Integrate "Apt-linker" into all Ubuntu Browsers

[Joao Pinto]

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:08 AM, Ryan Oram <ryanoram at trentu.ca> wrote:

> Greasemonkey script: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/47591
> Firefox extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11731/
> Chromium extension:
>
> https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/oljmaangfgmmokjpnojhfblppgeijikp
>
> I was just wondering if it would be possible to integrate the
> functionality presented in the extensions and Greasemonkey script
> above into the standard Firefox, Chromium, and Empathy packages for
> Ubuntu. I suppose this also could be made a separate package for each
> browser, like the ubufox extension for Firefox.


> I'm looking into making a website for the "Ubuntu AppUpdate" service
> and it would be nice to have my users just be able to click on the
> "apt-get" instructions to install the packages. I realize apturl
> should already be supported out of the box, but plain apturls often
> confuse users. In addition, this would make things a lot easier for

new users asking questions on the various forums and communities where
> apturls are not supported.
>
> Needless to say, having this behavior set-up out of the box would be
> very "Apple-esque" and would be a boon to new users.
>
> Thanks,
> Ryan
>
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Ryan,
we are using apturl for GetDeb, we don't get any complains about apturls
causing confusion, not in what refers to the links per si.
Current apturl issues are:
- Not properly integrated  out of the box with all browsers, I am not sure
about the current status, but the last time I have checked it was not
integrated with firefox as installed on Kbuntu and several other browsers
available from the repositories
- Users don't have the related repositories properly configured before
clicking the links
- Users don't understand what is a repository and find strange that they
don't get a regular file download instead
- A cache refresh must be forced if you want to be sure the users will get
the latest version (you need refresh=yes on apturls), there is currently no
way to force the refresh only for the repository providing the package, this
introduces a significant overhead
- It's not possible to queue installs by clicking on multiple clicks

The greasemonkey script does not really help in any of those problems,
apturl is a nice solution, it needs better integration and other
improvements. I believe it is the proper tool to invest at.

-- 
João Luís Marques Pinto
GetDeb Team Leader
http://www.getdeb.net
http://blog.getdeb.net
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