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diff --git a/zarb-ml/mageia-dev/2012-March/013278.html b/zarb-ml/mageia-dev/2012-March/013278.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d5557f010 --- /dev/null +++ b/zarb-ml/mageia-dev/2012-March/013278.html @@ -0,0 +1,305 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> +<HTML> + <HEAD> + <TITLE> [Mageia-dev] Fwd: Reviving AppStream and current status + </TITLE> + <LINK REL="Index" HREF="index.html" > + <LINK REL="made" HREF="mailto:mageia-dev%40mageia.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BMageia-dev%5D%20Fwd%3A%20Reviving%20AppStream%20and%20current%20status&In-Reply-To=%3C201203202123.00772.stormi%40laposte.net%3E"> + <META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,nofollow"> + <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> + <LINK REL="Previous" HREF="013273.html"> + <LINK REL="Next" HREF="013279.html"> + </HEAD> + <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> + <H1>[Mageia-dev] Fwd: Reviving AppStream and current status</H1> + <B>Samuel Verschelde</B> + <A HREF="mailto:mageia-dev%40mageia.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BMageia-dev%5D%20Fwd%3A%20Reviving%20AppStream%20and%20current%20status&In-Reply-To=%3C201203202123.00772.stormi%40laposte.net%3E" + TITLE="[Mageia-dev] Fwd: Reviving AppStream and current status">stormi at laposte.net + </A><BR> + <I>Tue Mar 20 21:23:00 CET 2012</I> + <P><UL> + <LI>Previous message: <A HREF="013273.html">[Mageia-dev] [changelog] [RPM] cauldron core/release java-1.5.0-gcj-1.5.0.0-17.1.24.mga2 +</A></li> + <LI>Next message: <A HREF="013279.html">[Mageia-dev] freeze push: rpmdrake +</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#13278">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#13278">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#13278">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#13278">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + <HR> +<!--beginarticle--> +<PRE>Very interesting message sent by Vincent Untz (SUSE) about the AppStream +project (remember, when misc, Nanar and myself went to Nuremberg on SUSE's +invitation to discuss cross-distro application installers?), its status and +things we could do in every distribution. + +I definitely hope we can do it for Mageia 3! + +The summarize: +* produce the appdata.xml metadata files automatically and publish them on the +mirrors +* extract icons from packages and put them in icons packages (one per media) +* write data export script for distromatch +* start playing with the forked Software Center with packagekit back-end +* host a debshots instance for our screenshots / help developing it +(currently, Mageia App Db uses screenshots from screenshots.debian.net, but in +the long run maybe we want our own screenshots database for use in both madb +and the software center if we choose to use it) + +Best regards + +Samuel Verschelde + +---------- Message transmis ---------- + +Sujet : Reviving AppStream and current status +Date : mardi 20 mars 2012 +De : Vincent Untz <<A HREF="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-dev">vuntz at gnome.org</A>> +À : <A HREF="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-dev">distributions at lists.freedesktop.org</A> + +Hi all, + +A small group discussed AppStream last year, and the result was archived +at <A HREF="http://distributions.freedesktop.org/wiki/AppStream">http://distributions.freedesktop.org/wiki/AppStream</A> + +There was a nice timeline, but then everyone got busy :/ So it got stuck +a bit (except for distromatch, thank to Enrico!) + +A few weeks ago, some of us took some time to get appstream back on +track. There are still many things to do, but I guess it's a good time +to talk about the current status since there's something starting to +work. + +There is a "How can I help?" section at the end :-) + + +Software Center with PackageKit support +======================================= + +Last year, Alex Eftimie did a GSoC project to land a PackageKit backend +in the software center. This was some good preliminary work, but still +needed some love, especially in terms of performance. + +The code is now alive again, and lives in git at +<A HREF="https://gitorious.org/appstream/software-center">https://gitorious.org/appstream/software-center</A> + +Unfortunately, because of the Harmony CLA required by Canonical, some of +us can't contribute the changes back to the original software center +project (for instance, I'm not fine with the CLA so won't sign it). +Therefore this is becoming a fork; that being said, we're trying to stay +in sync with the launchpad code, and Michal Hrušecký is merging the code +from launchpad trunk every now and then. The goal of the fork is not to +substantially diverge, but simply to make the software center usable on +all distros. + +It's reaching the point where it's usable, however there is still a road +ahead before this becomes usable by everyone: + + - some external tool needs to be used to fetched appdata.xml, and call + the update-software-center tool to generate the xapian database + + - only the basic features have been tested; I'm not completely sure the + channel-related features work well, for instance; also package + updates haven't been tested + + - several features (recommendations, reviews) need to be re-implemented + for distros (more on this below) + + - the current code is pretty much synchronous, which is a bit ugly + +Of course, to play with the software center in an AppStream context, we +need some application metadata (appdata.xml) :-) + + +Application metadata +==================== + +openSUSE is now generating an appdata.xml file for its repo. You can +find an example here: + <A