QuicklyTips

Revision 6 as of 2012-05-03 18:04:48

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Quickly is a tool for creating new applications from scratch. For more information, see the Quickly guide.

If your app is written in Quickly, run:

quickly tutorial ubuntu-application

for details on how to release to your PPA with a single command.

Fixes for Extras Apps

Currently, apps packaged with Quickly need several changes before the ARB can publish them. Quickly is a little behind the current ARB requirements, but will be updated in future releases. These are the files that need to be edited:

myapp.desktop.in

Change the file path for Exec, by adding "/opt/extras.ubuntu.com/myapp/" before the app binary.

debian/changelog

Quickly will make a number of entries in this file. For release, these need to be collapsed down into one entry. Add the string "-0extras12.04.1" to the version number, and make sure the target is the current release, "precise". The file will look something like this:

myapp (0.1-0extras12.04.1) precise; urgency=low

  * New release.

 -- My Name <myname@example.com>  Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:26:25 +0530

debian/compat

This file contains a single number, change it from "6" to "8".

debian/control

Update the debhelper version in Build-Depends to "8". Remove cdbs and python-support from Build-Depends. (You can see the dh_python2 transition guide for more details on why python-support is no longer used.) Update the Standards-Version to 3.9.3. Remove the lines for XS-Python-Version and XB-Python-Version. Add the required metadata for the Software Center: XB-AppName, XB-Icon, XB-Screenshot-URL, and XB-Category (see the packaging quick start guide for more details on these)

debian/copyright

Change Format-Specification: to Format: and update the URL to the current version of the spec "http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/"

Change Name: to Upstream-Name:. Change Maintainer: to Upstream-Contact:.

Delete the extra Copyright: lines, leaving only one. It should show the years, your name, and your email address.

Duplicate the License: line, with an extra line between the two.

The final file should look something like this example:

Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: myapp
Upstream-Contact: My Name <myname@example.com>
Source: https://code.launchpad.net/~myname/+junk/extras-myapp-oneiric

Files: *
Copyright: 2011-2012 My Name <myname@example.com>
License: GPL-3.0+

License: GPL-3.0+
 This program is free software...

debian/rules

Completely replace the contents of the debian/rules file. The new file will look like this example:

PKGDIR=opt/extras.ubuntu.com/myapp

 %:
        dh $@

 override_dh_auto_install:
        dh_auto_install -- --install-lib=/$(PKGDIR)/ --install-scripts=/$(PKGDIR)/bin/ --install-data=/$(PKGDIR)/

 override_dh_gencontrol:
        dh_gencontrol
        cp data/media/myapp.png ../myapp.png
        dpkg-distaddfile myapp.png raw-meta-data -

You can see the packaging quick start guide for more details on the contents of the debian/rules file.

debian/source/format

Add a directory named "source" in the debian/ directory, and add a single text file in the directory. The text in the file is the simple string "3.0 (native)".

data/media

You need to add a PNG formatted icon for the Software Center to this directory. You can use the one you submitted to MyApps.