Adding applications to AppSnap

Adding applications to AppSnap takes longer then you would think. Each application needs to be downloaded, installed and then uninstalled in order to get all the information that AppSnap needs. On an average, it takes a good 10-15 minutes per application, excluding any download time. That’s not too bad when you start out but after a point, it is too tedious to deal with.

With 1.3.3, AppSnap crossed the 200 mark in terms of supported applications. It took almost a year and a half to get that far and that reflects the pains associated with growing the database. Considering I am the only guy adding applications as well as enhancing AppSnap, both on a part-time basis, it makes it that much slower. Something had to change.

It is not possible to automate database additions since each application is unique. However, it is possible to speed up the steps that it takes add an application. To make life a little easier, I added the -a flag to the AppSnap CLI to facilitate adding applications. Using -a, it now takes at most five minutes to get an application added to AppSnap (excluding download time). If you haven’t noticed already, the database now has 285 applications and counting. That is more than 80 applications in 12 days. Not bad.

Adding applications is not only faster, but a lot more fun. Indeed, it is the small things that make a big difference.

AppSnap 1.3.3

I finally got around to releasing version 1.3.3 of AppSnap. It took a lot longer than I expected but I wanted to be sure that the update mechanism was solid. This would ensure that any interim updates will be accessible to users without requiring a new build.

AppSnap 1.3.3 was long overdue considering over 18 bugs have been fixed since 1.3.2 came out. There were many issues being reported by users, most of which were resolved with these fixes. Considering pre-releases do not get as widespread distribution, the fixes were not getting out. With the new update mechanism, such delays will be less likely.

There are also several enhancements worth mention. As usual, the change logs since 1.3.2 list all these improvements. Some of the previous posts also discuss some aspects in detail. In a nutshell, this new version adds the following new features:

• Support for Firefox and Thunderbird add-ons
• Update detection and self-update without reinstallation
• Web-based database management
• Improved version detection and text replacement engine
• Support for multiple databases

Thanks for all the suggestions and bug reports. Have fun using the new version. You can download it from here.