Add application IDs to the docs/specs #1564
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The relevant specification is https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/. This is implicitly understood by those familiar with xdg/freedesktop specifications, but I guess it's a good idea to spell it out regardless |
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That would indeed be the correct spec, but I had no idea where this was until you linked it and that's after a bunch of documentation research - pretty hard to know it's in there if you aren't pretty experienced with this stuff |
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The format of application IDs is currently entirely unspecified, nor mentioned at all in the spec, other than being a string.
In reality, application IDs must follow the GNOME application ID spec, which is the one also described in the systemd desktop environments spec. This requires a bunch of external research outside of the documentation, because the documentation doesn't mention it at all.
The documentation also doesn't mention how the backend gets app ids - it should at least mention that when a portal request is received, xdg-desktop-portal retrieves the appid by retrieving it if the app is ran as a valid systemd unit according to the above spec, or is a flatpak or snap, then sends it to the backend implementation.
However, it should also be specified that the application IDs received by backends may be empty or may not follow the specification, because it is flat out not validated by the function that does this except for retrieved Flatpak app ids. Snap and systemd units have no validation.
I would propose a new documentation page under the Common Conventions category detailing this. This was a lot of headache to figure out as someone coming from the outside in with no prior experience working with xdg-desktop-portal and D-Bus.
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