The challenge with the desktop display name is the one to many relationship of snaps to apps.
Here's a couple of cases: 1. A single snap with a single (graphical) app. This is probably going to be the vast majority of snaps used on desktop. In this case using the "Name" field from the is both desirable and most appropriate since this ensures the installed icon matches the name shown in GNOME Software (or other client). 2. A single snap with multiple (graphical) apps. While this is probably less likely than case 1 there are some examples: 2a. A snap with a number of top-level apps. In this case the snap acts as an app bundle. An example of this is Libreoffice. We could either: - Show a name that is a combination of the "Name" fields from each .desktop file. e.g. "Libreoffice Writer, Libreoffice Calc, ..." - Show a "bundle name" as taken from the "title" field of the snap, e.g. "Libreoffice". - Split the snap into an item for each app in the libreoffice snap in GNOME Software. This going to be a complex user experience (installing one will install multiple apps, GNOME Software doesn't really support this concept). 2b. A snap with a primary app and one or more supporting apps. In this case the supporting apps are probably not worth explicitly mentioning. We could use case 1 for this. However, there's no way to determine between case 2a and 2b. My thoughts on this is the best solution is to have a "title" field in the snap, but if that isn't present fall back on the "Name" field from the first .desktop file and the snap name after that. This gives the snap developer the maximum flexibility to do the right thing for the type of snap and matches the field they've already entered in the snap store. Snapcraft would ideally check if the title field is absent but .desktop files are provided and prompt the user to keep the snap metadata fields set and in sync. I'm not sure what the vision is for snaps and desktop but I'd highly recommend that we discourage case 2 above (multiple graphical apps per snap) as I think it's a bad user experience. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-software in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1663060 Title: Add a title field to snap metadata Status in Developer registration portal: New Status in Snappy: New Status in gnome-software package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in snapcraft package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in snapd package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in snapd-glib package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: There are currently three naming fields in the snap metadata: name: a codename for the snap (can't contain spaces) summary: a one-line description of the snap description: A multi-line description of the snap For example for the Ubuntu calculator app we have: name: ubuntu-calculator-app summary: Ubuntu Calculator app description: The calculator app for all Ubuntu devices. What is missing is the 'title' field from the store - this is more appropriate to use in a graphical system to display this. For example, this should be "Calculator" for ubuntu-calculator-app. I think the following needs to be done: 1. A title field needs to be specified in the .snap metadata. 2. snapd needs to return this field for local snaps from the metadata, and return the store field for searches. 3. The store should take the title field from the metadata when uploading and automatically set it in the store. 4. Snapcraft needs to have updated documentation / prompt the user to enter this field. 5. snapd-glib needs support for this field. 6. GNOME Software should use this field where appropriate. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/developer-portal/+bug/1663060/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
