Don't steal focus to prompt to upgrade

[lieut-data]

This afternoon I got a prompt to upgrade Spectacle (an app which uses Sparkle; I'm running 1.0.6 593 on OSX El Capitan 10.11.4) that stole my focus and consumed the enter key I pressed (which was intended for another application) as consent to upgrade the application. The download completed and I was left with the option to restart the application and complete the upgrade.

Would you consider another means of notifying about updates? I'm a big fan of OSX Notifications which patiently wait for focus. (1Password appears to use these to prompt for updates.)

(Note that I originally filed this with Spectacle as https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/issues/593, but discovered that Spectacle uses Sparkle internally.)

[kornelski]

Yes, I think we could use notifications (on 10.8+).

Last time I checked it was not possible for the app know how OS X is going to display the notification, i.e. whether the action button will be visible (user can set notifications as banners rather than alerts). Therefore we can't rely on having an "install" button in the notification, and would have to make it open the same old window it opens now. It avoids stealing focus, but adds one more click to the regular workflow.

[zorgiepoo]

I'm lead to believe that notifications should generally be treated as optional and additional; they shouldn't be used alone, and some people don't like or disable notifications. If we support notifications, it probably should be opt-in, and may even require configuration on the developer's part. We could still have an install button in the notification popup if the developer sets up their notifications that way.

This issue does seem to bring up an edge case for apps that don't show up in the dock, as Sparkle doesn't otherwise try to steal other application's focus.

[eczarny]

This issue does seem to bring up an edge case for apps that don't show up in the dock, as Sparkle doesn't otherwise try to steal other application's focus.

This is a good point. Spectacle relies on this behavior so that it's preferences window can be displayed. Maybe we can provide an option that explicitly disables focus on buttons in Sparkle's confirmation dialog? That way folks can't accidentally give consent if the update dialog is presented in apps like Spectacle.

[zorgiepoo]

That may help short term and an option may not even be needed - Sparkle could disable the "return" mapping if it's in a backgrounded application for automatically scheduled checks.

I think the bigger problem is that Sparkle steals the user's attention when dealing with backgrounded applications. I do find it to be a hindrance when a backgrounded application prompts me for an update, especially when I'm not using it.

[zorgiepoo]

#924