Version "latest" is problematic

[dominikheinz]

Some apps on GitHub use (unfortunately) not proper version labeling.
For example: https://github.com/crackededed/Xtra

It specifies installed version as latest and remote version also as latest. But I know for a fact that the installed version is older. What is the best way to handle this? Maybe checking the date or something...?

[ImranR98]

Using release dates instead of release titles would not work easily as Obtainium needs to be able to compare the actual App version to the external one - so there would need to be a lot of under the hood changes. Also unlike version numbers, not all sources would make release dates available, so there would have to be completely different update checking logic just for specific Apps from some sources (and the user would have to manually specify them as I don't see how it can be done automatically). Would also need to avoid conflicting with the existing version detection toggle.

I don't think it's worth supporting at this point as only a small number of Apps do releases this way. That said, the issue should remain open in case it does get picked up at some point.

[dominikheinz]

That's fair. So the best option is to suggest to the developer to switch to proper versioning numbers?

[ImranR98]

Yes that would be the solution for now

[sertonix]

Currently the detection for versions of Etar also doesn't work.
I created an issue there to make the naming consistend.
Etar-Group/Etar-Calendar#1338

Edit: the issue was rejected

[ImranR98]

Leaving some notes for later:

1. Add Date? releaseDate to App schema.
2. Modify Sources to grab release dates (for any Sources where this is doable).
3. Add an toggle to additionalAppSpecificSourceAgnosticSettingFormItems to enable using the App release date as the App version.
4. In the UI, add a prompt explaining the limitations of this method to the user (similar to what is being done for track-only).
5. When releaseDateAsVersion == true, noVersionDetection should automatically be enabled too (since version detection won't work when using dates as versions). Figure out the best place this logic should be added.
6. Modify the code to respect this new toggle by replacing the version string with an integer representing the release date (discard original version strings). Again, do this in an appropriate place.
7. In the UI (both Apps List and App Detail), add the Release Date for Apps that support it (along with a sort option) - this is for Add date along with version in app list, and allow sorting by date. #298.

[ImranR98]

Using release dates instead of versions is now supported (for some Sources): https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium/releases/tag/v0.11.0-beta