→ AppFresh Development Preview 5 (Mac OS X 10.4 only)
It took some time, but here is AppFresh Development Preview 5. We mainly added the functionality that was requested the most during the last two months and fixed a lot of reported issues. The most important new feature is the automatic installation of updates after downloading if the situation is clear and AppFresh considers it safe (the old application will be moved to the thrash, should you need to recover it). This will not work for all applications yet (InputManagers, for example), but it sure makes updating a lot easier. We also integrated your iusethis.com profile to make some of the functions and information you are used to from their website available in AppFresh. You can now add applications to your profile and remove them, see licensing information and use counts, and define license filters for commercial updates. We really encourage you to register at iusethis.com to use the new functionality and improve the service itself… after all, it’s free!
One of the biggest issues still is the number of unkown applications and version schemes. This new release aims at reducing the number of unknown apps by automatically searching for unknown apps and is now using more descriptive application states. New states include "Not listed at iusethis.com", "Version * not recognized" and "Broken feed". This should enable you to find out what’s wrong and maybe add applications to iusethis.com yourself or tell us about broken version schemes. The second new feature enables AppFresh to find applications at iusethis.com by searching for it if there is no direct match. If it finds a good match it automatically sets the iusethis identifier and checks for updates. The new identifier will be shown in brackets after the application’s name in the main table. Please tell us about false positives!
Last but not least, we’d like to welcome Louis on our team. He’s been doing some work on our icons, and some of that is already visible in this preview. Thanks, Louis!
Complete list of changes:
- Added installing of applications updates after downloading.
- Added IUseThis profile support including "i use this" and "stop using" actions for applications.
- Added licensing and universal binary information to the applications inspector.
- Added a basic license filter to allow/disallow commercial license updates per application.
- Added category for used applications at IUseThis.
- Added menu to open developers webpages for applications.
- Added dialog for configuring IUseThis settings and unstable features at the first start.
- Added a search for applications at IUseThis if not found directly.
- Added two new menu items to open the AppFresh install logfile and the Software Update.log.
- Added a warning before Reset and Remove all Applications is executed.
- Added support for iPhoto plugins such as FlickrExport.
- Improved and more descriptive application states.
- Improved application category icons and overall layout/coloring/contrast.
- Improved version detection for version numbers starting with dots.
- Improved version detection of revision numbers.
- Improved error handling for sparkle applications with broken appcasts. Now IUseThis will be checked as fallback.
- Improved user interface by using panels instead of sheets.
- Improved and cleaned up menus.
- Fixed rescanning of applications and detection of new versions without restarting AppFresh.
- Changed toolbar Check action to always check for updates on all available applications.
- Fixed removing of installed apple system updates.
- Fixed the IUseThis profile generator/maker for large numbers of appplications.
- Fixed resolving of XML entities when parsing appcasts.
- Fixed menu validations.
- Fixed reopening of the main window.
- Fixed disappearing progress.
- Fixed timeouts when checking for updates.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Works great, except for one thing. Login in to iusethis with your email doesn’t work. I spent a lot of time figuring out that I had to use my nickname instead.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
I’ll have a look at this. Thank you for reporting.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
AppFresh Update mit vielen neuen Features und Verbesserungen.
…
May 29th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
This little app is going better, I have only after tweaking the names, 48 apps unknown on a “all” of 357. On those 48, 22 could be in the updated apps if they could be “attached” to other applications (with ou without taking care of the version number, 1 ((Skim) is well read on my computer, is well indicated on IUT, but is “interpreted” as V3), 3 are the DivX (with different version numbers).
But while the scan was going, I have seen something that has immediately stopped me smiling, because the second number was saying 442. That is making 85 apps not listed ! What are they ? Do they need updates ? I DON’T KNOW and I WANT TO KNOW !
Please, show me what they are ! How do want me to be confident in you if you hide me things (I suspect the Apple Apps, and the Applications I have in duplicate (1 for the normal version app, and one for the beta application) but I am not sure !
Something more : What would be great would be :
- to use the path of an app to sort them and to mark them (with a checkbox in a special correction mode where the checkbox will only appear) as suites of apps (apps with the same version number), or attached apps (apps with a different version number) and having the possibility to name that suite !
- to have the possibility to let the user choose (in case of duplicate names for applications on IUT) the right app to show !
