AppStream Metadata with our releases

[Julius Künzel]

Hi!

(This mail goes to multiple lists, please reply to kde-devel)

With Flathub beeing more strict on its AppStream metadata guidlines [1] there is yet another spotlight on AppStream metadata.

AppStream metadata are consumed by app stores like Flathub, Snapcraft, Discover, our scripts to submit apps to the Microsoft Store and last but not least by apps.kde.org [2].

For release info in particular the quality guidelines say: "Make sure all your releases have release notes, even minor ones." [3] As I think this makes perfectly sense, I like to propose two things that seem straight forward to me:

- We should not remove older releases from the AppStream data as already suggested by Carl in a merge request [4].

- Also it would be convenient to add noteworthy changes to the metadata together with the related code change. However at the moment for KDE Gear the release is usually only added to the metadata a few days before tagging. Would it be possible to add the next minor release to the release branch right after the current one has been released and the next major release to master ones the upcoming version has been branched?

I belive this makes it easier for developers to contribute to the release meta info and I hope it hence raises motivation to do so.

I am happy to hear your opionions, thoughts and concerns!

Cheers,
Julius

[1] https://docs.flathub.org/docs/for-app-authors/metainfo-guidelines
[2] https://apps.kde.org/
[3] https://docs.flathub.org/docs/for-app-authors/metainfo-guidelines/quality-guidelines/#release-notes
[4] https://invent.kde.org/sysadmin/appstream-metainfo-release-update/-/merge_requests/6

Julius Künzel
Volunteer KDE Developer, mainly hacking Kdenlive
KDE GitLab: www.invent.kde.org/jlskuz https://invent.kde.org/jlskuz 
Matrix: @jlskuz:kde.org https://go.kde.org/matrix/#/@jlskuz:kde.org