EasyCodecInstallation

Differences between revisions 5 and 6
⇤ ← Revision 5 as of 2006-01-01 05:16:01 →
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Editor: S0106000000cc07fc
Comment: cat spec
← Revision 6 as of 2006-03-23 23:57:00 → ⇥
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Editor: 66-188-77-153
Comment: moved from RestrictedFormats, needs some reworking, will revise in a few hours
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At the moment the messages about not supported formats have no indication on what codecs/packages you need to installation to be able to read the corresponding file. It would be nice to make easy for user to install the corresponding package.

== Rationale ==

The current message is not useful for users, we should make it easy to play their files rather trying to explain what they are trying to do doesn't work on a fresh installation.		 Messages about unsupported gstreamer formats are currently unhelpful. This utility assists users in installing the packages needed to use those formats.
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 * Frederic used to use window. He has a usbkey player with mp3 files on it. He plugs it on his new Ubuntu installation, a nautilus window is opened on it which is great. He doubles clicks on one of the file as usually and get this weird window saying that totem doesn't know about "mp3". He wonders why is that happening and what he has to do to play his files.
 * Vincent who tried to play some movie trailers from the Apple website just got a window with no movie and a message saying that this format is not supported. He asks what to do to his friend Sebastien who installed the required package an they watched the videos. It should be easy to get that working without having to ask to somebody else what do to. 		 * Frederic is a new Linux user on DSL. He attempts to open an mp3 file through a gstreamer application and receives an assistant to help him download and install the needed codecs.
 * Vincent, also new to Linux, is not on the internet. He attempts to open a QuickTime file and is given a different assistant with instructions on how to download the files he needs from an official Ubuntu mirror, and an offer to locate file if he already has a copy handy.
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 * any other gstreamer app
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'''1)''' This assistant appears on an as-needed basis, and may also be presented by an application's first run if all supported plugins are not installed.

'''2)''' The dialog should appear as follows when connected to the internet

''This application supports the following multimedia formats through the use of plugins.''

''Certain countries have laws making the installation of these plugins illegal. _link_ may help in determining what steps, if any, must be taken by you to legally install these plugins in your jurisdiction.''

''[radio] Install these multimedia plugins''

''[radio] Do not install these plugins''

     ''[checkbox] Disable this assistant for all non-administrative users of this computer''
''[radio, default] Ask me again later


'''5)''' The dialog appears as follows when not connected to the internet

''This application supports MP3, DVD, DivX and other popular multimedia formats through the use of plugins.''

''If you wish to install these plugins, run this application again while connected to the internet.''

'''6)''' If the user clicks on "Cancel", the dialog should close and the application should not ran.

'''7)''' If the user clicks on "OK" and the install option is selected, the assistant should add a dapper-updates-patent repository, run update manager to install the appropriate plugins, and then run the application initially launched.

'''8)''' This is not an application-specific dialog, it will appear to any user at most twice, only once if the internet is accessible on the first run unless they leave the Ask me again later option, at which case they will be asked again the next time they run the program.

'''9)''' If password authentication is failed for a user, the dialog will default back to 'Ask me again later'

'''10)''' The disable this assistant checkbox will be disabled unless the Do not install radio option is selected.

RobJCaskey: Please note, some valuable comments were taken into consideration in production of this revision. Please see the page history. It would be much appreciated if origonal contributors would update their comments and place them here, but not inline in the proposal.

Summary

Messages about unsupported gstreamer formats are currently unhelpful. This utility assists users in installing the packages needed to use those formats.

Use cases

  • Frederic is a new Linux user on DSL. He attempts to open an mp3 file through a gstreamer application and receives an assistant to help him download and install the needed codecs.

  • Vincent, also new to Linux, is not on the internet. He attempts to open a QuickTime file and is given a different assistant with instructions on how to download the files he needs from an official Ubuntu mirror, and an offer to locate file if he already has a copy handy.

Scope

  • rhythmbox
  • sound-juicer
  • totem
  • any other gstreamer app

Design

1) This assistant appears on an as-needed basis, and may also be presented by an application's first run if all supported plugins are not installed.

2) The dialog should appear as follows when connected to the internet

This application supports the following multimedia formats through the use of plugins.

Certain countries have laws making the installation of these plugins illegal. _link_ may help in determining what steps, if any, must be taken by you to legally install these plugins in your jurisdiction.

[radio] Install these multimedia plugins

[radio] Do not install these plugins

  • [checkbox] Disable this assistant for all non-administrative users of this computer

[radio, default] Ask me again later

5) The dialog appears as follows when not connected to the internet

This application supports MP3, DVD, DivX and other popular multimedia formats through the use of plugins.

If you wish to install these plugins, run this application again while connected to the internet.

6) If the user clicks on "Cancel", the dialog should close and the application should not ran.

7) If the user clicks on "OK" and the install option is selected, the assistant should add a dapper-updates-patent repository, run update manager to install the appropriate plugins, and then run the application initially launched.

8) This is not an application-specific dialog, it will appear to any user at most twice, only once if the internet is accessible on the first run unless they leave the Ask me again later option, at which case they will be asked again the next time they run the program.

9) If password authentication is failed for a user, the dialog will default back to 'Ask me again later'

10) The disable this assistant checkbox will be disabled unless the Do not install radio option is selected.

RobJCaskey: Please note, some valuable comments were taken into consideration in production of this revision. Please see the page history. It would be much appreciated if origonal contributors would update their comments and place them here, but not inline in the proposal.

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

BoF agenda and discussion

Suggestions from VideoPlaybackRoadmap

ATM, when you try to play an unhandled video with totem, it tells you that he cannot found the corresponding plugin. What I suggest he must do is :

- Tell you what format you are trying to view and what plugin you need. - If available with apt-get, it must suggest "Install this plugin now", so you can install the corresponding plugin in one click. - If not available via apt-get for known issues (patents), it must explain why it is not avalaible and offer a "click here to know more" that send you to a page on this wiki (or on the website), telling you how to install w32codecs, libdvdcss, ... (it can perhaps download and install it automatically after asking you if you are in a country with software patents)

Another way is to have a standalone application that manage gstreamer plugins

- What about developing "dummy" plugins which somehow trigger the display of a message explaining the problem? It could be possible to have fake libraries which either play beck an audio clip or video clip (these things are either decoding audio, video, or both) with directions as to what the problem is, and the individual plugin packages could simply obsolete the dummy plugins / libraries... It seems reasonable to assume that the user will have sound support if he's trying to play back a sound file, and video support if he's trying to play back a video file.

CategorySpec

EasyCodecInstallation (last edited 2008-08-06 16:27:02 by localhost)