F-Droid?

[Andy3153]

This app is open-source, why isn't it on F-Droid?

[bsinou]

Hi. This is a known "feature" request, see pydio/cells-android-app#1 and pydio/cells-android-app#2

We would really like to do this but, to be honest, we are a small team with a lot to do and couldn't find the time to dive in and tackle this:
It won't be done soon except if we got some kind of help from the community.
If you can and will, do not hesitate to step in and let us know: for someone who has experience with such process, I am sure it can be done swiftly.

[Andy3153]

Well, while I do have experience with programming in general, I have very little Android app developing experience (my only experience being FIRST FTC and that's basically nothing) but I wouldn't be opposed to trying to learn something new.

There's also the F-Droid specific questions now:

1. Which repo would we publish the app to? This would be the procedure for the official F-Droid repo, if they let us publish there. There might be a chance they don't accept us (which I thought might possibly be the case with this one too), I've seen this before with some other apps, so we might need to consider either third-party repos like IzzyOnDroid being the first that comes to mind, or self-hosting a repo ourselves, and letting people add the repo th their F-Droid app.
2. Anti-features. These are the things that an app contains/does that do not fully adhere to the F-Droid philosophy and either F-Droid users must be warned about, or be removed entirely from the app in an F-Droid specific fully FOSS build of the app. A list of anti-features is available in the link I put for them, but it usually boils down to ads, tracking, using non-open source libraries, using non-open source services like Google's notification service, promoting non-open source content like plugins, apps or services etc.
3. Build automation? This is another thing I know nothing about, but if the app includes no really bad anti-features (which I don't believe is the case) we could probably leech off the build automation there's already in place for the website link and Play Store app

[bsinou]

Nice to hear that you are willing to help.

Which repo would we publish the app to? ...

After a quick look:
F-Droid might be doable.
Main blocker: the build of the app is a bit complicated. (This is a known old issue and we would be glad to get some hints on this).
This aside, if I understand correctly, we only have to kind of motivate the F-Droid community to "include" us, I don't know hard/long it is...

IzzyOnDroid might be an interesting and "easier" path, as we only have to only convince one identified person that the app is worth it and really free :)

Self-hosting option: Hard pass for the time being. I have to dig in it first and assess costs vs. benefits.

Thanks for the links.

Anti-features...

I've been through the doc. Everything OK on this side. There is nothing to hide in the app :) ! (quite proud of it, it is always a fight to stay on the bright side)

Build automation? This is another thing I know nothing about

Build automation is kind of my thing. Should be no probs.
It will then depend on the path chosen.

But I did get what you mean by this:

but if the app includes no really bad anti-features (which I don't believe is the case) we could probably leech off the build automation there's already in place for the website link and Play Store app

[Andy3153]

F-Droid might be doable.

That's good to hear. IzzyOnDroid is popular, and it's likely on many F-Droid user's devices, but that's only because of apps that didn't get accepted into the official repos.

we only have to kind of motivate the F-Droid community to "include" us, I don't know hard/long it is

I don't know either. This'd be the first app I'd help get on F-Droid.

Self-hosting option: Hard pass for the time being.

AFAIK this is the only android app this org makes right? In that case honestly I wouldn't even consider self-hosting a repo as I see that to be only useful when an organization has more apps to publish, like microG, DivestOS etc.

I've been through the doc. Everything OK on this side. There is nothing to hide in the app :)

That's great news! Means there's no work to do to the app.

Well, with all these, what's my first step going to be then? I'm unsure where I should personally start with all this.

[sdrapha]

I found this write up that may help in the process: Step-by-step
https://dev.to/sanandmv7/how-to-publish-your-apps-on-f-droid-2epn