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

[todd rme]

On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 12:05 PM, Thomas Schmidt <tom at opensuse.org> wrote:
> As part of the current boosters sprint[1] which aims at integrating
> the appstream[2] project into our distribution we would like to enhance
> the web view on our packages at software.o.o/search.
>
> With the final target of an web-based appstore we began thinking of
> how to display a package (app) to the user.
> 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.
>
> We already have a mockup available:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/294274/software.o.o/package-view.png
>
> Feedback appreciated :-)
>
> Greetings

Definitely a huge improvement.  A few comments:

1. I agree that devel projects should be available in the view.

2. Regarding home projects, perhaps at the very bottom there could be
a "show user packages" or "show community packages".  The first time
this is clicked a warning could appear telling users about the
security and stability risks, and make them press another button to
see the list.  This would be remembered in a cookie.  They would
always be hidden by default.

3. One exception: if the user is logged in, could it be made to show
their own home project packages by default?

4. Regarding the multi-distro  metapackages, packman is not the only
one to do that.  The nvidia binary packages also offer this:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers  Maybe the maintainers of
these packages can also help.

5. It would be nice if there was a way to install language files as
well.  Perhaps if there is a lang package, there could be a button.
If there are individual language files, there could be a dropdown
list.

6. You don't explain how the user got to this page.  There is nothing
in the search box, and no substring matches.  One possibility would be
to have the search list every uniquely-named matching package (minus
devel, lang, debuginfo, etc).  There would be exact matches first,
followed by substring matches.  There could also be an option to
search the package descriptions.  When a user clicks on a package
name, there is an option to install the "default" package version, and
a button for "more versions". which takes you to the page you listed.

-Todd