[Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

simone6192 · 2011-05-13 18:33:51

==Summary==
AppSet is a new package manager I've developed.
Initially I wanted to create something to explore the available packages in an efficient and pleasant way. But then I wanted to add some features, then more, and more...
Now it has a fair number of features and is always growing (you can read more in the wiki).
Talking only as for the browsing part it has a list view and an enhanced view (more app focused, animated and touchscreen friendly) both with an embedded browser that shows the apps web sites, software sections (like Games, Office, Multimedia etc.), a search bar (which works on names or descriptions or both), an expert mode (shows/hides sys libs), a basic support to AUR and more...
I now that a lot of Arch users probably don't need all feature it has and instead want something else, but however you can propose your ideas (here or better with the sourceforge tracking system) and at least give it a try.
It is still not a very mature project but enough so that the Chakra linux team (an Arch derivative - chakraproject.org) decided to use it as their default package manager since the release 2011.04(Aida). They have also provided suggestions and translations.

==Translations==
At the moment it is translated into these languages:
Catalan, Chinese-China, Chinese-Taiwan, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese-Portugal, Portuguese-Brazilian, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish and Turkish.

Updated status of translations:

Main GUI:
appset-qt-tx
Tray:

Repository editor:

If you want to contribute with your language, join a translation team or request a new one on transiflex web site.

==Installation and Use==
You can install AppSet from the AUR. The package is appset-qt. It only needs qt libs as dependency and optionally 'packer' for AUR support.

When you have installed it and eventually rebooted, you can see it is minimized in the tray. Click on it to open the main GUI.
It starts without asking any password (everybody can browse apps). It only needs administrative privileges for installing/removing/upgrading/cleaning cache etc.

The default view is the Standard one. I suggest to try the enhanced. Options panel is in the main GUI.

==Something 'Under the hood'==
It's written in C++ and its desing splits the business logic from the view. Now I am using qt libs for the view part but is only a matter of using methods from an abstract class (AS::Engine, and related data structure like Package etc...). The same for the logic part, you have to provide a concrete class (from AS::Engine) which represents a specific package manager backend or provide a configuration script to the default one. This one uses regexps to interpretate output from an already existing CLI frontend (like pacman). Because of now I'm using directly pacman (and packer) as backend you can look in sources under 'appsetconf' directory for an example of a conf file. The autoupdate packages at intervals is managed by a daemon which communicates with the main GUI via named pipes.

If you want to take a look at the SVN repo, it is hosted on sourceforge.

==LINKS==
Main:http://appset.altervista.org/
AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=43869
Project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/appset/
Screenshots:http://sourceforge.net/project/screensh … _id=376825
Transifex:http://www.transifex.net/projects/p/appset-qt/

==TODO==
- Show when a ".pacsave" file is created
- Show when an optdep is proposed by pacman (and other pacman related messages)
- Ask when pacman says "Replace <pack1> with <pack2>?" ###IMPLEMENTED SINCE VERSION 0.6.0###
- Apps icons cache for both standard and enhanced view
- Maybe download parallelization

==Feature/Bug tracking==
You can post something here or use the feature/bug trackers on sourceforge.

Last edited by simone6192 (2011-06-15 09:02:05)

tarakbumba · 2011-05-13 19:10:31

I can help for Turkish support. I think you should create a Transifex or Launchpad or Pootle project to get more traslations for other languages.

simone6192 · 2011-05-13 22:01:02

Thanks tarakbumba, I've signed up on transifex and created the appset-qt project. I'm new on transifex, but if I have understand now you can send me a request to join a new translation team for Turkish. Let me know....

tarakbumba · 2011-05-14 10:20:29

Thanks. I have requestsd Turkish team setup for appset-qt project. You can create other locales teams as well. Also you should pull translations from Tx into your svn tree. I hope more translators join to the project. Btw, i think you know appset-qt is the default package management gui frontend for Chakra Linux, congratulations!

Edit: I haven't review source ts files, but i recommend you to add a translators string to show translation contributors if not any. Tx strips off translator names from header at least for gettext po files, may be it has same behaviour for qt locale files...

