[PROPOSAL] Remove sidebar

[PhilippKosarev]

The sidebar in question:

I think that this sidebar is unnecessary; here is my reasoning: EAM is focused on managing Unreal Engine and assets for it. I cannot think of a use case where you would need to download a game through EAM rather than the Heroic Launcher.

Getting rid of the sidebar would reduce the design complexity and allow the development to be more focused on improving the management of Unreal Engine and its assets; as well as simplifying the user interface and making it easier to follow the GNOME's Human Interface Guidelines.

@aknarts What are your thoughts on this?

[aknarts]

In general I am not opposed to it but I would make it an option in the settings to enable it.

While I do not use it personally, the original idea for the application was that it is a frontend for the Epic API, and as such exposes everything it gets from it, as such I would hide the sidebar by default and have an option that re enables it to preserve the original idea. The app has to handle the data from the API anyway so it is just a visual change.

I do expect for this API to be shut down at least for the Unreal Assets in favour of FAB soon-ish, not sure about the future there, especially if there is a usable Linux fronted for it.

[PhilippKosarev]

I see. Then how about making games just another category in this sidebar, and hiding it by default?

Also if/when the FAB API will replace the Epic API do you plan on supporting it?

[aknarts]

The entire sidebar is build dynamically from what the API provides, it is not a conscious decision to add/move things around. Stuff can be blocked/ignored but not easily moved around.

As for the FAB API it depends how open it is. Honestly if there is a good enough Linux client for it I do not see a reason for this tool to continue. If the Linux support is missing again or the client is a piece of :hankey: we will adjust it. Another question is how much will that API be opened. The API this client works with is not documented and is very much reverse engineered from packet capture. I do not want to go through that pain again(and yes I used other tools source as a helping hand during that process).

[PhilippKosarev]

That makes sense, it's unfortunate, I hope Epic Games will change their stance as Linux market share grows. I guess the best we can do now is go through with an option in the settings to show the sidebar; and hope for Epic Games to not be dismissive of Linux, again.

[aknarts]

To be honest the current API will stay as that will still handle games, not sure how they will handle the existing assets and their migration. My best guess is that the "old" marketplace will stay as legacy read only thing and everything new will move to FAB, which would mean that both APIs will need to coexist.

[PhilippKosarev]

Sure sounds like a lot of work; but they could just migrate all of the assets to FAB. If that happens maybe ditching the old API could be an option to make things a bit less convoluted. That is, if FAB has a new API and is not just a reskin of the existing marketplace.