downloads-examples

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

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.

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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.

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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

---

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

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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