May 29th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Michel, merci bien for your feedback. We’re really glad you like the update; suite grouping and better iusethis associations are definitely something that we’ll be looking into for the next releases. Regarding the 85 apps you are missing: I know that you’re very concerned about such things, and rightfully so. Let me assure you that we’re not hiding anything from you with fraudulent intent. There are a few apps that we’re omitting right now, mainly all products from Microsoft and Adobe (which have their own updaters that we eventually would like to integrate, but not at this point), as we think not being able to see correct update information or being able to update these applications at all makes it pointless to show them right now (I know you disagree). Maybe we’ll improve that situation as soon as things like suite grouping work (or, even better, as soon as Microsoft’s and Adobe’s updaters are integrated). However, these omitted apps should not be counted anywhere you can see them. The difference might be there because we’re checking multiple feeds for some applications. Anyway, your description is not entirely clear there, so please mail me a screenshot or two that show your categories table and the progress window during update checking. Apart from that, if you can name a certain application that is installed on your system but has been nastily hidden from your watchful eyes by AppFresh and you think it should be there, let me know! I’ll teach it to behave!
May 29th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Just installed the update, glad to see the UI improvements. They had been bugging me lately and I was planning on shooting you an email when I get this, and now I don’t think I have any more complaints as far as the UI is concerned. I like the new icons, “Apple Updates”/”Other Updates” headers, and having the update progress bar in a separate window. As far as updating is concerned, there are still some bugs.
For instance, Transmission supposedly has a new version, released 4 weeks ago, that is the same version number as my existing copy (r1814). AppFresh also thinks I need to upgrade my v1.1.1 Picture Framer widget to v1.1.1, since it thinks that I have v1.1 right now. And here’s probably the strangest example: a long time ago I made a widget for myself, called “The Office Widget”, and it was a countdown timer to every next episode of the TV show The Office. Well, now AppFresh has found that widget, which I haven’t updated beyond v1, and thinks I have another widget by a guy in (I think) Denmark called “Office-Bibliothek”, and that I need to upgrade it to version 4.1. I’ve never published the widget I made to any site on the internet, let alone iusethis. Clearly it did a search and something went wrong.
Oh, and by the way, thank you for fixing the Apple updates problem, which was a pain, and I’m honestly not really sure if it was you who did this or the developers of the app but thanks anyways for getting Joost to update as well. This was a great update, this project is coming along very well in my opinion, save a few (relatively minor) bugs.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
OK. This is a bug and has been fixed. Expect this working in the next release. Thank you once again. I’ll report to our QM
May 29th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Great you like the new UI as much as we do. We’ll keep on improving and hope to have an even better solution for displaying progress pretty soon.
Well, version detection still is a little buggy, even though it’s sure getting better. We try to fix the two reported bugs with the next preview. Searching is still just a try. Is your widget really called “The Office Widget” in filesystem, because it should not have matched it in this case. Could you have a look at your Console log and mail me all lines with AppFresh in it or at least the lines with “iusethis auto search found match:….”. Thank you for your help.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Jonas,
You will have the screenshot as soon as … I will get out of my bed(for now, I go to bed and quickly !)
Bonne nuit à tous !
Michel
May 31st, 2007 at 9:02 am
The IUseThis category is great ! But what about a “Not on my Profile” category to help the user managing what he want to show (or not to show) on IUT ?
In this category, there will be a checkbox (if checked -> put in my profile, if not checked -> don’t put in my profile)
And the same checkbox could be put also on the IUseThis category !
This will greatly enhance the management of the user’s IUT profile !
Michel
May 31st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I think I have more bothering problems :
1) AppFresh P5 does not download !
2) It does not “guess” right :
?)
The following app – Maintenance (Titanium) V. 1.1.3 – is recognized as Maintenance V. 3.6 and is in the updates. I have tried to correct by changing the identifier but it is stuck with Maintenance (maybe, it does not like Titanium
3) It does not read very well : Applications :
- CircusPonies NoteBook (V 2.1 (256) in the info.plist) is read as 2.1 but is in the updates because of the (256), seen as a new update !
- Same thing for TrackTime 1.19 (3) but seen as version 3 in AppFresh !
