Adopting AppData in KDE?

[Yuri Chornoivan]

> Hi,
> 
> I've been asked by Richard Hughes from Gnome and Fedora to raise the
> profile of using AppData metadata within KDE.  I know very little
> about this area myself, but thought it was worthwhile raising on the
> list for discussion.  If you have any questions about AppData then
> Richard would be happy to answer them, so please cc him on replies.

Hi,

1. AppData files are tailored for intltool/its-tool processing (tags with underscores). What do you think about adding untranslatable by design appdata files like it was done for Audacity [1]?
2. AppData in GNOME packages is filled with translations while compiling/packaging the application. Can it be somehow aligned with KDE idea of storing translations in separate repo?
3. Is it technically possible to have appdata.xml in repo translated by scripty based on KDE desktop- POs (just like KDE .desktop files)?
4. What is planned to do with Debian/Ubuntu DDTP translations [2, 3]? Is there any plans to adopt it for Canonical Software Centre/Muon with some kind of backend? Is it yet another almost-standard for RPM/GNOME distributions?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Best regards,
Yuri

[1] https://code.google.com/p/audacity/source/browse/audacity-src/trunk#trunk%2Fhelp
[2] https://translations.launchpad.net/ddtp-ubuntu/+translations
[3] http://www.debian.org/international/l10n/ddtp

> 
> The AppData justification, file format and tools are documented at
> [1].  AppData and AppStream are slowly being adopted by various
> distros for use in their software installers and app stores.  The
> AppData metadata file supplements the .desktop file by having a long
> description of an app, links to some screenshots, and the app home
> page, which get dispalyed in the app installer.  The description can
> also be localized.  While distro's could generate and maintain this
> data for themselves, to do so would be very time consuming for them,
> may not present the app in the best way possible, and would quickly
> get outdated.  It makes a lot of sense for apps to create and maintain
> this metadata for themselves, presenting themselves in the best way
> possible, which all the distros can then reuse in their installer
> applications.
> 
> As far as I'm aware, AppData and/or AppStream is either used or
> scheduled to be used by default in Gnome Software Centre, Apper,
> Fedora, and OpenSuse, and optionally in several other distros, so is
> not a distro specific intiative.  I think there's even OBS integration
> happening.  If anyone knows more or thinks differently please let us
> know.
> 
> Some recent developments make this a fairly high priority for apps
> that wish to target a cross-desktop audience.  The new Gnome Software
> Centre in Gnome 3.12 which uses AppData will become the default
> installer in Fedora 20 for Gnome (Fedora KDE will use Apper).
> Currently apps that don't provide AppData are ranked lower in search
> results in Gnome Software, but from Gnome 3.14 such apps will not be
> listed at all [2].  This means that without an AppData file KDE apps
> will eventually not be visible to Gnome users in their default app
> installer.  Currently Gnome has 50% of apps covered and is
> coordinating an effort for full coverage [3], but KDE has only 1%.
> 
> Obviously individual apps are free to add these files [4], but from a
> KDE-wide perspective we need to discuss if we want to officially adopt
> this as a requirement, and if we want to provide a more coordinated
> and standardized solution.  What do people think?
> 
> If we do adopt it, the two obvious issues to me are localization and
> screenshots.  Ideally scripty would be hooked up to generate the
> translation files, but as they are an XML format it may need a bit of
> work.  Scripty would also need the AppData file to be in a standard
> location in each repo.  The screenshots need to be hosted by the app
> (at least initially, Fedora copy the screenshots to their own server
> later to save load), so we may want to have somewhere common on the
> KDE infrastructure for that.  I'd also suggest defining a file naming
> standard including the app name and version number in the screenshot
> name.
> 
> Taking a slight step-back, I wonder if there is a need for a more
> generic KDE metadata file in each KDE repo that describes even more
> useful info, like module, maintainer, reviewboard, bugzilla, last
> stable release number, frameworks tier, forums, irc channel, userbase,
> mailing list, etc, that AppData and projects.xml and inqlude and any
> other required metadata files could all be automatically generated
> from?
> 
> One obvious question is how this might relate to Bodega if KDE chooses
> to switch to that?  What does Gnome shipping their own official "App
> Store" mean for cross-distro/cross-desktop app store efforts and do we
> need to start working on our own now, or will Bodega fill that need
> for us?
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> John.
> 
> [1] http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/appdata/
> [2] http://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/
> [3] https://wiki.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/AppDataGnomeSoftware
> [4] https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/113531/