In Mac OS X, you can check for updates to Apple software using the built-in Software Update program. OR you can go on the command line and do it with "softwareupdate -l"
There are many GUI based programs for checking third-party versions against [login to view URL] or [login to view URL], but none of them can be called from the command line, nor have their output on STDOUT or to a text file.
We would like a program that does exactly that: scans for apps in a few designated folders, checks their versions against the mentioned websites, and lists those that need updating and provides URLs for download (as provided by the websites).
You could start from scratch or you can base work off an open source Dashboard widget that does essentially the same work.
The developer of the AppUpdate widget released his code under the GPL. I contacted him and he said this project could probably be done easily. He was too busy to do it himself, but offered to answer questions that we may have during development. [login to view URL]
We are open to any estimates for this project. Dependencies for your code not included with a base Mac can be installed. Needs to run on 10.4.11 through 10.6.3.
We can do this quite easily. However the devil is in the details. Many App's use many different ways to get updated. Your goal is a good one but the devil is in the details. It would require some first analysis of the way the apps you require get updated. Some might simply download a disk image to mount and drag & drop manually. Some replace the application in place. Some download an installer and install that one. And some simply fail. Even though all of them use the sparkle kit to alert within the app for updates.
I would suggest to document in more details what has to be researched first before going into the implementation. The implementation is the easy part.