Get the repository information without winget

[Mannshoch]

We have the idea to create update notifications of particular software from our Monitoring tools. Is there a way to get the catalog e.g. from a RestAPI.

[SpecterShell]

https://cdn.winget.microsoft.com/cache/source2.msix

[Mannshoch]

Do you have an example how to use this source correctly?

[vedantmgoyal9]

@Mannshoch you can use https://vedantmgoyal.vercel.app/api/winget-pkgs/versions/*. You can replace the * with any package identifier if you don't want all packages. If you want information other than packages and their versions, you can tell me and I will look into if it can be made accessible through the aforementioned endpoint, or I can also setup another one.

[Mannshoch]

Thank you very much for the offer @vedantmgoyal9
Even Winget as a source of information about application updates is not a popular idea among us. (If possible, we would rather have something from the application manufacturer.) Unfortunately it is unlikely that we will use another third party source to get update information from Winget.
It is more likely that we will run a Winget proxy ourselves. If it can be realized via a script language like powershell or python. (we have no programming skills but a little script experience)
We are also considering whether we could parse the output of Winget list and write it to a JSON. (maybe I'll write a feature request for this)

[vedantmgoyal9]

@Mannshoch winget list is for listing the installed programs on a machine. I don't think you can use it as a source for determining app updates.

Also, there is winget show --versions <package-id> which outputs all versions of a package. You can then execute winget show <package-id> -v <version> to get more information like download url, publisher, description, homepage, etc... You can also use the WinGet PowerShell module to get output as PSObject and the pipe them to ConvertTo-Json to get output in JSON format.

[Mannshoch]

Thank you. I will try the powershell.
Do I understand it correct, that this repository develop both a winget version for cmd and for powershell but the Microsoft store app "Appinstaller" only ship the cmd version?

[vedantmgoyal9]

@Mannshoch yes, you would have to install the PowerShell module manually. Also, the PowerShell module requires winget installed. Without it, PowerShell module will just fail to run.