Last edited by tarakbumba (2011-05-14 10:32:24)

simone6192 · 2011-05-15 14:21:36

@tarakbumba: first of all thanks for your translation. Now I'm pulling translations from tx to svn repo.
I'm showing translators names both with their email addresses (only if they want) in the 'about' dialog. Let me know if you want your email in the about dialog (send me a private message with your address).

tarakbumba · 2011-05-15 18:45:16

Thanks. You can show my nick name "tarakbumba" and my e-mail adress tarakbumba at gmail dot com, Btw, AppSet can't use clyde as Aur helper. You see, i'm using clyde as package manager, AppSet can use clyde like pacman but can't parse clyde output on Aur tab. Search results are meaningless. Should i use bash regex like in pacman configuration file?

simone6192 · 2011-05-16 16:15:56

@tarakbumba: Now we have also a Romanian team in transifex. Btw, there is only a basic support for Aur. Only via packer and not configurable. However, I can add Clyde support in the next releases (both for main repos and Aur). If you are interested, can you open a feature request on SourceForge? That's just to be sure I don't forget about this... Thanks.

doorknob60 · 2011-05-20 03:23:12

I like it so far, good job I'll still always stick to the CLI for my package management most likely, but it's nice to have good GUIs out there, I always keep my eye out for them, and this is good so far. One small suggestion is for the AUR package, I don't think it should automatically add stuff to the daemons line in rc.conf, just my opinion. The install script should tell you to do it, but not actually do it, in my opinion, that's how every other package I see does it, but that's a minor issue

simone6192 · 2011-06-15 09:06:03

Ok, I've released 0.6.0 version with the option to manually answer to pacman questions, a repo editor tool and other changes.
@tarakbumba: I'll see what I can do with one of the next releases for clyde support
@doorkknob60: Ok, sooner or later I'll remove the auto daemon installation

Rhiadratech · 2011-07-03 18:15:20

Simone, Appset is a lovely package-manager, but I run with Root disabled, hence GKSU will always return bad password.
Is there a way for me to change it so that it can use GKSUDO instead of GKSU?

Yes, im an odd case, I dont like the idea of Root just sitting there for someone to guess the password at...

Spyhawk · 2011-07-03 22:20:03

Hi,

I'd like to use appset with another, faster aur backend (pacaur). I've seen that the file appset/appsetconf/appset/Arch/packer is used for packer:

community_name=AUR
search=packer -Ss --auronly
query_info=packer -Si --auronly
install=packer -S --noconfirm --auronly
remove=pacman -Rd --noconfirm
upgrade=packer -Syu --noconfirm --auronly

The content of that file seems straightforward. Wouldn't it be easier to add a variable in appset main config file (ie, aurtool=packer/yaourt/pacaur/etc) to define the aur backend and allow user to define his preferred aur backend?

Spyhawk · 2011-07-03 22:21:15

[double post, sorry]

Last edited by Spyhawk (2011-07-03 22:49:23)

simone6192 · 2011-07-08 14:29:46

@Rhiadratech: from gksu/gksudo man page:

Notice that all the magic is done by the underlying library, libgksu.
Also notice that the library will decide if it should use su or sudo as
backend using the /apps/gksu/sudo-mode gconf key, if you call the gksu
command. You can force the backend by using the gksudo command, or by
using the --sudo-mode and --su-mode options.

So try to use this gconf key and let me know if it works...

estevao · 2011-07-08 15:29:37

AppSet is awesome! Nice job!

caminoix · 2011-07-10 10:16:35

If you need help with the Polish translation in the future, let me know.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-13 18:33:51

[Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#2 2011-05-13 19:10:31

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#3 2011-05-13 22:01:02

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#4 2011-05-14 10:20:29

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#5 2011-05-15 14:21:36

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#6 2011-05-15 18:45:16

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#7 2011-05-16 16:15:56

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#8 2011-05-20 03:23:12

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#9 2011-06-15 09:06:03

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#10 2011-07-03 18:15:20

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#11 2011-07-03 22:20:03

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#12 2011-07-03 22:21:15

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#13 2011-07-08 14:29:46

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#14 2011-07-08 15:29:37

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

#15 2011-07-10 10:16:35

Re: [Project] AppSet: a feature rich package manager

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