June 1st, 2007 at 6:54 am
How did you test Preview 5 if it doesn’t download for you? It downloads for me and for everyone else, apparently. Can you be more specific? What browser are you using? How does it fail?
June 1st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Preview 5 crashes for me.
On startup, Appfresh will automatically start checking for new versions but before I can even click cancel, it’ll crash and exit itself. I’m not sure what’s going on as preview 4 worked okay.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Can you please check ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ for an AppFresh crashlog and send me. Otherwise we wont be able to tell whats going on.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Jonas,
IT IS NOT the downloading of PV5 : IT IS the action of downloading updates with PV5 that does not work ! I have “downdated” to PV4 to be sure and now, I am sure that :
- In V4 and V5, the folder used is the same : Users/Michel/Desktop/Téléchargements
- the progress for the downloaded files is going from 0 to 100 % for the two versions.
- the difference between the two versions is when I click “Reveal in Finder”, in V4 the file is here, in v5, there is no file !
- the programs are set to download only, not to expand or install the downloaded files !
That are the things I am really sure !
Sorry to not have been more specific, but it was quite late, I spent about two hours trying to figure out what was going wrong and I was really tired !
Sorry again !
Michel
June 1st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I’ve dumped it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/34684604/AppFresh.crash.log.html
June 1st, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Do you have any unusual Spotlight settings or custom Spotlight metadata plugins installed? Does the problem persist after a reboot?
June 1st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I have Spotlight disabled though I am using menufela to hide the Spotlight icon in the menubar. Will report back when I get a chance to reboot.
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Does it help when you put AppFresh on the APE (Application Enhancer) exclude list?
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:34 am
Hi,
Same problem after excluding from APE.
Where can i download preview 4?thanks
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 am
You can get AppFresh Preview 4 from http://metaquark.de/download/appfresh-0.4
Did you too disable Spotlight? We’ll fix the problem in Preview 5.1.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Yes, i disabled it.
thanks for the link, and i hope you can fix this issue, appfresh pretty cool
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:09 pm
I have the same issue. AppFresh goes through the motions of downloading, but I cannot find any downloaded files once it has finished.
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I posted about an issue in Preview 4 where AppFresh continued to list Apple updates after they were installed (specifically the Battery Update). It is still listed as an unapplied update in Preview 5.
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Problem persists even after rebooting. Including AppFresh in APE’s master exclude list does not seem to help either.
June 3rd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Thought if fixed it but there still seems to be an issue on some tiger versions. Can you post your version of OS X please? I will prepare a private test release to track this. Please contact me by mail if you would like to help.
June 4th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
10.4.9 Build BP2137 on Intel MacBook
June 4th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
That should read 8P2137
June 6th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I did a lot of testing on my Intel MacBook Pro using 10.4.9, but could not reproduce any of the described problems. Since you are not the only one, who reported the issue I prepared a debug version you might use and send me the console log output (via mail please). Hope this is ok for you. Thank you, Thomas.
Download: http://metaquark.de/appfresh/AppFresh-Dev02.zip
June 8th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Same problem here. It looks like it’s downloading but after it’s finished there are no files in the download folder (which was not the default folder, in my case). This problem ceased to exist once I downgraded to version 0.4
June 8th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
OK. There seems to be a problem related to the preference key “do not unpack downloaded files” in the update category of the preferences dialog. Is it enabled when trying to update?
June 8th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hi!
GREAT app!
How about logging in to iusethis via open ID?
June 9th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Yes, it is enabled !
And I have a new question : Is it normal that on my computer, the two last apps (I don’t know what they are : it would be great if, in the checking process progress dialog, under the “xxx of xxx apps checked”, we could have “app checked: chess.app”, for example) to be checked are so long to be checked !
I have put that “behaviour” on the fact that :
- AppFresh needs to have a rest after having checked all my apps !
- that the bandwidth was very low and slow !
And another wish : to have alphabetical tabs in the apps list to break the length of the list !
June 10th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Yes, it happens only with “do not unpack downloaded files” being ticked. Acc. to console.log the file is downloaded, then “not unpacking file … (disabled by config)” and finally deleted.
June 10th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
As in, this currently is impossible and thus functionality is disabled for those of us who log in this way!
June 10th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I’ll try to work out something with Marcus from iusethis.com to get OpenID working. Right now ts not supported, but now its on the list for the next version.
