Authors CurseForge

Poor tek.. Seriously..

Quote from Torhal

Bah. It'd be teksML.

Submit it to W3C :p

(It worked, a mere mention of his name... he replied! hehe)

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apt-get will work hehe, especially for Linux users ;) I think that's the best "updater" for us freedom-lovers.

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Hmm, yes, the hosting/bandwidth "for" the authors. Maybe host just the XML for the updater to use, and from there it'll randomly pick up where to download?

seXML is better :P

Anywho, not to bash the idea, I like it in it's simplicity, but until the bandwidth issue is resolved I don't want to back anything except downloading directly from "the sites" or using their official downloaders.

Perhaps a nice "standard" for a script to use that would scan thru you addons TOC files, pull out URLs or curse/wowi IDs, and check for a new version. If available, simply open up the page for the user instead of doing the download for them? Ace has had TOC fields floating around for the sites, but noone's really used them because noone makes use of that metadata currently.

Added a wiki, but not much information there yet.

The concept is still evolving in my mind, a good night's sleep really helped.
A few additions to the current info:

server.xml
- Under update, also support patch tag. This holds the url to a zipped diff from given version to newest version. Patch tag have a "version" attribute. - This should save bandwidth.
-change type from "Beta, Release" to "Beta, Minor, Major". Lets users chose to only update to major versions (minor would be translation / text update and similar small stuff).
-Information, support a changelog tag. Holds url to a changelog.

update.xml:
-update url have attribute "major, minor, beta". So updater can select to only check update for one type.

Furthermore, the updater should use http HEAD to find out if file have changed since last time it checked. I also contemplate adding support for a "check interval" on the server xml. That combined with head and categorization of major, minor, beta server xml's should further minimize overhead bandwidth.

if bandwidth is such a pressing issue, why not use a delta (for binaries), a diff (for clear text) or even bittorrent approach to distribute new versions?

Quote from Pastamancer

You're missing one very important thing. Bandwidth/hosting is not free. If you want to provide free hosting for any addon and their xml file, you'll have a very popular updater. Otherwise you'll have a hard time convincing people that they should make it easy for other people to drive up their hosting bills with no compensation.

If the service allowed linking to google code, bitbucket, github etc., then the download sites like curse don't get hit at all. If people take advantage of using these other larger free services, this common site could simply link to those download urls and voila, the service is free, common and up to date.

Well since this DID get necroed...

I have a quick question. For programs like WoWMatrix to succeed, addons need to be spread hither and yon between addon sites. What goes into the thought process in placing an addon on one site and not another?

Why is there not just one site for all WoW addons? Wouldn't that solve the problem that WowMatrix is exploiting? Why are some addons on Curse, others on WoWInterface, etc?

Then sad as it is to say, I don't see the status quo changing much. Not when people have to play a virtual scavenger hunt to find addons.

Hell I love supporting the site and community. But I hate with a passion having to analyse if what I've found on one site, is the latest and greatest, etc. I have to do enough data analysis at work.

I have 19 addons that aren't updated by Curse. 8 of them technically are, but they're in a separate zip file and it's just easier to leave them by. 3 of them are oUF and modules. One is an alpha module for a supported addon. That leaves 7 addons that, if they break, I have to go looking for. Really not a big deal, honestly.

True, and I'll go through the pain to support the devs. Just complaining about the necessity of it.

People are to crazy and needs updated everyday for everything. Hey it's not a OS or browser you patch with critical updates. If the addons is working it is working. :-)

True. Though I think my habit is from being a developer. Every day I "Get Latest" from our source control, to get updates from the other devs. I think my nerosis is habitual.

In addition to the hosting bill issue, you'll have a hard time me (and likely others) that I should spend more time posting each new version to yet another location just to save other people from the unspeakable horror of spending 30 seconds downloading my addon from an established addon release site.