We have moved to a new Sailfish OS Forum. Please start new discussions there.
26

Packaging and distributing data files or plugins

asked 2014-01-09 15:24:09 +0200

mikelima gravatar image

updated 2014-01-19 21:11:08 +0200

lk gravatar image

There is currently no way to submit data files, or non-applications to the store!

There are a few things that come to my mind I would like to have, but that I think are not supported at the moment in the store:

  • data files such as
    • fonts (these may need to refresh the font configuration on installation and disinstallation etc.)
    • Ambience sets (I suppose these are "kind of supported", since the other half installs its own, but no third party can do this at the moment)
    • plugins/extensions of various kind (for the browser, for sharing files or for instant messaging protocols, gstreamer codecs...)
    • extra data for applications (extra game levels, maps, start charts...)

EDIT: turned the question when ever it's possible to do, into a feature request. Please vote for the question, if you think that feature is useful and important to you.

edit retag flag offensive close delete

Comments

I'm currently developing an app which would contain over 200 MB of data files in single .rpm file if I package all the files into the single .rpm file. I don't really want to do that, because users would need to download the same >200 MB package every time I update the app.

At the moment the only solution for this problem is to pay for some web storage and host the data files by myself and then inside the app ask user to download the files.

Lack of proper data file support is a disappointment since I have to basically pay some money to get my app working properly. Considering the fact that Jolla doesn't support payments in the store makes this even more disappointing.

My suggestion is that Jolla could provide some storage space for devs in case their app needs to have some large additional files. The store itself does not need to provide the files. It's enough if dev can manage the files via Harbour and has some way to download them in the app (ie. over http).

skvark ( 2015-05-07 20:16:17 +0200 )edit

1 Answer

Sort by » oldest newest most voted
0

answered 2014-01-09 17:36:25 +0200

Kontio gravatar image

updated 2014-01-09 17:37:07 +0200

Current situation (as of 09 Jan 2014):
The answer from https://harbour.jolla.com/faq about "I think library XYZ would be useful for others too, I want to make that library available in the store. Can I submit a library only rpm?" applies. "No, the app store, is as the name says, an application store and not a shared library store.". So no there is no supported way to do that at the moment.

edit flag offensive delete publish link more

Comments

3

Thank you for your answer, I kind of knew that, but I strongly feel these kind of things would be necessary to make SailfishOS a contender, and to make it a better tool than those that are available.

Most of the focus in mobile space is about "apps" at the moment, but apps are limited: you can only use them for what the programmer intended or anticipated.

Services, like libraries and plugin, allow existing applications to get more functionality, without increasing the clutter in the launcher.

Also, plugin, libraries, fonts and data, can be reused by more applications, and users could get more functionality, for the same amount of flash memory used.

The disadvantage is that it is harder to keep track of non-app packages, because they disappear from the suer view.

mikelima ( 2014-01-09 18:16:15 +0200 )edit

sure that's why I turned it into a feature request (tag) and rephrased it a little.

Kontio ( 2014-01-09 18:19:07 +0200 )edit
Login/Signup to Answer

Question tools

Follow
4 followers

Stats

Asked: 2014-01-09 15:24:09 +0200

Seen: 446 times

Last updated: Jan 09 '14