Hi Peter,
It’s an excellent idea! It’s called AppCasting which involves using the
‘enclosure’ feature of RSS 2.0 feeds to deliver updates and release notes for
new software applications. The name Appcasting is by analogy with Podcasting,
which is the practice of delivering audio files as RSS 2.0 enclosures.
The developer publishes an RSS 2.0 feed, each item of which describes a new
release of a particular software product. The items’ descriptions may contain
release notes or other information about what’s new in this release.
Users with RSS aggregators which support the RSS 2.0 enclosure feature can
easily keep up to date with software fixes. Aggregators such as NetNewsWire 2
support downloading of enclosed content right in the aggregator.
Developers can
integrate RSS 2.0 tools e.g. into their code to perform auto updates.
To setup an update “feed” all you have to do is create your feed and in each
item include a line like:
In the example, the url attribute is the direct download URL for your app,
length is the length of the file in bytes and type is the file’s MIME type.
Have a look at this (http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/) for more
information on
feed tools.
regards,
…shane
Quoting Peter Lyons :
> Hi Shane,
>
> a question for you. I know RSS is a great way for distributing media files
> etc as in Podcasting. I was thinking of using it to distribute software
> updates and documentation for my applications. Is it a suitable technology
> for that do you think,
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter.
>
>
>