Sparkle 2.0: Automatic Update Notifications

I'd really like people to put their faith in Sparkle and to just use the fully automatic updates. But how do we let them know when something's been installed? Send them an email? We could use Growl, but then they'd have to have it installed, which is annoying. I mean, if you come out with MyApp? 2.0, which is a super-ultra upgrade with all kinds of new awesome, you want the user to check it out and see what's new.

Well, there definitely needs to be some kind of notification, because in some cases usage may have changed, for example, familiar tools may have been moved. I suggest that, the next time the app launches, a Webview of the appcast description be displayed, same as it is now Sparkle 1.x.

When the app launches is the best time to communicate with the user, because you've got the user's attention. When I'm riding my bike on a highway with curves, I see a yellow sign immediately before each curve. That's when I want to know about it. Can you imagine a highway sign which said, "You'll have to make a sharp left turn to avoid a steep cliff 2 days from now as you approach Haxeyville." Or receiving an email to such effect? I hope it doesn't get caught in a spam filter! I don't understand the big objection to notifying the user when the app launches. If the user is really in a hurry and confident that they don't need the information, it only takes a pinky finger and a half second to hit the enter key, or click "OK". The objection with Sparkle 1.x, having to wait for the download and re-launch, will be solved in Sparkle2. To remove the notification at this point would be an overcorrection. It's a valuable opportunity to communicate with my users that I'd like to retain. - Jerry Krinock

This is perhaps atypical of Sparkle-using developers, but I would prefer to just have a delegate method I can implement. That way notifications can be seamlessly integrated in with whatever the app provides for its own notification system (say, Growl, or a badge on the app window, or just a plain old dialog). The rest of the discussion still applies for default behavior though. --DavidSmith?