CMB Software Cache

This program keeps up to date install files for commonly needed software and serves them up through a webpage.

How to add software

The list of software that is kept up to date is found in softwares.json. Every entry there needs a title and a description. If the software has a download page, and the link to the download on that page is the first link to an .exe or .msi file, then the url to the download page is all that is needed.

Example:

{
    "title": "Glyssen",
    "description": "Helps you produce a high-quality dramatized audio recording of Scripture.",
    "downloadPage": "https://software.sil.org/glyssen/download/"
}

In cases where that does not work, it is also possible to specify a downloadLinkPattern or a downloadPathPattern. The program searches the html of the download page for a match to the downloadLinkPattern that contains a match to the downloadPathPattern. The first matching group (match[1]) of the downloadPathPattern is used as the url to the download.

The defaults that are used for the simple case described above are:

{
    downloadLinkPattern: /<a[^>]+?>/g,
    downloadPathPattern: /href=['"]([^'"]+(msi|exe))['"]/
}

Example entry with custom patterns:

{
    "title": "Keyman",
    "description": "Makes it possible for you to type in over 1,000 languages.",
    "downloadPage": "https://keyman.com/desktop/download.php",
    "downloadLinkPattern": "<div class=\"download-cta-big[^>]+?>",
    "downloadPathPattern": "data-url='([^\"]+exe)'"
}

If that doesn't work either, it is possible to specify an item as a special case in updater.js and write custom code to get the url for the download. An example is how FLEx is handled.

Static Links

In some cases, it's appropriate to add a link to another site. In that case, use the links.json file. Until modified, these will always appear first in the list (i.e. all links, then softwares in alpha order).

Dependencies

• Node 24
• Yarn Berry

Setup

• Clone the repository
• yarn install
• Set a cron job to run updater.js
• Add the downloads folder and the old folder inside public:
• Copy downloads-empty.json to downloads.json

public
   downloads
      old
    styles.css
...