Support Sparkle feeds for macOS/Windows in-app updates

[tonyarnold]

When using HockeyApp, we used to be able to distribute application updates for macOS (using Sparkle).

AppCenter doesn't seem to have any replacement for that, which means I can't use it as a full replacement of Hockey yet.

Please consider adding support for this as soon as it's feasible.

[shpakovski]

One more vote for this. Sparkle support is crucial for most Mac apps. So this feature is very important for the App Center. Thanks.

[lumaxis]

@tonyarnold @shpakovski The good news is: Sparkle support is already on our public roadmap! We have also mentioned it a couple of times as part of our HockeyApp transition plans, for example.
Unfortunately, we don't have a fixed plan yet of when exactly we will work on it, so keep an eye on our iteration plans.

@tonyarnold In your comment, you had asked about beta vs. production distribution.
My knowledge of Sparkle is fairly limited but there is not really a difference in the distribution mechanism for this, right? It's mainly just which build you ship through the feed.
I don't think we're intending to intentionally limit this to beta distribution but as hinted to earlier, we're in a fairly early planning stage for this, so we'd be happy about any input! 🙂

[tonyarnold]

there is not really a difference in the distribution mechanism for this, right?

That's correct, so really it comes down to you folks deciding what's acceptable use of your service. I'd love to be able to host production builds of our app on AppCenter (it just simplifies things) but there shouldn't really be front-end technical work required to support that if the feeds themselves are publicly accessible.

[shpakovski]

I don’t think we’re intending to intentionally limit this to beta distribution.

This one is a very important statement. Please do your best to support downloading and Sparkle listing for public builds. This would make your service a full-stack solution for .dmg and .zip distribution. Thanks in advance!

I’d love to be able to host production builds of our app on AppCenter.

Exactly, this would be fantastic.

[vsanthanam]

Any updates on this at all? No status changes in the roadmap -- I really cannot migrate off of HockeyApp without this... I would imagine this is not uncommon for a lot of macOS devs.

If/when you support distribution via AppCenter, will the SUFeedURL that is already out there in our existing macOS releases be mirrored or redirected (https://rink.hockeyapp.net/api/2/apps/APP_ID) for any duration of time? If that link goes dead at some point, or if it won't serve any new versions/releases/updates if we transition to AppCenter, then our users will be stuck on whatever last version they are using.

The later this distribution feature ships in AppCenter, the greater the issue becomes as we won't have time to push out app updates that could redirect our SUFeedURL. I'd love to avoid having to build my own custom replacement beta / production Sparkle distribution workflow if something in AppCenter is already in progress and shipping soonish, but I can't risk leaving my user base behind if it isn't.

[WCByrne]

@rafifyalda In anticipation of this a while back, to be safe I went ahead and setup a url on my own service that redirects the existing Hockey url. But +1 for MS to keep those Hockey urls alive and redirect them to the new AC feeds.

Also, @lumaxis / AC team, for those that are/were using AC to build and distribute, the recent change that caused AC releases to not sync back to HA is a real drag without feeds in AC. I now have to download the build from AC, re-upload to Hockey and release there. I was really enjoying the ease of releasing directly in AC and automatically getting the updated feed from Hockey. Please consider this regression if there is a chance to get these feeds higher on the priority list 🙏.

@WCByrne: Thanks for the tip/idea, just went ahead and did the same 👍

[WCByrne]

And it get's worse if using AC builds😞. Now that app center releases don't sync back to Hockey App, not only do you have to upload the app to HA to get the AppCast feed, the symbols from the AC build aren't made available to the build uploaded to HA so crashes that come in later are unsymbolicated 😭.