Define a format to attach custom metadata with releases

[moul]

The idea is to create a file format that will be uploaded alongisde the .apk, .ipa etc to add some metadata (branch, author, version, builddate, etc) that can be used to enhance the UI with more info or to create a new API call allowing the apps to automatically find "more recent builds" automatically

[moul]

cc @aeddi @gfanton @n0izn0iz what do you suggest?

anyway, this file should be optional, but in the case of bintray which is not necessarily linked with github, it can be a good way to keep track of related branch/commit etc

[aeddi]

I don't think there's a standard format, but you can take a look at maven method. Next to each artifact, a maven-metadata.xml file is created containing some info about it. For example on gomobile-ipfs-android repo:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<metadata>
  <groupId>ipfs.gomobile</groupId>
  <artifactId>core</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1</version>
  <versioning>
    <latest>0.0.1</latest>
    <release>0.0.1</release>
    <versions>
      <version>0.0.1</version>
    </versions>
    <lastUpdated>20200302132150</lastUpdated>
  </versioning>
</metadata>

(You can check here)

[aeddi]

But please, don't use xml 🙏

[moul]

are you aware of equivalent of maven-metadata.xml files in other ecosystems?

[aeddi]

Depends on what you want. Basically maven-metadata is used mostly I guess by the dependency manager (find a specific version of an artifact, its last version, etc...).
If you want richer info about a package, (like author, website, description, etc...) on Maven the pom file format is used.

Again on gomobile-ipfs-android repo for example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>ipfs.gomobile</groupId>
  <artifactId>core</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1</version>
  <packaging>aar</packaging>

  <name>Gomobile-IPFS - Android Core</name>
  <description>Android Gomobile package exposing go-ipfs methods required by Gomobile-IPFS-Bridge</description>
  <url>https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/gomobile-ipfs</url>

  <licenses>
    <license>
      <name>The Apache Software License, Version 2.0</name>
      <url>http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt</url>
      <distribution>repo</distribution>
    </license>
    <license>
      <name>MIT License</name>
      <url>http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php</url>
      <distribution>repo</distribution>
    </license>
  </licenses>

  <developers>
    <developer>
      <id>aeddi</id>
      <name>Antoine Eddi</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <organization>Berty Technologies</organization>
      <organizationUrl>https://berty.tech</organizationUrl>
    </developer>
    <developer>
      <id>gfanton</id>
      <name>Guilhem Fanton</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <organization>Berty Technologies</organization>
      <organizationUrl>https://berty.tech</organizationUrl>
    </developer>
  </developers>

  <scm>
    <connection>scm:git:git://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/gomobile-ipfs.git</connection>
    <developerConnection>scm:git:ssh://github.com:ipfs-shipyard/gomobile-ipfs.git</developerConnection>
    <url>https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/gomobile-ipfs/tree/master</url>
  </scm>
</project>

For Cocoapods you can check the podspec file format.

[moul]

there are basically two places where we want to add optional metadata:

• the builds (can be done in a file uploaded as an artifact)
• the projects (can be done with a .yolorc.yml file at the root or in the .github/ folder of a repo

examples of info:

• compatibility (version >= iOS9.0)
• relationships (this bintray build belongs to that GitHub PR)
• disclaimers, etc