Feature request: also find app in f-droid app store

[k3b]

As a reddit user it would be nice to get infos from non-google-playstore, too

[crisbal]

Hey that's a good idea.

I am not sure what is the best thing to do in term of user interaction for this, a separate command/trigger for the bot maybe?

Somehing like linkmefdroid: ad away.

[gondsm]

@crisbal why not show all stores by default in a clearly separated manner? That way, all stores would be featured equally!

[crisbal]

As you said this would be the best since we would feature all the stores in the same way but it does add some complexity we need to address.

First It would double the network requests on my side (not really an issue if implemented correctly)

The thing I am most worried about is presenting the result. As of right now this is a sample output when searching for calendar:

---

Google Calendar - Free - Rating: NN/100 - Search for 'calendar' on the Play Store

---

Meanwhile if I search for calendar on f-droid I get this app (https://f-droid.org/packages/ws.xsoh.etar/)

How would I display both the results? If the package names are the same I could merge the results into one but if the package names are different I would have to display both results into the same message, cluttering even more the bot's reply (and most importantly resulting in lots of mismatch on fdroid since it has very few apps compared to the play store).

This is why I think that having a different trigger for fdroid would be much better.

[gondsm]

You are completely right, it could get confusing. The results from the various stores would have to be very clearly separated, perhaps using markdown headers, or something of that nature. But each entry could be presented as you've shown, just clearly identified as to which store it belongs!

[gondsm]

For instance (now I'm on a PC, I can reply properly) it could look something like

---

Play Store Result

[...]

---

F-Droid Result

[....]

---

Amazon Store Result

[...]

---

Thus keeping stuff neat and clear for the user, in my opinion. @crisbal @k3b Thoughts?

[crisbal]

It is nice but I don't feel like it is the best choice.

As of right now I already think there is too much clutter in the reply, adding more sections/headings would clutter the reply even more. The reason I created the bot was to aid mobile users, I don't feel comfortable in showing that many infos all the time.

There is also to consider that most of the users don't really care for F-Droid or Amazon Store or anything else but Google Play (this is the first time I got this request in 4 years). I still think that having different triggers would be the best.

[gondsm]

Well, another option would be to make it into a table.

Anyway, different triggers would also work, of course. But in that case, could that option be displayed in the main reply? Just a single line saying something to the effect of "to display results from f-droid, reply with XXXX". What do you think?

[crisbal]

Yes, when I implement this I will of course advertise the feature as best as I can. I also have some other pending features I have yet to release (but are pushed here) so we could ship them together this one.

[gondsm]

Sounds like a plan! Many thanks and happy coding ;)