First app in Mac app store

"Sparkle framework for updating" looks like a big "no" to me. You can probably email the guys who create Sparkle and they can tell you if I am wrong, but updates should happen through the App Store only.

Apart from that, there is a lengthy document on Apple's website with all the guidelines, and I guess you just need to go through them step by step. Most important is that if you install this application on a fresh Macintosh with 10.6.6 installed and nothing else, it has to work out of the box, and it mustn't install anything elsewhere. And if you store preferences or other files, they need to be in locations matching the name of your application. Would probably be nice but not essential if it works on the latest 10.7 developer release so you and your users don't have to upgrade when 10.7 arrives; Apple won't reject it for that.

 

Yep. I've seen blog entries from other developers who disabled the Sparkle bit for App Store submission but still linked against the framework and were rejected as Apple auto-scan for that linking. To get on the App Store the app store must be the only update mechanism and no trace of any other can be found, even if it's disabled or not in use.

 

In addition to what others have said about sparkle, it appears your app won't work without Growl being installed on the user's machine. This also means it will probably be rejected: Apps can't have hard dependencies on things that aren't part of the standard operating system.
The reason for this is what would happen if a user downloaded your app and didn't have Growl installed?
Also, you can't install growl automatically as part of your installation as it breaks the terms and conditions of Growl

 

One of the Growl frameworks includes an installer. When you download the framework, there are actually two .framework files, one that will not function if Growl is not installed, and one that will prompt the user to install Growl.

Click here, then scroll all the way to the bottom section, and read the second paragraph for more details.

For the record, I have an app in the Mac App Store that includes the "Growl+Installer" framework, but have yet to turn on the features that use it.

 

Yea, the framework isn't actually being used currently. There's code in the current version for notifications/alarms using Growl, but it's currently disabled until I can do a bit more testing. (And if you choose not to install Growl, you just won't see the notifications.)