Add author metadata to website / repo build metadata

Currently, there is no author attribute (or equivalent) in the build metadata (the closest I was able to find after investigating was website, but this wouldn't necessarily be representative of multiple authors). It would be nice if such a thing were present so that authors can be properly credited for their work.

Currently, if you browse to the fdroid website from an external source and the app doesn't list its ownership info in its README it appears as if the app were authored and/or owned by fdroid (eg. the systemappmover).

You do realise that this would involve a rather large amount of manual work per app, right? Who will fill such info for all builds of the 2k apps we currently have?

I suppose that would be up to the maintainers (I don't know enough about how fdroid maintains its existing repo to make a recommendation)? I'm not suggesting that it needs to be immediately filled in for every app however, just that the option should be created. This is more about the technical side of things than anything else.

I started experimenting with this in a branch of the server scripts / wordpress plugin, and will report back if I come up with anything.

Sure, in the technical side it's very simple to implement. But in the maintainer time side, it's nearly impossible. At the time we're very few people and it's simply unrealistic to expect that this be a standard for all apps.

I'm also thinking of having this field per-app and not per-build, as in one copyright holders notice per app that would get updated if necessary with each new version built.

IMHO this falls under the category of "nice to have, but too few hands to get it done" category. Screenshots, maven repo with source-built libs et all fall in the same category :)

Also, wouldn't a notice saying "This app is not necessarily developed by F-Droid nor by this F-Droid repo maintainers" be enough? The actual author information should be inside the source tarball for users to find.

But in the maintainer time side, it's nearly impossible

I'm just suggesting that it should be a metadata field which should exist, not that it should necessarily be required for all existing or new apps. You have website (and source, and issue tracker, etc.) as a field, correct? How is this any different or any more time consuming?

I'm also thinking of having this field per-app and not per-build

Oh yah, that's what I was thinking too. I didn't realize there were "per-build" options.

Also, wouldn't a notice saying "This app is not necessarily developed by F-Droid nor by this F-Droid repo maintainers" be enough?

That would also be a good thing for apps that don't have website/author info, and would probably be an easy thing to throw up on the app pages. As it's tangentially related, I could make a separate issue for it if you want?

I'm just suggesting that it should be a metadata field which should exist, not that it should necessarily be required for all existing or new apps. You have website (and source, and issue tracker, etc.) as a field, correct? How is this any different or any more time consuming?

I don't really see the point on an "Authors:" or "Copyright:" app field if it's optional. I would never fill it in, for example, since the info is found in the source code anyway.

That would also be a good thing for apps that don't have website/author info, and would probably be an easy thing to throw up on the app pages. As it's tangentially related, I could make a separate issue for it if you want?

Even though I don't see why anyone would think that we develop 2k apps ourselves, I don't see why that notice shouldn't be there for people who do come up with such ideas (We even link to the source code repo, which clearly isn't controlled/owned by us 99% of the time). Sure, you can open another issue about that.

I don't see the point, too. It's a simple field added, if someone adds a new app this field could be filled, or it could be filled later if an author wants to see it filled. That's not more work than adding a bitcoin ID or flattr-thing to an existent app. To expect John Doe to check source tarballs for author names is not a serious proposal :) I think it would honor authors if non-techie users just can see the author's name on the app page or inside the fdroid-app itself.

I don't see any problem having the field, and using it if it's populated. But I would think it's going to be difficult to populate in the a lot of cases. There are frequently tens (sometimes hundreds) of copyright holders. Is it going to list them all?

There are frequently tens (sometimes hundreds) of copyright holders. Is it going to list them all?

I suppose this could happen, but it seems like an edge case. I've never seen a project with more than a general company name or a few core contributors listed as the authors.

What do other places do? I searched around a bit, and all the things I could find (eg. random app mirroring sites, other app stores, etc.) all appear to list authors. I couldn't find a project with more than a handful.

