Workflow for Application Indicator Work

We want to support application indicators for Lucid for all the apps in main. Since GNOME is frozen for this cycle we already know we're going to carry a patch for Lucid. However we've taken great care for App Indicators to have a fallback mechanism so upstream application developers can support app indicators but not break for distros that don't support app indicators. Therefore we need to ensure that we're engaging upstreams when we're patching these apps and doing our best to meet their needs.

This page will document our workflow for working on these apps:

1. List of apps - Each application that must be ported for Lucid; Jono will send you a mail assigning you an application.

2. When you're ready to work on an app, take ownership of the bug by assigning it to yourself and marking it "In Progress". We'll use this as a metric for progress, so only mark a bug like this if that's what you are working on.

   • For Design Questions see: Design Guidelines

   • If something in these guidelines are unclear, ping mpt on #ayatana. After this resolves this issue take the time to update the guidelines. (Part of this process is making sure the design document is as accurate as possible).
   • Since we're touching every app the uses an icon in the area we're going to help the Design Team by confirming all the icons an app ship, so make a list of the filenames with icons or if the icon is generated in code list that file.
3. After you have completed the work assign the bug to the Desktop Team (lp name is "canonical-desktop-team")
   • You can propose a bzr branch or a patch, whatever works for you.
   • He will either upload Friday as part of the DX landing or during his routine workload.
   • Don't mess with the bug status, leave it "In Progress"
   • Add the tag "patch" after you have attached your patch.
4. Generate a patch of your fix and attach it to the upstream bug report, which is linked from the Ubuntu bug.
   • Remember the overall goal is to get the work submitted upstream, so try to address issues an author might have with your patch. Be prepared to ping pong review in the upstream bug tracker.
   • If there is a reason that they will not accept the patch, ping jcastro and we can look at the issues on a case by case basis.
5. Report the completion of your bug. Just send jcastro a mail or PM "I fixed brasero, bug 12345, ken's on it, moving on to gnome-cc" or whatever. Also send him the list of icon filenames so he can pass them on to the design team.

Other Stuff

• It's critical that you don't block on something for too long, so while you're waiting for Ken or an upstream review or a design question, claim another app and start working on it.
• For the list of icons, we need the path of the icon from the root, so src/icon/foo.png instead of just foo.png. They plan to use the list in a script or something so we need the complete list so "a bunch are in this dir" won't work.