Bug 1389177

Summary: Allow displaying Calibre's Ebook Viewer in desktop application menus.
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Audrey Yeena Toskin <audrey>
Component: calibreAssignee: Kevin Fenzi <kevin>
Status: CLOSED EOL QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 31CC: chkr, frankly3d, helio, kevin, nushio, zbyszek
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Last Closed: 2020-11-24 20:20:16 UTC Type: Bug
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Description Audrey Yeena Toskin 2016-10-27 06:20:36 UTC
Currently, the only way to launch Ebook Viewer is to call ebook-viewer from the command line. I was originally going to file a bug suggesting that you add a .desktop file for Calibre's ebook viewer. Turns out there already is one -- but calibre-ebook-viewer.desktop contains this line

  NoDisplay=true

which hides the application. Why? Ebook Viewer is perfectly capable of running independently of the larger Calibre application. And when I resume reading a book I've started before, I find it easier to launch Ebook Viewer directly and pick the book I want from the recent files menu.

Comment 1 Kevin Fenzi 2016-10-31 16:07:26 UTC
That change is so calibre only appears once in gnome-software and not 4 times under different names. 

I'll check with the gnome software folks and see if there's some way to do this that doesn't affect the local launching of those subapps.

Comment 2 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2016-12-19 01:20:46 UTC
Keven, were you every able to talk to GNOME developers about a possible workaround?

Or should we call this a bug? Calibre would not be the only package to provide an application suite with multiple .desktop files. LibreOffice is another example.

This GNOME Bugzilla issue looks somewhat related to what we're talking about, though the original post brings up multiple bundled .desktop files in the context of a flatpak instead of an RPM.

    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765268

Comment 3 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2016-12-19 01:23:24 UTC
Kevin**

sorry

Comment 4 Kevin Fenzi 2017-01-03 15:33:33 UTC
No, I haven't come up with any solution here. ;( 

I talked a bit with a few people, but didn't get a solution. 

Will see what I can find out.

Comment 5 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-01-07 01:45:14 UTC
I'm thinking GNOME Software's behavior should probably be considered a bug, so I went ahead and reported the issue to the GNOME Bugzilla. And at least this way we can track the discussion.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=776965

Comment 6 Kevin Fenzi 2017-01-08 17:16:45 UTC
ok. I'll follow along there. 

Should we keep this open in the mean time?

Comment 7 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-01-08 21:44:23 UTC
If they counter argue the problem is in the Calibre .desktop files and suggest a workaround, then I'll open this bug again.

Comment 8 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-01-09 00:26:08 UTC
Actually, assuming the GNOME Software developers agree that the bug is in *their* project, you still probably ought to remove the NoDisplay tags from the Calibre .desktop files.

Comment 9 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-07-26 03:45:07 UTC
What do you think? I'm no longer certain the current behavior in GNOME Software is really a problem, but I *would* still like an easier way to launch the ebook-viewer app.

Comment 10 Kevin Fenzi 2017-07-26 19:14:34 UTC
I think it is still an issue, but there's not any solution still. ;( 

Can you make a local .desktop file to your account and get it working (for you) via that?

Comment 11 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-07-28 02:47:56 UTC
I could create my own .desktop file, but it seems a little silly to me to use a duplicate copy. I don't know anymore if we're on the same page here: Could you clarify for me what you think the problem is?

Comment 12 Kevin Fenzi 2017-07-28 23:28:24 UTC
(In reply to Andrew Toskin from comment #11)
> I could create my own .desktop file, but it seems a little silly to me to
> use a duplicate copy. 

It's pretty normal practice to copy a .desktop file to you home directory when you want to override something in the main packaged copy. 

>I don't know anymore if we're on the same page here:
> Could you clarify for me what you think the problem is?

You want to be able to launch ebook reader mode of calibre from the overview or another launcher, but currently you can only launch the library view directly from the gui and have to use the command line to launch the ebook viewer.

Is that about right? or Did we diverge somewhere here...

Comment 13 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-07-30 04:14:55 UTC
Right, yes. But I meant I'm not sure if we're on the same page about the *upstream* problem which is preventing you from removing the NoDisplay tags in the Calibre .desktop files.

