Executive Summary
This is an enhancement request to petition for the addition of a "version" field/element to the "tiles" displayed by Software Manager's Search feature.
Problem Statement
When searching for a specific software package via Software Manager, it is quite common to see the search results list packages in "pairs", where one listing in the pair refers to a "system package" version of the software and the other refers to a "flathub" version of the same package. However, the data elements provided on each of the result tiles is limited -
The Package Name [in bold]
An Icon, if included
A truncated line of text from the package description
A box icon and the word "Flathub" if the item refers to a Flathub package
A user "star" rating, in the form of e.g. "4.0" or similar.
The Problem
By way of example, a search for "Solaar" returns two results in exactly the style summarised above. For many users a choice between packaging formats is of secondary importance to the package version on offer and although it might be true to say as a generalisation that Flathub packages tend to offer more recent package versions, this is not always true. As a result, in order to determine which package to install to get the latest version, a user has to "click in to" each returned item, review the version details and then make a selection.
Proposed Enhancement / Solution
On the 3rd row of text in the tiled response to the Software Manager search results, add a 3rd field, "version" and display that data from the underlying metadata of the package. If necessary, consider eliminating the use of the word "Flathub" in addition to the icon, in order to make a little bit more space for the version string.
Anticipated Benefit
A minor convenience for the sake of efficiency... users who favour the installation of the most recent version of a software package would be able to make that choice directly from the search results, without having to inspect the contents of two or more returned items.
Footnote
I appreciate that in the grand scheme of things this is a trivial enhancement that barely rises to the level of being a "usability improvement"... but perhaps it is also a low-effort tweak that would not demand much programmer effort and might be a nice introduction for a new team member.
Executive Summary
This is an enhancement request to petition for the addition of a "version" field/element to the "tiles" displayed by Software Manager's Search feature.
Problem Statement
When searching for a specific software package via Software Manager, it is quite common to see the search results list packages in "pairs", where one listing in the pair refers to a "system package" version of the software and the other refers to a "flathub" version of the same package. However, the data elements provided on each of the result tiles is limited -
The Package Name [in bold]
An Icon, if included
A truncated line of text from the package description
A box icon and the word "Flathub" if the item refers to a Flathub package
A user "star" rating, in the form of e.g. "4.0" or similar.
The Problem
By way of example, a search for "Solaar" returns two results in exactly the style summarised above. For many users a choice between packaging formats is of secondary importance to the package version on offer and although it might be true to say as a generalisation that Flathub packages tend to offer more recent package versions, this is not always true. As a result, in order to determine which package to install to get the latest version, a user has to "click in to" each returned item, review the version details and then make a selection.
Proposed Enhancement / Solution
On the 3rd row of text in the tiled response to the Software Manager search results, add a 3rd field, "version" and display that data from the underlying metadata of the package. If necessary, consider eliminating the use of the word "Flathub" in addition to the icon, in order to make a little bit more space for the version string.
Anticipated Benefit
A minor convenience for the sake of efficiency... users who favour the installation of the most recent version of a software package would be able to make that choice directly from the search results, without having to inspect the contents of two or more returned items.
Footnote
I appreciate that in the grand scheme of things this is a trivial enhancement that barely rises to the level of being a "usability improvement"... but perhaps it is also a low-effort tweak that would not demand much programmer effort and might be a nice introduction for a new team member.