Add into F-Droid

[KOLANICH]

Could you add your app into F-Droid?

[IzzySoft]

@GLodi ? That would need a build flavor without Firebase, GMS, Fabric, Crashlytics (as those are not accepted at F-Droid). And btw, you don't really need two Analytics frameworks in the app, do you?

In case you've given up the app (there was no commit for more than a year now and this issue was not even responded to, so forgive me that possibly wrong conclusion), could you maybe make a last build that comes without both analytics frameworks? Thanks in advance!

[GLodi]

Hi,
It's true that I've sort of given up on it, as I've moved on other projects and there are far better alternatives out there. I thought about writing it from scratch in Flutter, but it would require too much time.
I'm ok with adding it to F-Droid, however I was looking at F-Droid's inclusion policy regarding JAR files (I used here a GitHub API wrapper that you can find under app/libs). It says they need to be replaced with a source-built version or used from a trusted repository. What exactly am I supposed to do?
Regarding the Google dependencies, I could just make a new commit without them.

[IzzySoft]

@GLodi F-Droid wants to completely build from source. That would mean e.g. a specific "foss build flavor" that comes without any proprietary components (or alternatively, just remove them generally) – plus providing the source of the JARs, e.g. as git submodules.

For my repo (where it currently is listed, the JARs are of no consequence (my repo is to F-Droid rawly about what nonfree is to Debian), but I'd very much welcome a build (APK) at least without Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics, if possible without Firebase at all, and ideally without any proprietary components (i.e. also without GMS). A tag with the APK attached suffices.

Of course the official F-Droid repo is more prestigious. But if that's too much work (or impossible, e.g. if you cannot remove GMS)… 😉

[KOLANICH]

if you cannot remove GMS

GMS is drop-in-replaceable with MicroG

[IzzySoft]

@KOLANICH that doesn't make it acceptable for F-Droid. It's proprietary code. And we're talking about the GMS code in the app here – not in GMS installed on the device (which is where microG comes into play).

[KOLANICH]

It's proprietary code.

MicroG is free software.

And we're talking about the GMS code in the app here

MicroG has a lib to replace the proprietary code in an app (though IDK if it can be used for that in your case) too.

[IzzySoft]

Yes, there are some "patches" indeed. Though not being a dev myself I never know in what cases they can be applied. What I saw used at F-Droid was the patch to "stubbify" Google Analytics. But there's no real FOSS way to e.g. replace their cloud messaging part within an app AFAIK. At least no easy one. And considering that F-Droid is chronically understaffed, it's best to make integration as easy as possible for F-Droid "integrators" – else things stay in the queue for much longer. (That could e.g. mean preparing the "build recipe" and trying it using a clone of fdroidserver to make sure it works – and then provide that recipe with the RFP. Not everybody can do that, clear enough, but if it's possible it speeds up things.)

And I know microG. I've already used it when it still was called NOGAPPS. But that's the privacy-friendly replacement for GMS on-device, not in-app. Though some patches are available as a "side effect".

[IzzySoft]

So any chance for a FOSS build flavor? Do you still develop/maintain the app (as there was no commit for almost 2 years now)?