[gsoc2011] PackageKit integration for Ubuntu Software Center

[Alex Eftimie]

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 11:02 PM, Matthias Klumpp <matthias at nlinux.org> wrote:
>  * familiarize with PackageKit workflow, especially with the
> python-packagekit bindings;
> Have you considered to use PackageKit's GIR data with Python, instead of
> using the original Python bindings?
> AFAIK they are broken at time, and the way to go is GIR. I am developing
> an application using PK GIR at time and there really are some problems with
> it, but in the long run it might be a better option. (I already fixed most
> of the GIR issues in PK 0.6.14)
> Just my 2 cents, I'm no Python dev ;-)

Well, I didn't know there are gi data for pk. It's a great suggestion,
I will use them. I've tried googling for some documentation, but I
only found your bug report about temporarely disabling them. Can you
please give some more hints, like how can I setup an environment with
PackageKit GI?

>> A particular issue I can start clarifying is the app-data.xml download
>> policy, mentioned in a previous thread[2] by Enrico Zini. Any hints
>> for me?
> Note: @all on this list, please correct me if I'm telling something wrong
> here, as I haven't attended the AppStream meeting...
> AFAIK the app-data XML stuff is available in one package (maybe together
> with the icons?) and gets downloaded via the package manager. This is
> already done for the USC, at Debian we already have a package like this:
> http://packages.debian.org/sid/app-install-data (but this is not working
> with the XML files, it ships .desktop files at time)
> Then, after the package is installed, apt-xapian-index is executed to
> create a Xapian index of the XML files, which is searched in the USC.
> Hope this solves your question. (Or I got you wrong...)

AFAIK, app-install-data is the "old" thing, Debian and Ubuntu
specific. The "new thing" should be distro agnostic (I might be
wrong). See this bug:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=488968 for Fedora
app-install-data status.

Cheers,
Alex