What better way to introduce my work at an Application Installer meeting than to come with a prototype package browser modeled after shopping sites developed in just a few hours?
It's a little Flask webapp that just works on any Debian system, using the local apt-xapian-index as a backend. It has fast keyword search, faceted navigation and screenshots, and it runs on your system showing the packages that you have available.
To try it:
git clone git://git.debian.org/users/enrico/pkgshelf.git
cd pkgshelf
./web-server.py
Then visit http://localhost:5000
It didn't have much interface polishing, as it's just a quick technology demo. However you can see that:
- keyword search is fast (fast enought that it could be made to search as you type);
- relevant tags appear on the left, grouped by facets;
- the most relevant tags are highlighted;
- the less relevant tags could be hidden behind a
[more]expander; - you can choose several strategies to hide packages you may find irrelevant.
Things that need doing:
- hiding uninteresting facets;
- making it pretty.
It's essentially JavaScript and CSS work. Anyone wants to play?