SuggestedPackagesForFiletypesSpec

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Ubuntu does not install packages for every file type there is but if a user wants to open a document that is not supported out-of-the-box there should be a option to install the required package(s) to work with that file type.
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We have the information about the suppported mime-types for most packages via the desktop files already. This information should be used to present a user-friendly way to install packages.
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 1. Alice clicks on a .xxx document and gets a error message that this file-stype is not supported. She is frustrated by the lack of options.
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Modifications to gnome-app-install and nautilus packages needs to be done.

Summary

Ubuntu does not install packages for every file type there is but if a user wants to open a document that is not supported out-of-the-box there should be a option to install the required package(s) to work with that file type.

Rationale

We have the information about the suppported mime-types for most packages via the desktop files already. This information should be used to present a user-friendly way to install packages.

Use cases

  1. Alice clicks on a .xxx document and gets a error message that this file-stype is not supported. She is frustrated by the lack of options.

Scope

Modifications to gnome-app-install and nautilus packages needs to be done.

Design

  • maybe use update-desktop-database to build the database (if possible?)
  • user clicks on a unsupported file:
    • - dialog opens and asks gnome-app-install if it has support for it - it needs to be very fast so we need to cache the data (probably just pickle it) and pre-cache it when the package is build - if we have something to install display a dialog with the information and ask the user if he wants to install it - this should most likely bring up gnome-app-install in a special mode without "sections" and "search" and a header with a explaination. open issue: what to do when there is only something in "unsupported" but "unsupported" is unchecked in the g-a-i checkbox. we bring up a text that explains that a component is not checked and expand/show when the checkbox is checked - make sure that commerial stuff (vmware-player, realplayer) does the right thing (display license uri etc) - the dialog invokes gnome-app-install via dbus/commandline and installs the stuff - sort by popularity ranking! - when the application is installed, it is launched with the file that was requested (so g-a-i needs the filename too) - we need a commandline interface (for e.g. firefox that does not use dbus) and optionally a dbus interface
  • make a nicer dialog if a unknown file-type comes up (instead of the current "Couldn't display '%s'"). Probably "there is no application available to view: '%s'")

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

BoF agenda and discussion

CategorySpec

SuggestedPackagesForFiletypesSpec (last edited 2008-08-06 16:37:32 by localhost)