[packman] [opensuse-web] Reworking the software search page

[Christian Boltz]

Hello,

@packman team: can you please answer the question at the end of this 
mail?

Am Freitag, 2. März 2012 schrieb Thomas Schmidt:
> On 01.03.2012 18:28, Christian Boltz wrote:
> > Am Donnerstag, 1. März 2012 schrieb Thomas Schmidt:
> >> The challenge is to make available the matrix of different OS
> >> versions, repositories and package versions in a clear way while
> >> making it easy for the standard user to get the latest stable
> >> version for his OS without getting confused.
> > 
> > AFAIK One Click Install supports ymp files that choose the
> > distribution automatically (packman uses such files IIRC).
> > 
> > Using such a multi-distribution ymp file for the big "Direct
> > Install" button would make things easier and less error-prone for
> > the average user.
> 
> That would be really cool and avoid some wrong downloads i think.
> I'm not sure how we can detect on which os version  the client is
> anyway (in the browser). 

You can't detect it in the browser. Well, maybe you can do some guessing 
based on the "user agent" - but that's nothing I would rely on. And to 
make it even more interesting, it's easy to change what a browser can 
send in its "user agent" string.

If you want something that works in the browser, then add a "remember my 
distribution" checkbox on the search page that sets a long-living 
cookie.

BTW: The multi-distribution ymp files contain repo urls for various 
distributions, and YaST OneClickInstall then chooses the right one.

> At the moment the ymp is directly created by
> the obs at an url like this:
> https://api.opensuse.org//published/openSUSE:12.1/standard/kernel-def
> ault?view=ymp
> 
> We would need someone to extend the obs to create those multi-os ymps.

Shouldn't be too hard for the OBS team ;-)

> It would also be interesting to know how packman creates those.

That's the reason why I'm CC'ing the packman mailinglist ;-)

@packman team: can someone please give a short description how the 
packman multi-distribution ymp files are created?


Regards,

Christian Boltz
-- 
Aren't most of SUSE-employed community members part of the 
Research&Destroy department? [Sascha Peilicke in opensuse-project]