Changelogs are not shown if the database was upgraded

As seen on fdroiddata#237 (closed)

Just FYI, though I wiped & started fresh on the client, I'm still only getting some changelogs' links appearing on 0.73-test, but especially NOT F-droid client itself. I think all the screenshots (from the above linked issue) that are working are from 0.72, as shown in the caps from the F-droid client's own listing.

That's because I'm running master, a build from right before the 0.93-test build. It's the same as 0.93-test. 0.92 doesn't support changelog links at all.

Of course, I mean, 0.93-test & 0.92.… too late when I posted. ;)

Do you mind trying the actual 0.93-test straight from the client (though I've no idea, then, of why that should make a difference)? If I'm reading those reports right from the linked issue, more folks are having the problem my way than yours.…

Anyway, worth a shot. ☺️

& this morning's repository update got me the changelog link - finally. ☺️

Wait, this is expected in a way. A database upgrade doesn't trigger an index update, which would be required to fill all the changelog columns in the database for each app.

Added regression label

Reassigned to @pserwylo

So to clarify, we discussed this on IRC, and came to the conclusion that this is an issue with us communicating new features to F-Droid users. There are two official channels where people may hear about new features in F-Droid:

• Blog posts on https://f-droid.org
• Changelog in the fdroidclient repository

In this particular case, we should be notifying people that changelogs for supported apps in the F-Droid Android app will only be available next time the user updates the repositories.

Forcing updates of the index when F-Droid is updated to a new version is fraught with danger, because:

• User may not have internet connections
• User may be over data limit
• User may cancel update halfway through by force-closing F-Droid
• etc.

In the future, we may consider an in-app display which explains that an index update is neccesary to get "new feature X", but that is a story for another day. For now, we shall update the changelog, and be more clear about the requirement for an index update.

Once I've changed the CHANCELOG.md, I'll close this issue.

The changelog has been updated in master, so will close this.

Status changed to closed