Changelog

[Victor239]

Flathub allows changelogs for each new release - can these be automated?

[Erick555]

This depends on metadata provided by upstream. Nothing to do in packaging.

[Victor239]

It is indeed part of Flatpak packaging, you need an appdata.xml file.

See these examples of another Flatpak's appdata.xml, and how their changelog is displayed on Flathub.

[ghisvail]

@Victor239 Indeed, Flathub can render release metadata.

Upstream is free to provide appstream metadata containing detailed changelog entries for each release so that downstream packaging efforts (including Flatpak) can benefit.

[Victor239]

I think I found it here in a txt format. Some sort of script or GitHub Action could potentially be used to add entries to an appdata file.

[Erick555]

It is indeed part of Flatpak packaging, you need an appdata.xml file.

See these examples of another Flatpak's appdata.xml, and how their changelog is displayed on Flathub.

calibre appdata comes directly from upstream, flatpak packaging doesn't touch it. You need to ask upstream to add changelog there.

[Victor239]

Ah, thought Flatpak packagers add it. My mistake.

[ghisvail]

Closing as won't fix on our side. Feel free to forward your request upstream 👍

[Victor239]

I think this issue can be reopened now, I've posted the request upstream and they've provided information on how to obtain a .metainfo.xml file.

[ghisvail]

Please don't take it the wrong way, but when you get involved with issues like this, it is important to get your facts right before getting more people involved.

We do provide an appstream metadata file already:

$ find /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.calibre_ebook.calibre -name *.metainfo.xml 
/var/lib/flatpak/app/com.calibre_ebook.calibre/x86_64/stable/e2122ddd8eb283573e23ebea48be9e19ada17fd760897e77bb4993c47c9b5f22/files/share/metainfo/calibre-ebook-viewer.metainfo.xml
/var/lib/flatpak/app/com.calibre_ebook.calibre/x86_64/stable/e2122ddd8eb283573e23ebea48be9e19ada17fd760897e77bb4993c47c9b5f22/files/share/metainfo/calibre-ebook-edit.metainfo.xml

It's derived from the upstream one with the following post-install steps. So again, for your issue to be fixed, upstream needs to actually provide the appropriate release metadata in that file.

[ghisvail]

See this section of the appstream docs for the format of the release metadata.

[Victor239]

I don't quite understand what's needed, would you be able to comment on the upstream issue with what needs to be changed?

[Erick555]

It turns out that upstream metainfo does have changelog data but it seems there is a bug with accidentally mangling it -https://github.com/flathub/com.calibre_ebook.calibre/pull/194 should fix it.