Comment 14 Kevin Fenzi 2017-07-30 19:16:45 UTC
If I did so, "calibre" would appear multiple times in gnome software, and then after the next time the appinfo data is generated would disappear entirely because it's not compliant with the rules. 

Happy to hear if I missed anything there...

Comment 15 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2017-07-31 23:33:22 UTC
> If I did so, "calibre" would appear multiple times in gnome software

I'm no longer convinced that that's necessarily a problem. If a user only wanted the ebook editor, they might be surprised to discover that the ebook viewer and collection manager were also installed, like dependencies. But the Calibre suite is correctly installed either way.

> and then after the next time the appinfo data is generated would disappear entirely because it's not compliant with the rules.

There's a rule somewhere saying that listed applications must only include a single .desktop file? Seems like that would affect many other applications too. Calibre can't be the only one that normally adds extra .desktop files.

Comment 16 Kevin Fenzi 2017-08-03 21:08:45 UTC
(In reply to Andrew Toskin from comment #15)
...snip...
> There's a rule somewhere saying that listed applications must only include a
> single .desktop file? Seems like that would affect many other applications
> too. Calibre can't be the only one that normally adds extra .desktop files.

Yes, I think that is the case. Those apps that have multiple desktop files must list only one in the appstream data or just not show up.

Comment 17 Fedora End Of Life 2017-12-12 10:47:27 UTC
Fedora 25 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2017-12-12. Fedora 25 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the
current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this
bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

Comment 18 Fedora End Of Life 2018-02-20 15:32:21 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 28 development cycle.
Changing version to '28'.

Comment 19 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2018-02-27 00:47:13 UTC
> apps that have multiple desktop files must list only one in the appstream data

...Could you patch the appstream data? Or something?

I created my own .desktop files a while ago, but it seems silly to me to expect every other user to do this if they want to be able to open the epub reader directly. Opening the Calibre ebook manager itself is awfully slow, and wastes time when all you want is to continue reading a book you already started.

Comment 20 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2018-05-28 20:33:23 UTC
The Packaging Guidelines were revised somewhat recently.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Application_Independence

Notice that this section uses "SHOULD" instead of "MUST". My reading of the Application Independence section suggests that the Calibre ebook readers should ideally just be packaged as separate applications, or at least as subpackages of Calibre itself, if possible. But if that's not possible, because the code really is interdependent, then you're allowed to bundle them all together even with multiple visible .desktop files.

Comment 21 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2018-12-29 20:45:40 UTC
So what do you think of the Packaging Guidelines on application independence, linked in my previous comment?

Comment 22 Ben Cotton 2019-05-02 20:05:41 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 28 is nearing its end of life.
On 2019-May-28 Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for
Fedora 28. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases
that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as
EOL if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '28'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora 28 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora 
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 23 Audrey Yeena Toskin 2019-05-02 22:53:57 UTC
The Fedora Packaging Guidelines have moved to a git repo instead of a wiki, with exported Web pages published in the docs.* subdomain, so I will post the updated URL here:

  https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/#_package_independence

Again, it seems to me that, according to the latest Guidelines, the Calibre ebook viewers and editors should ideally be separate packages -- perhaps subpackages in a single spec. *If feasible*, each of the Calibre sub-applications should require the shared Calibre libraries instead of requiring the Calibre ebook manager or each other. BUT if separating them is not actually feasible, then it should be okay to keep them bundled like they are now.

In any case, whether you split the packages or keep them bundled, I really don't think putting `NoDisplay=true` in the .desktop files is correct or necessary.

Comment 24 Ben Cotton 2019-08-13 16:47:29 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 31 development cycle.
Changing version to '31'.

Comment 25 Ben Cotton 2020-11-03 14:57:55 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 31 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 31 on 2020-11-24.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
Fedora 'version' of '31'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora 31 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora 
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 26 Ben Cotton 2020-11-24 20:20:16 UTC
Fedora 31 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2020-11-24. Fedora 31 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the
current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this
bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.