How to get concrete feedback on improving my Flathub page

1

Hiya, I’m trying to improve my Flathub metainfo according to the quality guidelines, so I requested a review, but it’s still failing some checks, and some are marked with question marks.

Is there a place where I can see what exactly is wrong, so I can improve it? Ideally I’d like to pass all the checks.

2

You can ask questions or clarifications here.

3

Thank you, here’s my app (a music player): Install Nuclear on Linux | Flathub

The following guidelines are marked as “pending”: Good primary brand colors, Screenshots taken on Linux, Screenshots - Up to date. Will they be updated later? And is there anything I can do to help establishing whether they pass or not?

Failing ones:

  • Summary - Understandable for a non-technical person - I removed all references to any technologies used in the project. What else should be changed?
  • Screenshots - Default settings - The quality guidelines say this:

Use the platform default configuration for all settings that affect screenshots, including window controls, interface font, large text, high contrast, dark style, and so on. Having some screenshots to show off that e.g. dark style is supported is fine, but these should not be the only screenshots.

So I did just that, and took all the screenshots with default settings, and a clear config file, as though they were taken by a user who just installed it. Should I change anything else?

  • Screenshots - Reasonable window size - The quality guidelines say this:

In order to ensure that text and interface elements are visible scaled-down in the app store UI the window size should be 1000x700 pixels or smaller (2000x1400 for HiDPI).

I took all the screenshots at this resolution, except for the default screenshot, where I used 1920x1080. I think the program looks best at this resolution, so for the default screenshot I used that, filled the play queue with songs, and showed what it looks like while it’s playing. Is this not permissible and all screenshots should be at 1000x700? I really think I can’t show it at its best with a small window size.

  • Screenshots - Include window shadow and rounded corners - I did not add these because my DE doesn’t show any, I just took a screenshot of the window itself. Is there a tool that can add these shadows and rounded corners using my screenshot that you recommend? And considering the resolution, should the whole image including the shadows be in 1000x700, or does it apply only to the resolution of the screenshot itself?
  • Screenshots - general tips - could you please give me an example of an app that has exemplary screenshots, so I know how to design them? I looked at other music players, such as Spotify, Strawberry, or Music, and I think all of them break at least some of the guidelines (with Music probably being the most closely adhering one).

Thank you for the time you take to help the community.

4

One more question: there is a list of tags at the bottom of the page, and my app is tagged with linux and flatpak, which is redundant. I could not find where these tags are defined, and how to change them, and I believe they affect SEO quite a bit. I can see that other music players have tags such as music, player, streaming and so on. Could you point me in the right direction on this one please?

5

Tags are generated from the keywords, you can either put them in your desktop file or in your metainfo file or both, but the ones in Metainfo will override the desktop file contents. Those two are inserted by default by the website

@tbernard can probably help on the quality guideline issues.

6

Yes, usually, when you start to fail in one of the categories, we stop reviewing. If we know, you need to redo the icon, because it’s too big for e.g. we don’t look at other icon checks.

I think the technical reference is streaming, which granted is pretty common by now, but usually I would push for a nicer wording. Like Enjoy music on the go or similar.

Screenshots are a tricky one, doing it that big will make it hard to read/understand on smaller devices/when the screenshot is smaller.

The shadow is also non negotiable and usually added by kde or gnome tooling. A VM might be the easiest way out, especially, as we have a hard time reviewing toolbars, default settings etc., that are not kde or gnome. Just due to the amount of systems there.

The music players that are passing, that I could find are Install Gapless on Linux | Flathub and Install Plattenalbum on Linux | Flathub

7

Thank you for the tips. Concerning the screenshots, I found a good way to generate compliant ones, but I’m still not sure when it comes to their size. Here are two alternate versions of the same screenshot for comparison:

screenshot_dashboard
screenshot_dashboard1200×900 165 KB

(I’m going to put the other one in the next post because Discourse limits me to 1 embedded image per post)

The first is 1200x900, but the actual captured area of the program is 1000x700. The second one is 1000x700, and the captured area has been scaled down to allow some room for the shadows. Which one would be preferrable?

Also how can I make sure that I will pass the “Default settings” check?

8

And here’s the second image

screenshot_dashboard_small
screenshot_dashboard_small1000×700 336 KB

9

Both images should be fine.

Easiest for us is if you screenshot on KDE or Gnome, we haven’t really talked much about how to handle it for other desktops. As it get’s very complicated.

Even figuring out which default settings for KDE are the current ones, was surprisingly involved.