RepositoryDialogRedesign

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Comment: explanation of human-readable 3rd-party repository names
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The current repository dialog is not ideal and not future-proofed. The following redesign will allow us to use the same dialog into the future, regardless of underlying package system.

'''IanJackson: it would be nice to say which repository dialogue is referred to so the unfamiliar reader doesn't have to read on and grok from context'''		 The current repository dialog for Synaptic, Gnome-App-Install and Update-Manager is not ideal and not future-proofed. The following redesign will allow us to use the same dialog into the future, regardless of underlying package system.
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The repository dialog will list ...

 * Ubuntu 6.04
 * Ubuntu 6.04 - unsupported software
 * community supported (universe, multiverse, security, updates)
 * backports

'''IanJackson: eh? If "unsupported" is universe, what is "community supported" ? I think there is some mistake here. The sketch above looks good.'''

These sections will be followed by a separator, then repositories from other vendors, e.g. Adobe, Sun, bazaar.canonical.com.

'''IanJackson: say how we will decide which other repositories to offer.'''		 We will ship with options to access the Ubuntu repositories. As for 3rd-party channels, this will happen as we sign agreements with various companies. This is covered in ThirdPartyPackages. The "Add Channel" dialog will also let people enter a human-readable name for a repository along with its URL.
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'''IanJackson: after this the page seems to degenerate into notes. These should be redacted with a firm hand.''' This needs be covered by MichaelVogt

Summary

The current repository dialog for Synaptic, Gnome-App-Install and Update-Manager is not ideal and not future-proofed. The following redesign will allow us to use the same dialog into the future, regardless of underlying package system.

Rationale

The current dialog is less than ideal for adding new source list and does not scale well for the future.

Use cases

  • Sally is looking for f-spot and hears it is in "universe". She is confused about how to get that.
  • Jeff doesn't want to have to redesign the dialog for each release, so he needs a future-proofed dialog.

Assumptions

  • People who want security updates want security updates. They don't want security updates just from Main and not from Universe. The same applies to other major fixes. The people who want updates from some repositories and not others can edit their sources.list manually.

Scope

  • This will change the repository dialog in Synaptic, and thus G-A-I and the Update Manager

Design

attachment:dialog.jpg

We will ship with options to access the Ubuntu repositories. As for 3rd-party channels, this will happen as we sign agreements with various companies. This is covered in ThirdPartyPackages. The "Add Channel" dialog will also let people enter a human-readable name for a repository along with its URL.

Implementation

This needs be covered by MichaelVogt

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

  • how to visually show that new versions of Ubuntu available (

  • merge all tools into one (see SoftwareManager)

BoF agenda and discussion

Channels

  • switch to channels

Upgrades

  • make certain that certain channels (universe, upgrades) are enabled for the new release as well
  • 3rd party channels, disable those that do not have a channel for the new release
  • done through upgrade dialog, show visually (not yet decided how)

RepositoryDialogRedesign (last edited 2008-08-06 16:31:41 by localhost)