Change Requested: Don't Use an Indicator

[cassidyjames]

Thanks for submitting your app to AppCenter! After reviewing, we have decided to request a change. This will need to be addressed before re-submitting your app.

System Indicators are intended to communicate a system-wide state, like connectivity, volume, battery, etc. Apps submitted to AppCenter can provide an indicator if it is communicating a similar system-wide state to users. However, apps should not use an indicator as a quick launcher for their app. You can read more about this in the Human Interface Guidelines.

I know this would be a pretty big change to your app, but we want to make sure system integrations are used properly, and users don't end up with a bunch of non-indicating indicators on their top panel. Instead of an indicator, I'd recommend using a window. You can add .flat and .default-decoration classes to the headerbar to style it more like a dialog:

https://github.com/cassidyjames/dippi/blob/1654def315971d281ade6201b9cf51e1d9f8688c/src/MainWindow.vala#L216-L221

Thanks again for your submission, and I hope you understand the rationale for this change. Let me know if you have any questions!

[tom95]

I would be inclined to publish this as-is in a separate ppa then, since this is merely a revival of the program as it was before and the indicator program was specifically what people asked for instead of the synapse frontend as it used to be. I hope you won't regard this as circumventing your guidelines.

Abusing this issue to discuss the specifics of this topic further, I currently have another indicator in the works that acts as a frontend to a password manager. Does the same apply to this type of program or would this be considered another issue?

[cassidyjames]

I would be inclined to publish this as-is in a separate ppa then, since this is merely a revival of the program as it was before and the indicator program was specifically what people asked for instead of the synapse frontend as it used to be. I hope you won't regard this as circumventing your guidelines.

@tom95 publishing in a PPA would be fine, that's totally up to you. 😄

Abusing this issue to discuss the specifics of this topic further, I currently have another indicator in the works that acts as a frontend to a password manager. Does the same apply to this type of program or would this be considered another issue?

Naively, I think the same guidelines would apply. However, I think it could be different if somehow the password manager only displayed when it could enter text or something (as it would be indicating there is a fillable password?), but I'm not sure that's technically feasible.