How to keep your OmniFocus 2 beta up-to-date
The OmniGroup has announced that OmniFocus 2 for Mac is now available as a public beta and is due to be released in June. Anyone interested in testing it can download it for free and is encouraged to send feedback via the forums.
One of the most important things to do when running beta builds is to make sure that you are running the latest version of the beta. Towards that end, I have written a shell script which will:
download and install the latest beta
check every hour to make sure you are running the latest version, and if not, it will
download the new version
quit the current version (if running) and move it to the trash
install the new version
re-launch the new version (if the app was running before it was updated)
If you have either terminal-notifier or growlnotify installed, the script will use them to alert you if there is a newer update available. A plain text log file will also be saved to ~/Library/Logs/.
The Easy Way
If you want to install the script and launchd plist, the easiest way is to use the installer. Just download it and run it and it will download and install the necessary files.
If you are already running the beta, it will check to make sure that you are current. If you aren't running the beta yet, it will download and install it for you.
(The package was made with Payload-Free Package Creator.app from Rich Trouton. Thanks again, Rich!)
The Nerdy Way
If you prefer to do things manually, use the links below to download and install the
Install this to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ and then either:
restart
run this command in Terminal:
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.tjluoma.keep-omnifocus2-beta-up-to-date.plist
/usr/local/bin/keep-omnifocus2-beta-up-to-date.sh) and make sure it is executable by running this command in Terminal: chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/keep-omnifocus2-beta-up-to-date.shHow To Uninstall
OmniGroup has said that the official version will be released in June. When the time comes to remove the beta check scripts from your site, just delete the two files:
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.tjluoma.keep-omnifocus2-beta-up-to-date.plist
/usr/local/bin/keep-omnifocus2-beta-up-to-date.sh
After removing the files, reboot your Mac and they uninstallation process will be complete.
Feedback?
Feedback for the script can be made at the OmniGroup discussion forums since I assume most testers will already have an account there, and it would be good to keep all the feedback in one place!
Update (May 9, 2014)
The OmniGroup changed the format of the filenames used for downloads, which broke my existing script. I have posted detailed instructions on the OmniGroup's discussion forum explaining how to update the script so that downloads will work again.
