Add handler for snap: URLs

[Jeremy Bícha]

[Impact]
We want GNOME Software to be able to open snap:// URLs. This allows us to embed links in webpages to snaps (like apt://).

[Test Case]
1. Run gnome-software snap://moon-buggy

Observed result:
Get error about unknown URL.

Expected result:
GNOME Software is opened showing the information for moon-buggy and ability to install.

[Regression Potential]
Backported change from master has potential to break other URL handling. Other URLs tested (apt:// appstream://) to confirm they still work.

[Matthias Klumpp (ximion)]

IMHO this is really unnecessary, the only thing it adds is a snappy-proprietary URL handler, while Snappy could just as well use the appstream:// handler (it would just need to search for the AppStream-IDs Snappy provides then, and could have a fallback to names)

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Jeremy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-software into yakkety-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-software/3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Jeremy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-software into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-software/3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1~xenial1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

I've enabled proposed and upgraded everything, but I'm getting an error:

gnome-software version: Installed: 3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1~xenial1

xdg-open snap://moon-buggy
gvfs-open: snap://moon-buggy: error opening location: The specified location is not supported

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

Ooops, hit post before saying:

I haven't set this to verification-failed yet, because maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

For the record I've done a "update-desktop-database" and it made no difference.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

It works for me with Ubuntu GNOME 16.04.2. After installing the updated gnome-software and gnome-software-common, I ran pkill gnome-software (or you could log out and back in to stop the gnome-software background service). And then ran xdg-open snap://moon-buggy

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

I installed a fresh Xenial VM and tried again. I'm still getting that same error.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

With Ubuntu (Unity) 16.10.2, the test case fails.

I got the test case to work by uninstalling ubuntu-software (but leaving gnome-software installed)

[Mateusz Stachowski (stachowski-mateusz)]

I couldn't get it to work in 16.04.2 and 16.10.

Also I noticed that there is a new package snapd-xdg-open. It wasn't installed so I thought that's what is missing. But after installing that package I still only got errors.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Sorry, I thought I had updated the description, it should read:

$ gnome-software snap://moon-buggy

I'm not 100% sure the correct way to make the snap links work by default. It works if you edit /usr/share/applications/defaults.list (from desktop-file-utils). I'll do a separate SRU for this change.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Also, you are correct in that you have to kill gnome-software or restart your machine for the changes to take effect.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Opened bug 1666100 about desktop-file-utils fix.

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

Confirming that gnome-software snap://foo works as described.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I think the issue is that because there are two .desktops that register "snap://" when ubuntu-software is installed, the system needs to be told which one to use.

I agree with marking this verification-done and hope that the SRU for desktop-file-utils is handled quickly so it doesn't confuse users who think that snap:// URLs should start working as soon as this update is installed.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Is this fixed in Zesty? Current status is Triaged.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

14:01 <jbicha> rbasak: good catch, it was fixed in gnome-software 3.23.90 but zesty is still at 3.22.5 so we need to backport that patch

OK, let's remove verification-done for now to prevent accidents.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-software - 3.22.6-0ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-software (3.22.6-0ubuntu2) zesty; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/0014-snap-URL.patch:
    - Add handler for snap:// URLs (LP: #1621971)

 -- Robert Ancell <email address hidden> Tue, 14 Mar 2017 12:36:41 +1300

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I confirm that xdg-open snap://moon-buggy works with gnome-software 3.22.6-0ubuntu2 in Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 which was the last thing needed for this bug to be marked verified.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-software - 3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1~xenial1

---------------
gnome-software (3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1~xenial1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * New upstream snapshot from the wip/ubuntu branch at
    git://git.gnome.org/gnome-software.
    - Hide 3rd party / non-free license warnings and just show as "Unknown"
      (LP: #1662750)
    - Add handler for snap:// URLs (LP: #1621971)
    - Hide .desktop file from startup applications (LP: #1662749)

 -- Robert Ancell <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:07:16 +1300

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for gnome-software has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-software - 3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-software (3.20.1+git20170208.0.a34b091-0ubuntu1) yakkety; urgency=medium

  * New upstream snapshot from the wip/ubuntu branch at
    git://git.gnome.org/gnome-software.
    - Hide 3rd party / non-free license warnings and just show as "Unknown"
      (LP: #1662750)
    - Add handler for snap:// URLs (LP: #1621971)
    - Hide .desktop file from startup applications (LP: #1662749)
  * debian/control:
    - Update Vcs-Bzr link

 -- Robert Ancell <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:07:16 +1300