ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

["Neil McPhail" <neil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, December 17, 2015 11:22 am, Mitchell Reese wrote:
> Interesting can of worms Neil... I can only hope that there's some
> over-arching plan happening with file sync, though I have a suspicion
> it's more of an afterthought. See what happens in the coming months. In
> the mean-time, I think  we should push ahead with the openapp store.
> Couple points and questions:
>
>  1. Why would you need to rebuild and repackage syncthing from source to
>     get it into the openapp store? Isn't it set-up for hacking projects?
>     Seems like syncthing would work fine unconfined - isn't this just a
>     matter of changing the manifest file when building it?

One of the requirements for the Open Store submission is that the app be
open source, with a link to the source used to build the app. Looking at
the build documentation, this looks easier than I thought. They provide a
docker build image which can build all architectures from git
automatically, so it should be fairly easy to get an ARM build.

>  2. If it's more difficult for whatever reason, I still think it's worth
>     it. That 'hole' your speaking of sounds similar to others I keep
>     hearing about being closed - hasn't happened yet, deal with it when
>     it does. If nothing else, Tweakgeek would make it usable until we
>     find something else.

Agreed

>  3. I don't think implementing a splash screen would effect lifecycle
>     management - in essence syncthing displays one now, it just happens
>     to be the icon, a black background, and the loading sign on
>     start-up. All a splash screen does is add a small image and some
>     background colors. The image could be text, letting people know
>     what's happening, etc. Happy to work on this with you.

It will be interesting to see if this works. I would appreciate your help
with this.


>  4. Packaging a separate webapp should be really easy, and I don't think
>     it will break the application lifecycle hole you're using. In
>     essence, we're just packaging 2 separate apps together in one click
>     package, they would run independently of each other. Also happy to
>     help with this. I think 2 separate apps in the store doesn't make
> sense.

Great! Previously, 2 apps in a single .click would fail validation. I
think this may have changed recently. But if we are targeting the Open
Store, passing click validation is less important.

>  5. Background data usage - that's a doozy, and I don't have any
>     suggestions about fixing that. At the moment, swiping the syncthing
>     screen away kills the program - it could be worth having a
>     disclaimer on the splash screen to warn people. I'd imagine battery
>     life would also suffer. Another reason to have it in the openapp
>     store - if someone's installing apps from there, they're up for
>     experimenting. Food for thought.

Yep. Would appreciate any pointers from the mailing list on this one.

>
> All up we're talking about a hack to work around a feature that's not
> implemented yet - file syncing. Here's hoping this hits Ubuntu Touch at
> some point! Until then, happy to work on a 'hackable solution' with you.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mitchell
>

I'll get to work on a build environment. Now that we've stirred up a
hornets' nest on the mailing list, we should probably take further
correspondence off-list ;)

I'll email you when I've got a self-built package and we can talk about
adding splash screen and local webapp front end.

Ta much

NMP