June 10th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Will be fixed in next version.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
I have more wishes to express for future versions :
- a possibility to create a new database from inside AppFresh to store all applications “IUT identifiers changes” I have made so that in case of something goes wrong with the applications database, I will not have to recreate the changes by hand 40 and maybe more times and with the help of an ” Apply IUT changes again to new DB” item menu, I will have just a click to do so !
- a “Go scan my applications and stop” to do “IUT identifiers changes” before going online to check the updates ! It will avoid the problem or confusion on “Maintenance (Titanium)”
- a possibility to remove a “guess” if it’s wrong !
- maybe with an extended search on the name of the app on IUT showing me all the apps having the word searched in their names and letting me choose the right app to display in my database !
Hope that will not be only a dream !
Michel
June 12th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I have done a test on the guessing feature !
Here it is !
1) Raw DB test :
No Manual “Change IUT identifier”
No IUT “Search for Unknown Apps” in Appfresh Prefs
All 358
Updates 5 (1 Good, 4 bad)
Up to date 284
Unknown 69
Bad Updates :
- DivX PrefPane 1.0 from V 6.6 not seen as part of DivX 6.6
- Maintenance (Titanium) 1.1.3 not seen as it is
- CircusPonies NoteBook 2.1.256 seen as 2.1
- Youpi Optimizer 2.0.1 (on YO site : 2.0.1, on IUT : 2.0.1)
Saved the “Raw DB Test” database (to be used for the other tests)
2) Manual Test :
Manual “Change IUT identifier”
No IUT “Search for Unknown Apps” in Appfresh Prefs
All 358
Updates 7 (1 Good, 6 bad)
Up to date 321
Unknown 30
2 new Bad Updates (+ Raw Db test ones) :
Intentional : Divx Converter, Player
3) Guess Test :
No Manual “Change IUT identifier”
IUT “Search for Unknown Apps” in Appfresh Prefs
All 358
Updates 6 (1 Good, 5 bad)
Up to date 288
Unknown 64
1 new Bad Updates (+ Raw DB test ones) :
The 4 previous + DivX Converter 1.1.2 (same cause as DivX PrefPane)
7 Guesses :
- Bejeweled Deluxe 6 (seen as Bejeweled 2 Deluxe) bad
- Fennel DVDManager
- Gizmo Project (seen as Gizmo)
- NetBarrier
- SWF & FLV Player
- TranslateIt (seen as TranslateIt Deluxe) bad (x2)
- Wikipedia Widget
Wait ! Only five differences from first test to this one and 7 guesses : something is wrong !
Gizmo (Project) : well detected
and
TranslateIt : well detected (too) !
4) Full Test :
Manual “Change IUT identifier”
IUT “Search for Unknown Apps” in Appfresh Prefs
All 358
Updates 7 (1 Good, 6 bad)
Up to date 322
Unknown 29
Same bad updates as in “Manual Test”
One very bad new : The only added application to “Up to date” is a bad addition (Bejeweled Deluxe 6)
In the manual test, 30 apps are “Unknown”
On those 30 : 24 could be eliminated from Unknown if attached to a main app, 1 is Bejewled Deluxe 6 and 5 are “Not listed on IUT.com” !
Michel
June 12th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Thomas,
I completely removed AppFresh and reinstalled the debug version. On first running it it identified an Apple update, WWAN Support, which I installed.
On the second run, it successfully removed the WWAN support update from the updates list.
I have resinstalled the non-debug version of preview 5, and that is working correctly too with regard to Apple updates.
So, all seems to be working now! I wonder if the complete removal got rid of something from previous releases that was causing a problem…?
June 12th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Might be that there was something in the cache that has changed. Easiest way of cleaning AppFresh is in the AppFresh menu > Reset and Remove al updates. So you would not have to delete AppFresh and its persistent store. Thank you for the help and testing on that.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Minor bug: The menu item for Cmd-P is labeled “Untitled” before selecting an application list entry the first time after starting AppFresh.
Other than that, Preview 5 is really impressive. Keep up the good work!
June 13th, 2007 at 6:17 am
- Another minor problem: AF is not handling properly applications that were removed while AF is running — they’re still listed after a recheck.
