downloads-examples

This is a page for documenting real world examples of web publishing about downloads as part of the effort to develop a downloads microformat for authors and publishers to markup software (application, plugin, perhaps even operating system) downloads that they create and publish.

Per the microformats process:

• downloads-examples
• downloads-formats
• downloads-brainstorming

Examples

Download.com

Attributes

Application Name

Name of the application

Current Version

Version of the application.

Tagline

A short description of the application.

Download link

Link to application download.

File size

Approximate size of download in MB.

License

License for software. May include price.

Editor's Rating

Editor's rating out of five stars.

Average User Rating

Rating out of five stars.

Downloads

Total number of downloads.

Requirements

A list of compatible operating systems.

Limitations

Restrictions on use of the software.

Date added

The date when download.com started listing the application.

Product description

Long form description of application.

Screenshots

Links to screenshots of the application.

Versions (wfx_Versions)

Versions (formerly wfx_Versions) is a Firefox addon for tracking and downloading versions. It has several attributes similar to Download.com above (i.e. Application Name, Application Homepage, Download link and Last Known Version). Versions uses the other attributes (*) to scrape the scan page for the current version of the application. The screen scraping process could be eliminated by using the tagged attributes of a download microformat.

Attributes

Application Name

Name of the application

* Scan page link

Link to page to be scanned (scraped) for version

Application Homepage

Link to application homepage

Download link

Link to direct download

* Start Scan String

Unique string for starting scan of page

* Before Version String

String immediately before version

* After Version String

String immediately after version

Last Known Version

Last version recorded by Versions during a previous scan

Mozilla Addons

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

Attributes

Extension name

The name of the extension.

Extension version

A numerical version number.

Extension author

Who created the extension with a link to their Addons profile.

Works with

Compatibility listing of browser(s) the plugin should work with.

Preview/Logo

An icon or screenshot(s) for the plugin.

Install now

Link to XPI file for installation (Mozilla browsers only).

Developer comments

Description of the plugin or installation instructions.

Version History

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

Reviews

A list of user-submitted reviews.

Discussions

A list of user-created discussions.

---

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

Name of the application

Homepage URL

Link to homepage

Download URL

Link to file download

Appcast (Optional)

Link to Sparkle-RSS feed.

Developer (optional)

Name of the developer.

License

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

Keywords

Comma-separated list of keywords.

Description

Description of the application.

Universal binary

True/False for Intel/PPC compatibility.

Icon

32x32 pixel application icon.

Screenshot

Image of the application.

---

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

Name of the application

Application Icon

Name of the application

Tagline

A short description of the application.

Current Version

Version of the application.

Developer Link

Link to developer homepage.

Developer Name

Name of application developer.

Rating

Rating out of five stars (per version).

Release date

Date of software release.

License

License for software.

Price

Price of software.

Downloads

Downloads listed separately for current version and overall.

Download link

Link to application download.

File size

Approximate size of download in MB.

Product description

Long form description of application.

What's new in this version

Unordered list of changes in the current version.

Operating system requirements

An unordered list of compatible operating systems.

Screenshots

Links to screenshots of the application.

---

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

Name of the application.

Application Icon

Icon for the application (64x64px).

Version

Version of the application.

Version history

Description of previous versions of the application.

Download link

Link to application download.

Short description

Short description of application (one-line).

Description

Long form description of application.

Requirements

An unordered list of compatible operating systems.

Keywords

List of keywords for the application.

Category

Single-selection from a rather extensive list of categories.

License

License for software; values: free, demo, shareware, commercial, updater.

Price

Price of software (USD).

OS

Classic OS and/or OS X.

Architecture (aka Platform)

PPC and/or Intel

Developer Name

Name of application developer.

Developer Link

Link to developer homepage.

Product URL

Link to external application homepage.

Developer Email

Email address of application developer.

Developer Phone

Phone number of application developer.

Screenshot

Links to a screenshot of the application.

Downloads

Downloads listed separately for current version and overall.

File size

Approximate size of download.

Release date

Date of software release.

Rating

Rating out of five stars (per version).

---

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

The name of the plugin.

Authors

Author field from the plugin file and Contributors field from the readme file.

Version

Version field from the plugin file.

Tags (as in categories)

Tags field from the readme file.

Last updated time

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

Creation time

Time of first check in.

Rating

A rating up to five stars.

Download link

The URL to download the plugin zip file.

Description

The description of the plugin.

From readme.txt

Contributors

WordPress.org usernames of contributors.

Donate link

Link for receiving donations.

Tags

Comma-separated list of keywords.

Requires at least

WordPress version requirements.

Tested up to

The latest version of WordPress the plugin was tested against.

Stable tag

The stable branch of the plugin to use.

Description

This is the long description. No limit, and you can use Markdown.

Installation

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions and answers about the plugin.

Screenshots

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).

Related pages

• downloads
• downloads-brainstorming
• downloads-formats