Originally I posted this two months ago on r/Ubuntu as my account was too new to post here (don't really use reddit), but I decided to finally try posting it here as well.
I want to present my creation, namely The Snap Sideloader, a graphical program that can not only be used to install snap packages stored locally, but also to install them from third party repositories. The user can add as many third party repositories as they want, and switch between them at will. They can browse the repository, search for programs in the repository and view program details, as well as install/uninstall programs from the repository.
Repository creation is not hard, anyone can do it. Obviously you will have to find a place to host your package files, as well as the icons and screenshots. Afterwards, you can create a SQLite database from the schema that is available on GitHub, so that it has a structure compatible with The Snap Sideloader, and then you can start filling in the data. Once you're done with filling in the database, host it somewhere and make the direct download link available, as users will need that link to add the repository into the client. As long as the download link stays the same, TSS will be able to download any updates made to it automatically at the start of the program, depending on what the set refresh interval is.
I am not going to tell you that this is feature complete, while the program does count how many updates are available for the installed packages, it doesn't give you an option to install them all, so an user would have to manually go to the program's page and do that. But the base is definitely there and this is just to prove that you can distribute snap packages outside of the Snap Store, unlike what people are usually saying. It might take more effort if you want to do it, but with the help of programs like The Snap Sideloader you can create your own repositories of snap packages. F-Droid was my inspiration when creating this program.
Think of it more as a concept that someone else could certainly execute better. Perhaps there isn't a huge interest in something like this, but I think that on something like Ubuntu Core Desktop, the ability to access third party snap repositories would probably be more valuable, so maybe it's a thing for the future.
In either case, if you're interested in reading more and you want to play with the program or check out the source code, you can visit this GitHub page: https://github.com/thetechdog/the-snap-sideloader
Don't expect updates to The Snap Sideloader, as I probably won't add anything major, but if anyone wants to expand on the idea and make it better, you're more than welcome to do so!
Thank you for your interest.
[link] [comments]
SOCIAL SHARE CARD GENERATOR