HREF="http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/oss/suse/setup/descr/appdata.xml.gz">http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/oss/suse/setup/descr/appdata.xml.gz</A> + +It'd be great to have other distros generate this too so everyone can +play with the PackageKit backend in the software center (although Debian +and Ubuntu can still use the apt backend). + +That being said, in the short term, it can already be used on other +distro, or even better, we can use distromatch to transform it to work +for other distros. + +There's also a tarball with icons: + <A HREF="http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/oss/suse/setup/descr/app-">http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/oss/suse/setup/descr/app-</A> +icons.tar.gz +It's not used by the software center yet; the way files are arranged +inside this tarball is pretty much still to be defined. + + +Features based on web services +============================== + +Several features depend on external services: screenshots, +recommendations, reviews, etc. + +For screenshots, the plan is to use debshots: + <A HREF="http://debshots.workaround.org/">http://debshots.workaround.org/</A> +There's currently a 2.x version being written, that will have +multi-distribution features, see + <A HREF="http://workaround.org/pipermail/debshots-devel/2012-March/000004.html">http://workaround.org/pipermail/debshots-devel/2012-March/000004.html</A> +So this is looking good :-) + +For recommendations and reviews, well, I'm not aware of anyone working +on this. So that's a hole we need to fill; it could possibly be a GSoC +project. + + +"How can I help?" +================= + +We want this project to succeed and be usable by all distros, and to +achieve this, we need your help! Without you, things won't move as fast +as they should ;-) + +Here are the different areas where people can step up and rock the +world: + + - Get code to generate distromatch data for your distro + => This can be used to generate an appdata.xml file for all distro + supported in distromatch, based on an appdata.xml file from one + distro. And this will be usable in debshots and other services + later on. + => We already have code for Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu, but + we'd need more. + => An export script for your distro is writable in a few hours. See + as example the existing scripts: + <A HREF="https://gitorious.org/appstream/distromatch/trees/master/scripts">https://gitorious.org/appstream/distromatch/trees/master/scripts</A> + => For reference, here's a tarball containing Fedora and openSUSE + data (it will move to a proper home at some point): + <A HREF="http://tmp.vuntz.net/misc/distromatch/distromatch-opensuse-fedora.tar">http://tmp.vuntz.net/misc/distromatch/distromatch-opensuse-fedora.tar</A> + + - Get some appdata.xml file published in your distro repository + => This is something that needs to be plugged in the build service of + each distro. + => The scripts we use to extract the data after the build of + packages in openSUSE can be found at: + <A HREF="https://build.opensuse.org/package/files?package=brp-extract-">https://build.opensuse.org/package/files?package=brp-extract-</A> +appdata&project=openSUSE%3AFactory + It's unclear to me if this can be reused by other distros, though. + + - Test the PackageKit-based software center on your distro (and hack on + it so that it's rock-solid!) + => Clone the code: + git clone <A HREF="git://gitorious.org/appstream/software-center.git">git://gitorious.org/appstream/software-center.git</A> + => You can start with a dummy appdata.xml file (see + <A HREF="https://gitorious.org/appstream/resources/blobs/master/appdata.xml">https://gitorious.org/appstream/resources/blobs/master/appdata.xml</A> + for an example). + => To use the code from the checkout: + # Generate xapian database from appdata.xml + ./utils/update-software-center --local --appstream-only + ./software-center + => You might need to create a backend for your distro; this is very + simple, see files in ./softwarecenter/distro/ + + - Help develop debshots 2.x + => Join <A HREF="http://workaround.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debshots-devel">http://workaround.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debshots-devel</A> + + - Volunteer to work on the reviews and recommendations services + => The client code in the software center can be analyzed to show the + needs we have. + => This should be created with multi-distribution features in mind, + like debshots. + +Cheers, + +Vincent + +-- +Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés. +_______________________________________________ +Distributions mailing list +<A HREF="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-dev">Distributions at lists.freedesktop.org</A> +<A HREF="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/distributions">http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/distributions</A> + +------------------------------------------------------- +</PRE> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<!--endarticle--> + <HR> + <P><UL> + <!--threads--> + <LI>Previous message: <A HREF="013273.html">[Mageia-dev] [changelog] [RPM] cauldron core/release java-1.5.0-gcj-1.5.0.0-17.1.24.mga2 +</A></li> + <LI>Next message: <A HREF="013279.html">[Mageia-dev] freeze push: rpmdrake +</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#13278">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#13278">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#13278">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#13278">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + +<hr> +<a href="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-dev">More information about the Mageia-dev +mailing list</a><br> +</body></html> |