[ubuntu-studio-devel] Feature Spec Discussion: Workflow Categorization

[Kaj Ailomaa]

# Workflow Categorization for
ubuntustudio-{audio|graphics|video|publishing|photography}

Before we do any technical implementation of workflow categorization, we
need to define a set of workflows that we want to support. Some work on
that has been started here
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/WorkflowCategories. 

The defined workflows would serve as basis for our package selection
process. But, could also be of great help in other areas, such as when
searching for applications in an installer (if the packages are tagged
with these workflows, and they tags are searchable). 
Also, the submenus in our menu could be populated directly from such
categories.

The exact names aren't as importad in the first phase of defining the
workflows. Once the workflows are defined, I suggest we start using
debtags and freedesktop categories to name the workflows, and create new
debtags and freedesktop categories for missing ones.

debtags - https://wiki.debian.org/Debtags
freedekstop categories -
http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html

In order to do that, we will need to work with upstream. The benefit in
doing so is that the work we do becomes available on all Debian based
distros, and in the case with freedesktop categories - also in the whole
of Linux audio world.

# freedesktoop categories explained

Freedesktop categories are used in .desktop files found in
/usr/share/applications/, and are used for creating a menu structure in
DEs that still use menus, such as KDE, LXDE and Xubuntu.

The menus aren't strictly created using freedesktop categories, and in
our case with ubuntustudio-menu, the structure is very much customized.
By using freedesktop categories we could instead automate the build of
the menu, and not place applications in correct categories one by one.

Here's a list of all standard categories
http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html

# debtags explained

debtags are potentially useful when searching or browsing for packages.
Each package can have multiple tags. Read more about debtags here
https://wiki.debian.org/Debtags.

Debian packages use debtags to fine tune categorization. But, not all
packages are currently using a rich set of correct debtags.

Debtags for the Debian Multimedia Blend packages can be edited here
(select a task, and for the package, select “edit debtags”)
http://blends.debian.org/multimedia/tasks/index.

To see debtags locally, install the package debtags and use this command
(replace <package> with something that you have installed):

    debtags show <package>

WORKITEMS for workflow categorization:

So, I propose we:
 * Define a set of workflow categories we want to support in our package
 selection process
 * Assemble all debtags and freedesktop categories that relate to our
 workflows into a list.
 * Define new ones, if needed, and implement them upstrean.

Here's a list of sections for Ubuntu trusty packages
http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/

This is a fair bit of work, but will make further work a lot easier.
Tags could be used in package installers (such as
ubuntustudio-installer), while freedesktop categories make it easier to
structure menus or search for applications in non-menu based gui shells,
such as unity or gnome. 

Any takers?