Revision as of 05:17, 18 November 2007

Downloads examples

Contributors

• Denis Defreyne
• Andy Mabbett
• Chris Messina

Examples

Mozilla Addons

• Extension (single instance) e.g. NoScript
  • Extension version history (multiple instances of one app) e.g. NoScript history

Attributes

Extension name</dt>

The name of the extension.</dd>

Extension version</dt>

A numerical version number.</dd>

Extension author</dt>

Who created the extension with a link to their Addons profile.</dd>

Works with</dt>

Compatibility listing of browser(s) the plugin should work with.</dd>

Preview/Logo</dt>

An icon or screenshot(s) for the plugin.</dd>

Install now</dt>

Link to XPI file for installation (Mozilla browsers only).</dd>

Developer comments</dt>

Description of the plugin or installation instructions.</dd>

Version History</dt>

List of plugin releases with version numbers and release dates (with a link to complete revision history).</dd>

Reviews</dt>

A list of user-submitted reviews.</dd>

Discussions</dt>

A list of user-created discussions.</dd>

iusethis

• Download page, e.g. http://osx.iusethis.com/app/peek-a-boo
  • Version history or release notes
  • Lists older downloads when you click on the current version number.
• Supports auto-updating its database with appcasts, also generates appcasts, e.g. http://osx.iusethis.com/appcast/igtd
  • Every download page has a related appcast RSS feed (with autodiscovery)

iusethis provides RSS appcasts with Sparkle extensions. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:blogChannel="http://backend.userland.com/blogChannelModule"
     xmlns:iusethis="http://osx.iusethis.com/ns/rss"
     xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
     xmlns:sparkle="http://www.andymatuschak.org/xml-namespaces/sparkle"
     version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Appcast for iGTD</title>
    <link>http://osx.iusethis.com/app/igtd</link>
    <description>version history with a sparkle via iusethis.com</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <iusethis:universal>1</iusethis:universal>
    <iusethis:homepage>http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/</iusethis:homepage>
    <iusethis:developer>bartek:bargiel</iusethis:developer>
    <iusethis:usecount>517</iusethis:usecount>
    <iusethis:tags>GTD productivity get things done</iusethis:tags>
    <sparkle:appLicense>Freeware</sparkle:appLicense>
    <item>
      <title>iGTD 1.4.5.5</title>
      <link>http://osx.iusethis.com/app/versions/7961#ver_35136</link>
      <description><![CDATA[<p>... appcast description goes here ...</p>]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">35136</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:31:55 -0000</pubDate>
      <enclosure url="http://bargiel.home.pl/downloads/iGTD.dmg" type="application/octet-stream"/>
      <sparkle:shortVersionString>1.4.5.5</sparkle:shortVersionString>
    </item>
    <!-- ... more appcast items go here .. -->
  </channel>
</rss>

Some notes about the RSS appcast:

• sparkle:appLicense is something iusethis-specific, something the iusethis team seems to have made up. No idea why they are using the sparkle namespace here...
• sparkle:shortVersionString seems to be used instead of sparkle:version, and I'm not sure why.

Attributes

Application Name</dt>

Name of the application</dd>

Homepage URL</dt>

Link to homepage</dd>

Download URL</dt>

Link to file download</dd>

Appcast (Optional)</dt>

Link to Sparkle-RSS feed.</dd>

Developer (optional)</dt>

Name of the developer.</dd>

License</dt>

Dropdown list of these options: Freeware, Shareware, GPL, LGPL, BSD License, Charityware, Other Open Source, Commercial with demo</dd>

Keywords</dt>

Comma-separated list of keywords.</dd>

Description</dt>

Description of the application.</dd>

Universal binary</dt>

True/False for Intel/PPC compatibility.</dd>

Icon</dt>

32x32 pixel application icon.</dd>

Screenshot</dt>

Image of the application.</dd>

VersionTracker

• Download page, e.g. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/3410
  • Does not have a direct download link, but a link to a separate page that starts the download
  • Has a version history section
  • Does not list older downloads
  • Has a system requirements section

