Implementing CCleaner.. ?

[faint545]

Hello, I am going to be working with a friend of mine on a software application for the Window OS, and basically this application allows users to download, update, and uninstall programs (something very much like synaptic package manager for Linux). I would love to include CCleaner (free version) as part of the supported programs but now my question is... is there a way for me to query for the latest version of the program? I realize that with CCleaner, there is a webpage that allows you to check for the latest version but this is a webpage, I'd like to be able to just get the version number. Any ideas?

[Winapp2.ini]

You should probably send a message to one of the admins with regards to this.

[TheWebAtom]

A personal friend has already created a tool that works similarly to this, I'm not quite sure how he has accomplished the version comparison, however this is how I would do it:

 

Create a server-side script that would download CCleaner from an official Piriform location. Set it to run at a semi-regular interval (once per day or less, so you don't put excess strain on Piriform's servers) and download the latest version of the program. Have the script generate and cache a unique checksum (MD5 would be simplest) for the newest version of the program. When the desktop program is run, have it query your server with the checksum of the currently installed version and compare it to the newest. If the checksums don't match, you can assume a new version has been released and download/install it.

 

If your server-side language of choice is ASP.NET, you could actually read into the binary of the most recently downloaded CCleaner file and compare the version metadata using regular expressions.

[Nergal]

as piriform does not allow direct linking the the installer (even within their own programs ;-) ) I don't see this a viable (though an interesting a novel idea that I kinda like in regards to other softwares)