Sparkle For Mac

When developing software, making sure that your users have seamless access to the latest fixes or updates is extremely important. Sparkle is a framework that can be integrated into your Cocoa projects, and allows you to push updates by using appcasts.

Right off the bat, you must make sure the Sparkle framework is included into your Xcode project and in the app bundle. The next step is to create a Sparkle updater object and insert a “Check for Updates” menu item to allow the users to trigger the process manually.

To actually push updates, you must publish the new version in an appcast RSS: the Sparkle framework will use the provided download link to transfer the new app bundle to your disk, and then launches the installation process.

To make sure everything is safe, you can either code sign your updates by using the Apple Developer ID, or by including the DSA hash signature.

A Cocoa app that includes the Sparkle framework is able to update itself to the latest version in no time: the utility will periodically check the appcast RSS to find new versions, and can trigger the installation process while requiring minimal user interaction.

At the same time, the framework is employing the WebKit to display the release notes, and can also include a progress window. Note that the user has the option to setup the framework to automatically download and install all updates, or it can choose to manually confirm each upgrade.

Including the Sparkle framework into your Cocoa apps is extremely useful if you want to make sure all your users will have instant access to your updates.

Once the system is in place, all you have to do is publish the new version in the appcast, and the framework takes care of the rest.