Automatically install and launch a code-signed application from Safari

Is it possible and if so what are the steps necessary to package (or build) a Mac OS X application and code-sign it so th开发者_StackOverflow社区at it can be downloaded with Safari and automatically launch?

... possibly after the user responds to some sort of dialog explaining that it is a signed application and the publisher has been verified. An example of the user experience I am trying to create is "installing Google Chrome for the first time on Windows", which is a 3-click, less-than-a-minute process. For the concerned among you: I am not trying to create a drive-by download. I am fine with some sort of intermittent user step approving the download. I just want to make the installation as quick and painless as possible and not require the user drag the app from a mounted DMG into the application folder. This may not 100% jibe with established Mac OS X user interaction guidelines, but it would work better for the not-power users.

I only need the high-level steps or pointers to resources ... my google-fu was weak on this one.

The thing with OS X, and computers in general, is that if it's really hard to do, you probably shouldn't be doing it. My opinion, and Apple's, is that you should be adaptating new users to OS X and not just letting them cling on to their old PC habits. I think that when you're using a platform, you ought to use it as it was designed to be used and not how someone else (Microsoft) designed their product. The installation method you are describing is from Windows, and I don't like it one bit because the user doesn't understand what is going on: it's just a flurry of quick dialog boxes and then a Chrome window popping up seemingly out of nowhere telling you that the installation is finished. You don't even know where it installed to without digging around the Google website a bit.

So, no, I am not aware of any way to do this, and this is clearly not an Apple-sanctioned action, because if it were, it would be in the developer documentation. While I'm not doubting any good intentions, I don't think this is a good thing to do. FYI, distributing your app as a zipped .app file already is a three-click process, at least in Safari: download the app, which is automatically unzipped and put into your downloads stack, clicking on the Downloads stack, and then clicking on the app. Viola - instant deployment! If you don't trust that the user will move the application into a standard place, DMG distribution works just as well.

Excellent question and I hope you take these ideas into consideration.