Updating Safari Extensions (and Developers, Choose your extension URLS wisely)

There are now some updates appearing for many of the extensions that I have installed in Safari. The notification quietly appears buried in the Preferences > Extensions Window.

(Huh? 4 Updates? I count 5)

You can of course choose to have your updates install automatically and none of this will be an issue. But then you won't know, and what's the fun in that?

Developers and Extension URLs

Since I've been posting extensions here, a number of developers have contacted me with updated URLs.

A good strategy for choosing the URL for your extensions is to use a website that you control and don't have to change the URL.

So instead of naming your extension with the version number in it, just use the name of the extension.

If you can keep the URL consistent, you don't have to worry about automatic updates as well as getting the download URLs updated on sites like this that post direct links.

Also, host your extension somewhere that you can update as quickly as you want. I've seen a few developers who are hosting their extensions on github which uses a CDN (content distrution network) and can take several hours for an update to make its way out to the world. Frustrating if you've got an important fix to push out.