Alternative to Fetch library (not maintain repo on github)

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

Describe the bug
Since Fetch library is no more maintain on github , we must find some alternative for future.

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

hi @kelson42 @gouri-panda ,

What is your opinion on this ?

[kelson42]

Not a prority to fix, moving to 3.8.0

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

hi @kelson42 ,

We can deploy Fetch fork to maven , We can follow above document to deploy https://gist.github.com/StefMa/7a4a910e2f570566a0b1 apart from this we have couple of project but they are not also maintain and are on jitpack like https://github.com/SIARAY/DownloadManagerPlus

[kelson42]

@MohitMaliFtechiz Your comment is confusing, it looks like the first part of your comment is for #3169. For the rest we will see in milestone 3.8.0.

[kelson42]

@MohitMaliFtechiz I believe its time to fix this issue now.

[gouri-panda]

@kelson42 @MohitMaliFtechiz May I take this?

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

Hi @gouri-panda, have you found any suitable replacement for the Fetch Library (which is not on the jitpack), like https://github.com/SIARAY/DownloadManagerPlus
https://github.com/amitshekhariitbhu/PRDownloader
, or do you think it is to better to deploy the fetch library on maven if no suitable replacement is found? (because we are only facing issues with this lib, it is on jitpack), or you have a better approach (like Android Download manager).

[gouri-panda]

Not sure, if we should add another library for this, I think we should try the native approach like the Android download manager.

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

Not sure, if we should add another library for this, I think we should try the native approach like the Android download manager.

@gouri-panda IMO, it is better to use native approach for the Fetch library replacement because the native approach improves according to the latest android versions.

[kelson42]

I'm not in favour of changing anything related to this before next release. Focus should be on the tickets in the milestone. That said, its true that first thing is to decide which library we should use to replace fetch.

[kelson42]

So, with Android DownloadManager, what is the problem, the limtations? Can we have the same features like today with fetch?

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

So, with Android DownloadManager, what is the problem, the limtations?

@kelson42 DownloadManager does not have the pause/resume functionality we have to manage these functionalities ourselves with proper error handling.

Can we have the same features like today with fetch?

Fetch has many features with proper error handling
e.g.

• Network specific downloading support.
• Ability to retry failed downloads.
• Easy progress and status tracking.
• Download remaining time reporting (ETA).
• Download speed reporting.

Since The DownloadManager in Android operates independently of application's lifecycle so we need to manage these manually with DownloadManager.

[kelson42]

@MohitMaliFtechiz Then we really need an alternative. Why OKHTTP or Retrofit are not alternatives?

[kelson42]

From my understanding, it seems that all alternative download manager library have been dying. It looks like we might have to deal with the DownloadManager

• Network specific downloading support.

I don't understand this...

• Ability to retry failed downloads.

This is a problem

• Easy progress and status tracking.

I guess this can be somehow achieve just by monitoring the size of the output file. But I would really wonder the primitive are not there.

• Download remaining time reporting (ETA).
• Download speed reporting.

Easy to compute if you know how much has been downloded already.

[MohitMaliFtechiz]

Network specific downloading support.
I don't understand this...

@kelson42 This Means Fetch can handle whether the downloading should be performed via mobile internet or wifi, but with DownloadManager we need to handle this manually because we have this functionality in our app where users can set on which network, files should be downloaded.

This is a problem

We have to implement this functionality like Fetch.

I guess this can be somehow achieve just by monitoring the size of the output file. But I would really wonder the primitive are not there.
Easy to compute if you know how much has been downloded already.

Yes, we can handle it, but we need to do it manually DownloadManager does not provide this by default.