CONTRIBUTING.md

Software Boutique Curated Index Format

Version	Last Modified
5	June 2017
7	March 2020

The revision number is the amount of commits made in this repository.

Each application is stored in its own subfolder inside the category folder, for example:

• ./apps/accessories/gparted/
• ./apps/multimedia/vlc/
• ./apps/system/virtualbox/

Each folder is expected to have:

• metadata.json
• icon.png - 64x64 PNG icon
• screenshot-1.jpg - Optional. Screenshot of the application. More can be added by incrementing the number prefix.

metadata.json

• Standard JSON rules apply (Watch out for commas)
• Non-required values should be null.

Key	Data Type	Required?	Description
listed	boolean	Yes	true to show this application in Boutique, or false to omit.
name	string	Yes	Name of the application as displayed to the user.
summary	string	Yes	A brief one-liner that describes the application.
description	string	Yes	A more in-depth description of the application.
developer-name	string	Yes	Author's name, whether it's an individual or company.
developer-url	string	Yes	Website for the author or company.
launch-cmd	string	No	Command to launch the installed program.
alternate-to	string	No	Mention the app is similar to another product.
proprietary	boolean	Yes	Is this non-free software?
urls	dict	Yes
-- info	string	Yes	URL to the web page for more information.
-- android-app	string	No	URL if there is an associated Android app.
-- ios-app	string	No	URL if there is an associated iOS app.
arch	list	Yes	Architectures to show for this app. E.g. i386, amd64, armhf, arm64.
releases	list	Yes	Versions of Ubuntu MATE to show this application. E.g. xenial, bionic, focal.
methods	list	Yes	Ways of installed that are supported, e.g. apt, snap.
apt	dict	No	See Apt Installs below.
snap	dict	No	See Snap Installs below.

The following keys are written when building the index - these should not be manually specified:

Key	Data Type	Description
icon	string	Path name of the application's icon.
screenshots	list	Path name(s) of the screenshots.

For applications and libraries using the index, the root of the JSON file also appends:

• stats
• distro (metadata/distro.json)
• supported (metadata/supported.json)

Apt Installs

For applications distributed as:

• A package in the Ubuntu repositories.
• A package avaliable via a trusted PPA.
• A package via a third party repository (file) server.

Under the apt dict are dictionaries that describe the instructions per release, with default being the fallback. Alternate instructions can be specified by adding additional keys for each codename, for example:

"apt": {
    "default": { ... },
    "xenial": { ... }
    "cosmic": { ... }
}

Nested under the default or <codename> dict:

Key	Data Type	Required?	Description
source	string	Yes	One of: "main", "universe", "restricted", "multiverse", "partner", "ppa:XXX/YYY", "manual"
main-package	string	Yes	The package used to check whether it's installed.
install-packages	string	Yes	The packages that will be installed.
remove-packages	string	Yes	The packages that will be uninstalled.
enable-i386	boolean	No	true enables the i386 architecture for i386 packages. Only for Steam/Wine.

If a manual source is specified, these additional keys are required:

Key	Data Type	Description
list-file	string	The source file name that is written at /etc/apt/sources.d/, including the extension (.list)
list-contents	string	The contents of the source.list file, e.g. deb https://example.com/debian stable xenial
list-key-url	string	Retrieve the signing key from URL.
list-key-server	list	OR retrieve the signing key from a keyserver: [<server>, <key>]. E.g. ["keyserver.ubuntu.com", "ABC12345"]

Only one list-key-url or list-key-server must be specified, with the other null.

Placeholders

For the list-file and list-contents keys, you may use these strings as placeholders:

String	Replaced with	Example
CODENAME	Current Ubuntu release	xenial
OSVERSION	Current Ubuntu version	16.04

Snap Installs

If the software is distributed via Snapcraft, this data is required under the snap key:

Key	Data Type	Required?	Description
name	string	Yes	Name of the snap.