Rename package to io.element.Element

[WhyNotHugo]

As someone who only occasionally uses Riot, I'm always widely confused by naming:

• The network on which I registered is called Matrix.
• The package I installed is called im.riot.Riot (flatpak install im.riot.Riot).
• The desktop entry shipped is called Element.

I don't think any other package has this quirk where the package name and application name are entirely different (sometimes casing varies, but that's all).

AFAIK, Riot is just the previous name of Element, so each time I need to search for the app launcher, I just try both names (since different places use different names, I just have to remember to look for both).

Would you mind renaming this package to io.element.Element? I think this would especially be less confusing for new users, who might not even know the naming history.

[Mikaela]

This was previously discussed in https://github.com/flathub/im.riot.Riot/issues/114 and it gives me an impression that the upstream hasn't changed the app id either

[SISheogorath]

@WhyNotHugo What app-launcher do you use? GNOME at least uses the new name "Element" as primary name, while also being available using "riot". So in general, using the new name "Element" should be completely fine. Also GNOME software, or the flatpak app manager of your likings should be fine with that. Only when you use the CLI, you have to remember app ids.

About the problem with changing app ids: First of all, we can't change the app id, without changing the repository. And in order to change the repository we have to apply through the regular Flatpak process. Given how frequent Element enjoys to adjust names (remember things were also called vector for a while, the company itself still is) we might see another name change in the next 2 years. While upstream hasn't changed their app-id either for their own builds (sadly out app id and theirs are not in sync).

All in all, it's much hassle for basically no win other than technical beauty. But I'm open for ideas and suggestions.

[WhyNotHugo]

the flatpak app manager of your likings should be fine with that. Only when you use the CLI, you have to remember app ids.

The cli is the manager of my liking. Other are just too complicated for my setup.

I see this is a lot of hassle, and there's no defined path for packages to be renamed without requiring user intervention.

The GitHub org is still called vector. My main issue is exactly that: there's so many names and aliases that it's hard to keep track, and the fact that the package has one name and the application has another is the most confusing bit.

I wonder if, as a simpler alternative, the desktop entry could be named "Element (aka Riot)" to help make this more obvious.

[SISheogorath]

the desktop entry could be named "Element (aka Riot)" to help make this more obvious.

This was actually a suggestion from https://github.com/flathub/im.riot.Riot/issues/114#issuecomment-659436696 When we were a bit too quick with dropping the "Riot" part on the flatpak. However, it has been more than a year since then and upstream also dropped their "(Riot)" from the name by now (in fact 15 months ago): https://github.com/vector-im/element-desktop/commit/94086f247a8c89630ddf3c134e4af50c18d1af3b

So I think reintroducing this would cause more confusion to current and new users, than it would resolve.

[ShadowJonathan]

Matrix is the network, Riot is the previous name of Element, and Element is current flagship client of element.io, yes.

I think flatpak mentioned somewhere about the possibility of renaming packages? And/or that it was/wasn't possible? I'm not sure, i looked into it in the past, but i can't find the issue again.

[LeSnake04]

Matrix is the network, Riot is the previous name of Element, and Element is current flagship client of element.io, yes.

I think flatpak mentioned somewhere about the possibility of renaming packages? And/or that it was/wasn't possible? I'm not sure, i looked into it in the past, but i can't find the issue again.

I am pretty sure its possible: Protontricks id was changed (from com.valvesoftware.Steam.Utility.protontricks (now deleted entirely) to com.github.Matoking.protontricks).

Also they renamed everything they could to element: Github organization, websites repos, releases, app names.

the only things that weren't changed are the fdroid/play store and apple id as well as the github organisation id. These thing are likely nearly impossible to change.

So changing the flatpak id would likely be in the best interest of the Element. Also it would make it possible to install the package with flatpak install element

[karlabbott]

In full disclosure, I work at Element.

I would like to ask that we change the name from im.riot.Riot to something including Element so that we can mention the flatpak install on element.io, on this page specifically: https://element.io/get-started .

I can't guarantee you that we won't change names again in the future, but I do believe we'll stay Element for quite some time. We haven't been called Riot since July 2020 and a good number of our users do not associate the name Riot with Element.

I'd really like to be able to put on the website flatpak install element as opposed to using the Riot name.

[ShadowJonathan]

@karlabbott I'd suggest bringing it up internally as well, as (afaik) flatpak's Element package is community-ran, you might want to contact the maintainers to set up a transfer, for proper element-maintained flatpak packaging.

[SISheogorath]

Hello guys, girls, in-between, and beyond, there is work going on to make it possible for upstream to push their flatpak directly from their CI https://github.com/vector-im/element-desktop/pull/293

This flatpak will use the vendor provided ID, which currently is io.element.ElementNightly, and will probably be adjusted for stable. So let's not get ahead of ourselves and even cause a conflict between the ids.

Current setup will stick around until upstream managed to pull everything in and publish their flatpak version directly, then we will probably EOL this one.