[wpkg-users] Automatically Updated Installer Repository (ketarin, filehippo, others?)

[John Price]

I think you have a good idea.  I decided to see if I could
write a script to check filehippo for the latest version
of a file, download it, and write a new package XML file
for me.  I almost got there (see attached) but I don't
know a good way to derive the revision number (an integer)
or the installer string (i.e. what goes in the "check"
line in the XML file) from the version string from File
Hippo.

Still, I include what I did in hopes that others can take
it further.  If I have more time, I will probably finish
it using C or something else that has more power.

I think the final version will have to have a template of
the XML file where the script can fill in package name,
version number, etc and generate the new XML file.  It
really shouldn't be too hard, but I don't have time right
now.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE! Please don't remove the sleep statements
from the script if you plan to use something like this.
The last thing you want to do is over-stress filehippo's
servers by downloading pages and files as fast as
possible.  A few seconds delay shouldn't make any
difference for you, but if 1000's are using a script like
this, it makes a difference on the server's load.  They
provide a great service... don't make them regret it!

Also, click on their ads every now and then. So they can
make a buck or two!

To run this, download it, then

chmod 700 GetUpdatesFromFilehippo.sh
./GetUpdatesFromFilehippo.sh firefox

If you run it more than once, it will only download the
file the first time until a new version of the file
appears on the web site, or they change their web page
significantly so that the page parsing does not work
anymore.

the string "NOBETA=1&NODEMO=0" tells the web page to only
show non-beta versions of the files.  If you change it to
"NOBETA=0&NODEMO=0" it will get beta versions as well.

jp

-- 
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man
to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day.

Have a great day and don't forget to laugh!

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clean daily funnies you can safely tell your Mom!


On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 10:41:01AM -0400, Kevin Landers wrote:
>    Hello everyone,
>    I recently ran upon Ketarin ([1]www.cdburnerxp.se). This is a win32
>    tool that allows you to configure programs that you want to watch for
>    updates. For example, you can setup Ketarin to watch for a Firefox
>    updated installer. As soon as a new version of Firefox is released, the
>    tool can check and download the updated installer to your local
>    storage. It appears to be quite flexible in what it is able to watch
>    for. You can do a bit of scripting to watch for updates. As you all
>    know, not everyone uses the same naming scheme, versioning scheme, etc
>    for their downloadables.
>    Another nice feature available in Ketarin is that it can watch
>    FileHippo ([2]www.filehippo.com) for updates to any files that are
>    listed there.
>    There are a few things that I don't like about Ketarin.
>    1.) You must manually run an update for it to check all packages you
>    have set to be watched.
>    2.) It is Windows-based only. One of the nice things about WPKG is that
>    I can run it completely from a Samba directory on a locked down Linux
>    server. I would prefer to have as little Windows apps in my System
>    Administration life as possible.
>    3.) As the above states, it is not able to be run from a command line
>    (that I can tell at least). It would be nice to at least be able to run
>    it without the GUI via a Scheduled Task.
>    4.) It does not download in parrallel. It goes one by one.
>    5.) With regards to FileHippo support, it does not allow you to filter
>    out Beta versions.
>    As I was talking with a fellow tech, it seems that doing a bit of this
>    via a script using wget couldn't be that difficult. Perhaps even
>    writing such a program with a web based interface for the command-line
>    challenged (to setup new packages that is).
>    I suppose another question would be, then do we try to automatically
>    create/update the packages.xml file for the new update file? Ideally, I
>    would think one would try to alert an admin of an update (via email,
>    etc), allow them to login and see changes that would be made to
>    packages.xml and then submit the changes. Keeping a backup of the
>    previous packages.xml file would be important for rolling it back.
>    These are just really off the cuff thoughts.
>    What do others think? Does anyone else have some similar method that
>    they already use or have thought about?
>    The number one thing I have always hated has been going site to site to
>    check for Win32 installer updates, downloading them and then putting
>    them on the thumb-drives or other media our techs use out in the field.
>    landersk
> 
> References
> 
>    1. http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
>    2. http://www.filehippo.com/

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