[AppStream] A dedicated format for AppStream metadata curation and augmentation

[Richard Hughes]

On 22 July 2016 at 11:05, Matthias Klumpp <matthias at tenstral.net> wrote:
> So, IMO we need a dedicated XML format to ship generic curation data.
> This is what I have in mind right now:
> <curation origin="Debian">
>   // origins could also be "GNOME-Software" or "AppRecommender", etc.

I think merging extra data into components is more general than just
curation. I think we want to consider:

 * Replacing data with higher-priority data
 * Appending data only when it doesn't already exist

I think both things could be achieved with:

<component type="merge" priority="1">

where priority is optional.

>   <featured environment="gnome">
>     <id>org.gnome.Totem</id>
>     <id>org.gnome.Documents</id>
>     ...
>   </featured>

Featured in what way? Featured as a banner on the overview, in the
popular lists, or in the category lists? All? I think all of these are
separate problems.

>   <styles>
>     <banner>
>       <id>org.gnome.builder</id>
>       <url>https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-software/plain/data/featured-builder.png</url>
>     </banner>

Do we specify a size or aspect for this banner? Are appstores going to
agree? Do the designers want KDE apps to use oxygen on GNOME? Does a
specific banner make sense on mobile too? Does the banner have
user-translatable text?

I think there are some good ideas here, a merge component would make
appstream-glib much cleaner, and it would be good to standardize how
to pick favorites in the specific ways but I think we need much more
discussion before anything is decided.

Richard.