I've been working on the open source web service that we make available to our clients, trying to get some caching into the application to improve performance. It got me to thinking: what would be the best way to get our clients to install this application.

By best way, I do not mean easiest way. The easiest way is to say "here's the tarball, extract it and install it in place". That's currently the method we use for distribution. I must admit that I have been negligent in updating recent builds on the site. The real solution here is to create an automated build system that I can use to package up newer versions of the code and put them up on the web site.

Others have suggested that I should examine the use of Pear as a way to distribute this PHP application. That's fine, but the next time they update it would overwrite any changes they made to things like display templates. So I guess the current method is the best...