Transmit 5 on the Mac App Store
Does it have the same features as regular Transmit 5?
Yes, it does! With one small exception — “Open in Terminal” depends on AppleScripting the terminal, which isn’t possible with sandboxing (yet). But even viewing or editing or changing the permissions of files you don’t own is now possible, which wasn’t until very recently.What about Transmit Disk?
It’s not in this initial release, but stay tuned.[…]
Will Transmit 5 support iCloud for sync?
We’re not planning to. We know it’s a bit of a bother to manage another account, but we really value the ability to debug syncing problems directly.
The Mac App Store version is $25/year subscription with a 7-day free trial, compared with $45 for the direct sale version, which had a launch sale but no upgrade pricing. They aim to have a new major version every 2–3 years. It also looks like Apple has a new link for managing App Store subscriptions.
6 years into mandatory app sandboxing on the Mac App Store, it’s still not possible to ship a decent FTP client without SIX different kinds of “temporary” permission exceptions.
What a mess…
And, notably, there are no known changes to the clunky and buggy way that the sandbox provides access to files using security-scoped URLs. The main sandboxing improvement seems to be providing a way to edit (but not directly read?) files that you don’t own.
See the associated NSWorkspaceAuthorizationType enum, NSWorkspaceAuthorization object, and NSFileManager API.
These were not mentioned at WWDC or in the initial seed, but they are in the Xcode 10 headers. In order to use the new API you need to request the com.apple.developer.security.privileged-file-operations entitlement.
In summary, at least based on what we know so far, this looks like a very narrow enhancement to support Transmit (and perhaps BBEdit). Most of what was impossible in the sandbox before still is.
See also: Daniel Jalkut.
Previously: Mac App Store Sandboxing, IAP Trials, Multiplatform Services, Productivity Apps and Subscription Pricing, Transmit 5, Panic Discontinues Transmit for iOS.
Update (2018-11-26): Core Intuition mentions that, once the trial is over, Transmit is non-functional until you pay. It does not, for example, allow read-only access the way Omni’s apps do. They (and I) didn’t think this was allowed by App Store policy. Does Apple accept this because it’s a pure subscription app?
Update (2019-05-31): This episode of The Talk Show has an interesting nugget about the Mac App Store version of Transmit. Panic was not allowed to tell customers, in the in-app purchase screen, that there’s a way for them to purchase without a subscription, so they included a link to send them an e-mail if you have a problem with subscriptions. The e-mails go to an auto-responder that tells how to purchase the direct sale version.
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"The Mac App Store version is $25/year subscription with a 7-day free trial, compared with $45 for the direct sale version, which had a launch sale but no upgrade pricing. They aim to have a new major version every 2–3 years."
Why would anyone want to purchase the Mac App Store version if it costs way more than the direct sale version?
[…] entitlement afforded to Panic allows a user of Transmit, purchased through the Mac App Store, to edit unowned files. Microsoft’s products have a host of entitlements that allow for a similar user experience no […]
