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SDL AppStore - hosting of apps

Asbjørn Riis-Knudsen

In my opinion, the SDL AppStore (formerly OpenExchange) is missing two things to really make it shine:

1. SDL should host the app installers. They should not be hosted on a third-party website. Firstly, it is more secure if SDL controls the hosting, since you never know what can happen with third-party sites. Secondly, it is a hassle for developers to have to maintain a server just to download from (though it should remain an option).

2. A built-in way to monetize apps, should you chose to do so. This could be accomplished by utilizing SDL's existing payment infrastructure along with a small SDK to include, allowing you to check licensing status easily.

Of these, item 1 is by far the most important one.

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  • 0

    Hi Asbjørn,

    We are working on a few things to improve all of this.  Just a few things:

    1. Back end has been completely changed and will be released next month.
    2. This upgrade allows us to provide much better support, but we will be enforcing the use of sdlplugins as opposed to external installers to be able to take advantage of this properly.  You can still build your own installers but you as a developer will lose out, and so will the end users, as we can't manage them consistently like this.
    3. We have always hosted apps for anyone who wants this.  We will continue to do this, and will continue to allow developers to host their own if they prefer.
    4. The new backend also comes with it's own API.  So we will also look at creating an app management plugin for Studio that will support many cool features relating to apps that many users, and developers, have been asking for.

    On the monetisation... that is also something we have been thinking about but it's not part of our immediate plans.  It's also not too tricky for developers to set up their own using paypal for example.  But we may revisit this once we have the things above all sorted out.

    Regards

    Paul
  • 0 in reply to Paul
    Thanks for the reply. I'll be looking forward to all these improvements :)

    A couple of questions:
    How do I submit an app to be hosted by SDL? Just leave the download URL field blank? Last time I tried, you couldn't do that. But maybe that has changed (was some time ago).

    Regarding the use of .sdlplugin. I absolutely agree - having a consistent experience for users is way better - and writing installers is no fun. But for some things (like PackageReader or Glossary Converter) .sdlplugin doesn't make sense, as they are not really plugins but rather companion apps (and in the case of PackageReader, don't actually require Studio to be installed at all). I don't know if you could expand .sdlplugin to work in those cases or whether providing a external installer will remain the best choice for these types of apps.
  • 0 in reply to Asbjørn Riis-Knudsen
    I know this is confusing but if you upload the app file the link will be ignored. This will be sorted in the new back-end release which should come in the coming months.

    There are no plans to add any type of standalone application support inside the .sdplugin since this means we need to build yet another installer technology. Indeed there are apps that make sense to be standalone rather than plugins and for those the developer should use the installer technology they want.
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