Attributes

Application Name</dt>

Name of the application</dd>

Application Icon</dt>

Name of the application</dd>

Tagline</dt>

A short description of the application.</dd>

Current Version</dt>

Version of the application.</dd>

Developer Link</dt>

Link to developer homepage.</dd>

Developer Name</dt>

Name of application developer.</dd>

Rating</dt>

Rating out of five stars (per version).</dd>

Release date</dt>

Date of software release.</dd>

License</dt>

License for software.</dd>

Price</dt>

Price of software.</dd>

Downloads</dt>

Downloads listed separately for current version and overall.</dd>

Download link</dt>

Link to application download.</dd>

File size</dt>

Approximate size of download in MB.</dd>

Product description</dt>

Long form description of application.</dd>

What's new in this version</dt>

Unordered list of changes in the current version.</dd>

Operating system requirements</dt>

An unordered list of compatible operating systems.</dd>

Screenshots</dt>

Links to screenshots of the application.</dd>

MySQL Downloads

• Download page, e.g. http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html
  • Very big page with downloads with different applications, architectures, OSes, etc
  • Does not list older downloads
  • No version history or release notes

MacUpdate

• Download page, e.g. http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/10225/yum
  • Has a version history section
  • Does not list older downloads
  • Has a direct download link
  • Has a system requirements section

Attributes

Application Title</dt>

Name of the application.</dd>

Application Icon</dt>

Icon for the application (64x64px).</dd>

Version</dt>

Version of the application.</dd>

Version history</dt>

Description of previous versions of the application.</dd>

Download link</dt>

Link to application download.</dd>

Short description</dt>

Short description of application (one-line).</dd>

Description</dt>

Long form description of application.</dd>

Requirements</dt>

An unordered list of compatible operating systems.</dd>

Keywords</dt>

List of keywords for the application.</dd>

Category</dt>

Single-selection from a rather extensive list of categories.</dd>

License</dt>

License for software; values: free, demo, shareware, commercial, updater.</dd>

Price</dt>

Price of software (USD).</dd>

OS</dt>

Classic OS and/or OS X.</dd>

Architecture (aka Platform)</dt>

PPC and/or Intel</dd>

Developer Name</dt>

Name of application developer.</dd>

Developer Link</dt>

Link to developer homepage.</dd>

Product URL</dt>

Link to external application homepage.</dd>

Developer Email</dt>

Email address of application developer.</dd>

Developer Phone</dt>

Phone number of application developer.</dd>

Screenshot</dt>

Links to a screenshot of the application.</dd>

Downloads</dt>

Downloads listed separately for current version and overall.</dd>

File size</dt>

Approximate size of download.</dd>

Release date</dt>

Date of software release.</dd>

Rating</dt>

Rating out of five stars (per version).</dd>

WordPress Plugins

WordPress generates plugin pages from a readme.txt file included with the plugin. It has its own validator and format standards.

Attributes

Plugin name</dt>

The name of the plugin.</dd>

Authors</dt>

Author field from the plugin file and Contributors field from the readme file.</dd>

Version</dt>

Version field from the plugin file.</dd>

Tags (as in categories)</dt>

Tags field from the readme file.</dd>

Last updated time</dt>

Time of last check in to the appropriate directory (trunk/ or the stable tag directory) after a version number change.</dd>

Creation time</dt>

Time of first check in.</dd>

Rating</dt>

A rating up to five stars.</dd>

Download link</dt>

The URL to download the plugin zip file.</dd>

Description</dt>

The description of the plugin.</dd>

From readme.txt

Contributors</dt>

WordPress.org usernames of contributors.</dd>

Donate link</dt>

Link for receiving donations.</dd>

Tags</dt>

Comma-separated list of keywords.</dd>

Requires at least</dt>

WordPress version requirements.</dd>

Tested up to</dt>

The latest version of WordPress the plugin was tested against.</dd>

Stable tag</dt>

The stable branch of the plugin to use.</dd>

Description</dt>

This is the long description. No limit, and you can use Markdown.</dd>

Installation</dt>

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working. Typically an ordered list.</dd>

Frequently Asked Questions</dt>

Questions and answers about the plugin.</dd>

Screenshots</dt>

An ordered list of screenshot descriptions; screenshot image files should be located in the same directory as readme.txt and named screenshot-#.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif).</dd>

Related pages

• downloads
• downloads-brainstorming
• downloads-formats