Web interface for the Jolla app store

Feature Requests
#1

Something I noticed was that there does not seem to be a web interface to browse the Jolla Store. At it’s simplest, it could just be a simple website displaying the application information and screenshots from the Jolla store and then download them. Ideally, users could download applications from the web interface to their device when signed in with a Jolla account, but I suppose that wouldn’t be trivial to implement.

If there was a web interface, developers could link to the webpage of their application in the Jolla store instead of telling people to search for the application in the Jolla store. Ideally, SailfishOS would open links to the store with the Jolla Store automatically, which should be possible due to one of the merge requests that recently got merged in.

I would also consider creating a “Get it on SailfishOS/Jolla Store” badge, just like F-Droid , Google Play and the App Store have.
Get it on F-Droid badge Get it on Apple Store Get it on Google Play badge

If developers of some well-known cross-platform software would put these Jolla store badges on their project pages besides the other already existing badges, I’d say people may become curious what the Jolla store is, click on it and learn about Jolla and Sailfish OS.

As a quick mockup, such a badge could look like this:

get-it-on-jolla

I didn´t really care about the font or look for the most suitable logo for the Jolla Store, take branding guidelines into account (if there are any?) and I definitely didn´t take the time to align anything neatly. This is a modified version of the F-Droid button button, which is licensed under the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ and made by Andrew Nayenko.

13 Likes
Sailfish OS - List of apps
#2

Technically a duplicate of Jolla application Store - web version - together.jolla.com (already requested in the very beginning).

It’s linked together with the fact that developers have no way of reading or even knowing about the existence of the comments on their applications other than by visiting the Store using their own Sailfish device - a web interface for the Store would mitigate that quite a bit.

3 Likes
#3

If you look at the mock up dashboard in https://harbour.jolla.com/ you may see this problem seems to have been recognized right from the start (dashboard shows mock reviews) but nobody has ever bothered spending the 4 hours needed to implement this and actually link them together.

#4

On the other hand Open Repos does have this functionality and I don’t know many SFOS user who would open the Jolla Store regularly anyway, as it’s considered stale and full of abandoned apps.
Open Repos is where the real action takes place with new apps popping up all the time and daily updates to existing apps. I guess Jolla know this and concluded it’s not worth wasting precious time on the Store which is effectively dead :grin:

2 Likes
#5

Just reverse-engineering the Jolla Store API would be a one way for community to do it on their own. Raising the question in weekly meetings would be the first logical step of course.

I would assume that it’s just basic login token which is then used for the store for downloading apps / commenting.

Wether this breaks the EULA: Probably. However, Jolla would also need to put man hours to enforce that EULA, which would probably give a higher chance for an actual solution :wink:

#6

Okay, a lot of needed/usefull Apps need to be installed from Openrepos/Storeman, but just because they have no chance to get into the jolla store for some reason (think of all these apps that are available at both store, but decide in some functions).
OpenRepos is for Nerds, normal users need the official store (sure, most of us are Jolla Nerds… :wink:)

The best way would be the official store.

#7

I expect someone who has been able to:

  1. obtain the correct phone hardware model all trying to avoid vendor locked devices that would not work.
  2. unlock a boot loader
  3. download images from phone vendor
  4. download images from Jolla
  5. read a ton of instructions
  6. install all tools needed for flashing
  7. flash the phone
  8. recognize there are errors with USB3, work around said errors
  9. finally be able to successfully flash the phone
  10. enjoy SFOS

not to be deterred by having to install Storeman from the OpenRepos page. :grinning:

6 Likes
#8

I’m at step 10, what’s next? :laughing:

Store has been updated only a little over the years. Devs not being able to view comments using the Harbour web page actually was supposed to be a feature, but it wasn’t developed (some sort of a mishap). It was spotted some years back, IIRC, but still wasn’t implemented a few months back at least… There’s no revenue in fixing that - save if they finally implement paid app support - so I’m not holding my breath anymore :cry:

Store really needs some TLC…

#9

On a related note for the web interface, is it possible to let app authors view reviews there and reply to them directly from the interface ?

2 Likes