F-Droid

[Whaxion]

It would be great to have this app on F-Droid ! 😀

[Bertware]

While I support this, this will require changes to the application:

Almost all of the Google libraries, like Play Services, Google Admob, and GCM, are proprietary and cannot be included in the main F-Droid repository.

To me this implies that Firebase must be stripped too, and the Google maps dependency must be dropped. This would require a fork or branch for F droid where

• Google maps is removed (remove maps or replace with OSM, replacement with OSM could be possible in main branch as well)
• Firebase is removed. Firebase is crucial at this point, as it is responsible for crash reporting and anonymous analytics (for instance, which screens or stations are most popular, how often is a feature used, how well does network or code perform,...). Even large issues which could not be caught in development (e.g. when a user migrates between versions) could only be traced by Firebase, as users don't report crashes. Therefore I support the idea of a separate "clean" version for F-secure, but this should not be dropped from the Google Play version.
• There are several functional dependencies on code from Google or Firebase, which needs further investigation on which are allowed.

At this point I'd suggest a branch for F-secure to be made later in the future. This way some features (like notifications) can be implemented first, after which there could be bi-annual releases on F-secure where everything is stripped from these libraries.

[SeppeSoete]

From what I can see, google maps API needing to be removed is no longer (fully) an issue.

We cannot build apps using Google’s proprietary “Play Services”. Please talk to upstream about an untainted build flavor (either using microg or removing Non-Free dependencies completely).
(source: F-droid inclusion policy https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy/ accessed on 08/04/2024)

MicroG does provide the maps api as per https://microg.org/ so please do correct me if I'm wrong but from what I can see with my limited experience this should be a drop-in replacement.

The bigger issue would probably be firebase, as it is explicitly mentioned not to be allowed.

We cannot build apps using proprietary tracking/analytic dependencies like Crashlytics and Firebase. Please talk to upstream about an untainted build flavor (either using a FLOSS analytics software like ACRA or by removing Non-Free dependencies completely).

[Bertware]

Compared to 2018, Firebase has mostly been removed (only opt-in crash reporting is left) but the maps are still present. An untainted variant would be a possible workaround.

I'm however currently focusing more on the backend (the iRail API) in order to allow more possible features, after which the app probably deserves a rewrite according to modern standards, with F-droid and similar stores as a goal instead of an afterthought. I want to modernize the UI as well, and there's some horrendous code lingering around since this was a learning project from the start. Everything depends on however on how much time I have to spend on these projects.

If anyone can submit a PR for an F-droid I'll accept it though.