Premium User Updater API

DonCorneo · 04-22-09, 12:17 PM

Question is: Will Curse be willing to make a module? Curse seems hell-bent on making their exclusive updater, which will work one way for free, another way if you pay for Premium Membership. To me, this sounds like it's all about making money, not servicing the AddOn Community.
What WI is proposing to make here is what most of us are looking for, an updater that can update an AddOn from any major site (from the sounds of it, any site at all). From the little I've seen about WI's proposed client, it will be free since it will have ads.
Now the question will be security. We all know that there are low-lifes out there who for whatever reason must use something good like this to cause problems. Will this updater be able to prevent key loggers and such, especially ones that are uploaded through ads?
Is there a projected launch date for the updater? I understand that there is still much to do, but this is just a tease without an actual launch date.
Has WI contacted other sites about them making modules for the updater? Can you post a list of sites considering making a module?
If WI pulls this off quickly, I may be inclined to overlook the fact WI did not warn the users of the banning of WM, or at least to have implimented the ban, BEFORE patch day.

MidgetMage55 · 04-22-09, 12:38 PM

They did warn users roughly 24 hours in advance. Have to have been to the site to see it though. No other way to warn people reliably with the systems as they are now.

I would imagine the reason no official date has been announced is due to time availability to get the project done. Shirik is doing this work between school, work and other real life concerns. Its done in his spare time. No point in posting a relase date you can't make on time (Diablo 2 anyone?) all you end up doing is opening yourself up to ridicule from people when you cant make that deadline.

Best thing to do on that front is to subscribe to the RSS news feed from the site as I'm fairly certain it will be announced on the front page when its done.

Seerah mentioned in another thread that other sites are aware of the project and the availability to make modules for it. 2 of them are regular posters and visitors to this site (that I've seen anyway) though no official statement has been said about them making modules currently.

**Shirik** · 04-22-09, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by DonCorneo

Will this updater be able to prevent key loggers and such, especially ones that are uploaded through ads?

There will be a security manager installed that will monitor and restrict the actions of modules. Modules will have to be signed if they want to gain special privileges, and the user will have to approve their access at least once.

This API has not been defined yet, so that is one of the things that will change in the near future. However, this is very much planned.

EDIT: With regards to ads, I patch into your OS-specific browser in a restricted functionality mode. While this means that ads should not be able to break through and install themselves, it's theoretically possible for a browser to have a security-related bug in it and get through. Depending on how it's distributed, this might be caught by the security manager and it might get through, but unfortunately there's nothing I can do about this. If you keep to updates, you should be fine. The ad window can NOT download files on its own, etc., without a bug in your browser. These need to be addressed by the creators of the browser.

That being said, I do not anticipate this being a problem. If this were a problem, we would see it more on the site itself; it would not be solely linked to this program.

DonCorneo · 04-27-09, 02:39 AM

If you need help other than programming, let me know. I'll test for you since your time is limited if needed. I'm not a programmer, so I won't be approaching it with the "if I do this, this will happen" aspect. Generally I just usually try making it do something that is not expected. I am using Windows XP 32.

I run several anti-spyware/virus/malware programs, so I can test compatibility issues. If you have specific things you want tested, in most cases I can give it a go.

Good luck in school.