F-droid support

[thebiblelover7]

Could the app be added to F-droid? It would be great exposure for the app and for the users. Nowadays, I don't download almost anything from the Play Store and would still like to download the app.

Thanks ahead of time!

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You can check the link below on how to submit the app https://f-droid.org/en/contribute/

[advplyr]

I think the app meets the requirements, but I still need to clean up and trim down the dependencies.

For example, the app is using the google play core library to check for and install in-app updates from the play store. This is not even reliable at the moment so I think it can go. Both Android Auto and media casting are google libraries, do you know if these are supported in F-Droid apps?

[thebiblelover7]

I think the app meets the requirements, but I still need to clean up and trim down the dependencies.

For example, the app is using the google play core library to check for and install in-app updates from the play store. This is not even reliable at the moment so I think it can go. Both Android Auto and media casting are google libraries, do you know if these are supported in F-Droid apps?

I think they are supported. I just think that it will show a dialog that says that it has non-free dependencies.

[advplyr]

For those looking for this in the meantime I have been putting the APK file in the releases. https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/releases

[essys]

Thanks @advplyr for creating this application and providing compiled Android releases on Github. Can you share any progress regarding an official release in F-Droid?

[shuvashish76]

RFP : https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/-/issues/2554

[rudism]

There are some third-party F-Droid repos that are less strict than the official one that could also be used to distribute the app for users without Google Play on their devices (even as a stop-gap while waiting to get into the official repo).

I suggested Audiobookshelf to IzzyOnDroid, which is a pretty popular one that doesn't actually build the apps, instead publishing the APKs directly from the application's own Github or Gitlab releases and tags. It does have some requirements that Audiobookshelf doesn't meet currently (the maintainer detailed that in my issue here), but something like this might be a simpler goal post to hit along the road to the official F-Droid repo.

[advplyr]

The APK will work without google play, that is only for chromecast support which if not available just won't show up in the app. Last I looked at the f-droid criteria I thought it was met already

[rudism]

I think the requirement (for both F-Droid and IzzyOnDroid) is there needs to be a whole separate build path that can generate an APK without any of the Google libraries in there at all. It's not enough for the app to function without Play Services on the phone, it has to be built without them entirely.

In the case of IzzyOnDroid they would want each release to have a separate APK that was built without the proprietary dependencies, and in the case of F-Droid they expect to be able to build from source themselves without any of those dependencies being linked.

[IzzySoft]

@advplyr I doubt it complies. Copying over from the issue @rudism linked already:

Offending libs:
---------------
* Firebase Data Transport (/com/google/android/datatransport): NonFreeNet
* Google Cast (/com/google/android/gms/cast): NonFreeComp
* Google Mobile Services (/com/google/android/gms): NonFreeComp
* Firebase (/com/google/firebase): NonFreeNet,NonFreeComp

4 offenders.

Dangerous flags:
----------------
* usesCleartextTraffic

SigningBlock blobs:
-------------------
0x504b4453 (DEPENDENCY_INFO_BLOCK; GOOGLE)

Everything marked NonFreeComp is a show-stopper at F-Droid: non-free components are not permitted.

[Ansem93]

I add an other bit of info: I'm not sure that f-droid version can be compatible with Android Auto. At least, voice from f-droid was not. I can test with some music player if it can help!