add linux appdata

[eszlari]

No description provided.

[J5lx]

Thanks for contributing this! Structurally, this looks good to me, but I think we should work on the quality of the metadata a little. To be honest I’m not as familiar with AppStream as I’d like to be, but I still want to make sure that if we’re adding that metadata we’re doing it right. In that regard, I’ll also have to have a closer look at the docs than just skimming through it like I did just now.

[chchwy]

Any update of this PR?

[J5lx]

I plan on getting back to it asap and see where we can go with the metadata.

[chchwy]

Ok, thanks. I will leave it to you, take your time.

[eszlari]

Any news on this?

[Jose-Moreno]

@J5lx @eszlari @chchwy Hey guys, with 0.6.3 release getting closer, do you think this could be ready by then, or should we kick back this to the next release? Thank you for all the research and hard work that you've put into this already 🙂

[J5lx]

Ah crap I totally forgot about this one as well. I’m really sorry about that! I’ll try to get to it in the next few days. @Jose-Moreno (and others): About the screenshots, do you think you could help with that? In the screenshot recommendations, it says (among other things): “Don’t show your application in an ‘empty’ state, and try and use high quality content which has positive associations and broad appeal.” Since I’m not that good myself, do you happen to know someone who would be interested in having their art featured?

[Jose-Moreno]

@J5lx We could make a simple call for linux based artists similar to what Blender does. I don't know though how many will response. I'll give a read to the guidelines and create the appropriate announcement then.

[J5lx]

Okay, that sounds like a good first step. I’d just like to add one thing, though, it doesn’t have to be a Linux-based artist – I can do the screenshots myself, too, the only thing that’s missing is some good “content” to avoid showing Pencil2D in an “empty state”. Let’s not forget that we could also use the screenshots to provide a quick first look at the program on our website or elsewhere – at the very least the images will have to be hosted there anyway, since they can’t be “embedded” into the appdata – so good screenshots could be useful beyound the limited audience which uses Flatpaks on Linux. If someone wants to make some, we could add macOS- and Windows-based screenshots as well.

[Jose-Moreno]

@J5lx Well there's also a proposal that was posted in the discord general-development channel regarding the possibility of querying user generated files for different tests to help avoid potential issues in the future.

Perhaps if we make a call for submissions for a pencil2d animated example gallery these entries will not only fulfill this appdata requirement but the one being discussed as well. In our case we can provide a submission form with an optional licensing clause that allow us and other users to use the files for internal testing and to inspect them as "examples" of the program capabilities. While the original artists obviously should retain their rights it would be best if it was licensed with a CCBY type of license or even as public domain, so we could include those options in the form.

But other than that you're right it doesn't have to be linux specific, just Pencil2D specific. I'll cros post this idea in discord t see if works for everyone's needs.

[eszlari]

Any news on this?

[scribblemaniac]

@eszlari We have been gather user submissions which will probably be used to create the screenshots for this, but to my knowledge no recent progress has been made on modifying the metadata.

One of our users was having issues with the desktop file when using the flatpak, could you please take a look and share any insights you may have into this issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1125407/i-cant-install-pencil2d-using-its-appimage-any-help/1125764?noredirect=1#comment1864220_1125764

[eszlari]

One of our users was having issues with the desktop file when using the flatpak, could you please take a look and share any insights you may have into this issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1125407/i-cant-install-pencil2d-using-its-appimage-any-help/1125764?noredirect=1#comment1864220_1125764

This seems to be a Unity specific problem.

[eszlari]

I updated this PR and hopefully addressed all points, please merge.

[J5lx]

Thanks for the update, I’ve let this PR wait for way too long. The one issue that I still have with this is the Windows-based, empty screenshot, other than that it looks good to me. As noted above, we gathered user submissions which we might be able to use for screenshots, so as long as there have been submissions with “high quality content which has positive associations and broad appeal” I’d like to use one of those for the screenshot. Since I don’t currently have access to the submissions, I’ve asked the others about it. As soon as I know more, I’ll take care of the screenshot as necessary and, regardless of that aspect, finally get this merged.

[J5lx]

We have a proper screenshot now, so I’m merging this as soon as the Travis build succeeds.

[eszlari]

By the way, you can use

appstream-util validate org.pencil2d.Pencil2D.metainfo.xml

for validation.