShield with MSI: /s /a /s /v”/qb”
- Wise Installer: /s
- Inno Setup: /silent or /verysilent
If you need more information about unattended switches you can check here.
How to install other applications from your installer (dependencies)
If you want to install another application from your installer all you have to do is to download the latest version from the URL above and run the installer running in silent mode.
You don’t have to include it in your installer because the user may already have it installed and you don’t need to update your installer if a new version of your dependency is released.
So if you solved this problem in your application please add a comment here, I will add you application to the list of software complying with this small requirement.
Already ready: Sysinternals Utilities,
Wanted list: 7-Zip, Pidgin, Notepad++, Media Player Classic.
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