[SpikeJet]

Just curious -- how difficult is it to take an application not offered in the AppCenter and to bundle it up so it can be added and made available? IOW, instead of whining about some missing application that I want, could I do the necessary work and provide it to the Bodhi team? I've done a little programming from time to time. Would the application need to first be available in the usual Ubuntu repository/repositories? Is there any documentation on this topic? I looked first but didn't see anything.

[ylee]

SpikeJet, on 18 March 2012 - 01:29 PM, said:

Just curious -- how difficult is it to take an application not offered in the AppCenter and to bundle it up so it can be added and made available? IOW, instead of whining about some missing application that I want, could I do the necessary work and provide it to the Bodhi team? I've done a little programming from time to time. Would the application need to first be available in the usual Ubuntu repository/repositories? Is there any documentation on this topic? I looked first but didn't see anything.

I am not sure what you are asking here. There are two distinct and very different possibilities:

• You are talking about an application that is not found in the repos. In which case the first thing that would need to be done is to create a deb.
  
• Or, you are talking about an application that is found in the repos but which we do not have AppCenter page for.

For the first case you can sometimes luck out and find a deb already packaged. But if not see the following links

• Wikipedia: Debian Build Toolchain
  
• Debian New Maintainers' Guide
  
• Ubuntu: Packaging New Software
  
• Ubuntu packaging Guide

These links may make it seem complex but all in all it boils down to a small set of commands. If you can create a functioning deb then you need to ask Jeff to add it to the repo.

Now for the second case, to add an application to the Appcenter one must have a deb for it in the repos, and then someone needs to create a page for it. While the pages look like HTML really they are generated by php code from an sql database. Currently I am the only one that edits that database. Jose and probably Trace have the ability to, ie know the password and stuff.

In addition to creating a page for the application, one also needs to create and upload a bod file users can download for offline installations. I primarily build all the bod files, altho on occasion hippytaff builds a few. We have several wikis on bod files:

• .Bod File Command Line Arguments
  
• How To Build a .bod File
  
• How To Build a .bod File: Ncurses

In addition to the information in these wikis one should note a couple of things.

First the installation script in the bod file has changed somewhat and is more complex than the one in the How To Build a .bod File article. It is easy to see the change, just download a bod file and 'take it apart':

./foo.bod --noexec --keep

And Two on occasion some packages are more complex to build a functioning bod file than indicated in any of those articles. These are special cases and rare but involve figuring out how to modify the installation script so that the bod will properly install.

However for a typical easy to create a bod file package, I use some python code to create the bod file and do not do it manually. If you want to help with bod building stuff then I suppose I am the person you need to talk to. It should be noted that we do not wish an over abundance of applications on the appcenter and any app added is going to have to be community approved. Community here meaning basically me and Jeff. lol.

[SpikeJet]

I was mainly talking about the second case, where a deb already exists for an app, but it was very interesting to learn about the first case as well.

I knew there would be some kind of approval step for new additions, but now I realize its a fairly strict filter, because you don't want the AppCenter overpopulated with everything but the kitchen sink. That's very appropriate and sensible, but I'm guessing some Bodhi users might eventually offer some "fringe" applications on their own websites, no? I mean, there's no Cert-checking or other security build into Bodhi to prevent that, correct? Assuming the downloader trusts the unofficial "AppCenter", that is.

Of course I know, "apt-get install" easily takes care of what's "missing" from the AppCenter, so there's really no problem that needs to be fixed. It's just that it's handy to see a page describing an application and it's fun to install from a browser. Admittedly non-essential, though.

Thanks for taking all the time to explain the situation in detail. I honestly don't know how you guys can answer all these questions and at the same time get a lot of "real" work done on Bodhi.

[aeonius]

SpikeJet, on 18 March 2012 - 05:58 PM, said:

I honestly don't know how you guys can answer all these questions and at the same time get a lot of "real" work done on Bodhi.

"We" are just that awesome!

Haha.