There are frequently tens (sometimes hundreds) of copyright holders. Is it going to list them all?

Are there? Most projects I know draw some line between "Authors" or "Copyright holders" vs. "Contributors". The latter surely wouldn't all be mentioned on the front page of the project, as they "only" made a nice picture for that one button or translated the app to Esperanto two years ago.

But that throws up another interesting question: How are the information validated? Mentioning no author is better than mentioning the wrong one(s). Instead of a metadata field that is populated manually, F-Droid could look for a CONTRIBUTORS file inside the source code and list the first n names in there.

What do other places do?

The first thing that came to my mind were Linux package repositories. So let's have a look at Debian: No authorship is mentioned at all, only the maintainers are. (Same with Ubuntu of course.) Neither will apt-cache show screen give you any author names, only man screen will. Fedora? The same. So the probably biggest fosters of repositories of open source software and their binary distribution apparently haven't solved the issue.

All in all, I can understand @SamWhited demand for such a notice on the website and in the app: Even though no license I know of requires it, it looks a bit strange if there is a Flattr button but no name or mail address. But it sounds absurd that anybody would assume all apps are made by F-Droid if this field is missing. Nobody is assuming that all the 20k packages in the Debian repositories are written by Debian, right?

You have website (and source, and issue tracker, etc.) as a field, correct? How is this any different or any more time consuming?

Website, source, issue tracker, and contribution links are functional, as is the anti-feature metadata. It's simpler for F-Droid to provide users with consistent ways to interact with these facts in a structured manner.

For most open-source apps, author identities are irrelevant as metadata; open-source projects by their nature can have a fluid community of authorship, and that metadata could very well change with each release. When authorship is relevant, it can easily be added to the Description metadata, where they are as searchable as they would be as separate metadata.

What do other places do? I searched around a bit, and all the things I could find (eg. random app mirroring sites, other app stores, etc.) all appear to list authors. I couldn't find a project with more than a handful.

Commercial app stores have a fiscal interest in associating apps by their discrete commercial entities, as it helps increase sales and simplifies the payment process. Comparing an app repository like F-Droid to commercial app stores (and derivative data sources such as mirrors) is somewhat disingenuous.

@jplitza's comparison to open source repositories is more useful, and suggests the author metadata is not relevant to the F-Droid repository. The Ubuntu Software Library, similar to F-Droid in interface and function but also including commercial software, still does not list author metadata; as in F-Droid, app maintainers can identify authors in the app's broader description, along with any other arbitrary text.

I believe the pertinent issue is determining what purpose Author metadata would serve in the F-Droid store. If there is a use case for author metadata, can you make it more evident? If it is simply to credit authors, should maintainers do so in the Description metadata, where it's already possible? If it's to group apps by author, how should "author" be defined?

For the record, Debian and Fedora et al were mentioned and while they don't include it on the website, they at least bundle the license and copyright info with all packages (binary and source packages).

You can generally find these under /usr/share/doc IIRC. Bundling the license and/or copying file with copyright holder rights in the APK would also be an acceptable solution.

mentioned in issue #124 (closed)

Bundling the license and/or copying file with copyright holder rights in the APK would also be an acceptable solution.

The developer already gets to choose what's bundled in the binary (APK) package. And the source package. So it sounds like we've solved this problem.

I think I meant "bundle with", users (even those who know or care about such things as licenses) probably won't know how to extract an APK. However, if they have to download a ZIP file (or tarball, or pick your preferred format), they'll see the APK and the LICENSE/copyright info.

mentioned in issue fdroidclient#532 (closed)

I will take care of this as stated/discussed in fdroidclient#532 (closed).

Thanks @Natureshadow. Feel free to use this issue for the server side, closing it once you're done.

Remember that this is optional in both metadata files and the index, so nothing should break if it isn't there (especially for backwards compatibility).

mentioned in merge request !87 (merged)

added bazaar requires-website-changes and removed ~15503 labels

changed milestone to %1.0