- Plus, the modal progress sheet was better in a sense that it provided progress information. The new window feels like the scanner crashed or something after more than ten minutes for less than 200 apps — maybe it did? I don’t know yet.
- Since you added more fine-grained status information for “unknown” status, an option to sort by status would be useful (in “all” applications and when grouping by application type too).
- I cannot check for Ãœbertragen-Widget updates, its status is always “not checked”
June 13th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Scanning for updates for nearly an hour now. Seems to really have crashed or stopped.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Can you click on the “Cancel” button in the progress window and does it shut the progress window ? If not, you can also quit the application ! I think AppFresh “forgets” to stop his counting in the
progress window !
After that, restart the application if you quitted it or check your apps again !
It has happened to me and if I cannot stop it with the “Cancel”, I shut the application by quitting it ! maybe not the best way !
June 13th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
The user application folder ( ~/Applications ) isn’t scanned unless you include additional locations and add it manually. I would think this is a folder that should be included in the default locations. Had me confused for a little bit =D
June 13th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
OK. Guess you are right. On the list for the next version.
June 13th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Good points. Just set it on the list for the next version. We have some further plans for the progress, that is not in the final state right now. Maybe we’ll revert to using a sheet until we’re done. Thank you for the feedback!
June 14th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Thomas,
I think I have found something that could help : I had a crash while AppFresh was getting infos on the updates, I have launched AF immediatly after, had accepted to send the crash info to… maybe you ! I don’t remember because I have seen, on the line just under the progress bar, the number of apps scanned : 423 (don’t worry : I won’t attack you on the fact that AF is hiding me apps) AND the beginning of the search for updates : 0 to 424 apps checked !
If I count right, that makes 425 and not, never makes 423 apps to be checked ! Is it possible that the problems of Daniel, me and (I hope it’s a few) probably other users, are linked to this bad counting ?
If you want, I can send all the infos !
HTH
Michel
June 17th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
1. When running AF at least ~1300px wide, the last used / release date info in the list is not right aligned anymore – if it’s a feature fine, otherwise I wanted to let you know.
2. After updating an “out of date” application from outside AF, I rescan it — in this situation, I had it happen more than once that the progress window didn’t finish anymore, although the bar was at “100%” (finished, solid blue color). Also, it didn’t close anymore.
June 17th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Modal sheets are fine when they make sense, but imho it would be better to keep the extra window and even be able to incrementally add tasks to the queue while navigating in the main window.
It this is too difficult / too low priority, a sheet would make sense, otherwise it sounds like the user-friendliest solution.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:58 am
OK. First issue is a bug. The second seems to be a bug too. I have to look a little closer at it. Anyways, thanks for reporting.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Feature Idea:
Network connection detection.
No matter I’m not connected to any network, on starting up, AF tries to get update information. Although it seems unlikely anybody fires up AF without a network connection, it is quite a useful tool for checking which apps are no longer in use.
Could also start checking for updates just like Safari loads URLs after connecting to a network.
Feature idea:
Display of parent folder for application (at least Apps/Utils/Other).
Grouping of application by parent folder, maybe hierarchically displaying in a tree. Maybe useful for prioritizing updates, indexing installed applications (although also for checking which ones aren’t in use anymore).
Possible bug:
QSDroplet, located within the Quicksilver app-Package, is listed. Does not make sense to list application within app packages for me.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Well, No news from the front ? Everybody’s sleeping ? Nothing to say ?
Michel
July 5th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Well, there is this thing called real life, and sometimes it needs some attention too. I can say that Thomas is working on AppFresh though and he made some great progress and I’ll be back on board shortly. So you’ll get a new release with some improvements and some fixes in the near future.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Hi Jonas,
Happy to hear from you
Thanks a lot,
Michel
July 6th, 2007 at 8:13 am
What should be done when AppFresh can’t match an app with iusethis.com, although the app can be found on the site when searching ourselves?
Example: PageSender Fax Center (4.0.2) -> PageSender (http://osx.iusethis.com/app/pagesender)
July 6th, 2007 at 8:27 am
For this app there are no auto search results, not even in the upcoming improved version. In this case you need to set the iusethis.com identifier manually to “Pagesender” in the iusethis context menu or main menu (iUseThis > Change iUseThis Identifier).
After that the App will be rechecked automatically and everything should be fine.