Snapcraft.io UI: Can't file a description or edit the metadata online for my snap (songrec)

store
1

Hello,

I created a listing for the songrec Snap in 2020 and didn’t edit the online info since (but I just got a working Snap file that’s currently pending manual validation, BTW the previous thread about this was here).

It seems that when I go https://snapcraft.io/songrec/listing and even try to field all fields I can’t submit any change, I get a random error message, either:

  • This field cannot be blank. (even though I filed everything mandatory)

  • The 'description' field is required. (even though I filed a description)

  • Invalid field: public_metrics_distros, public_metrics_territories (whether the corresponding fields have been touched or not)

Steps to reproduce

Go to https://snapcraft.io/songrec/listing and try to file the fields/edit anything, then click Save, an error message appears

Regards,

2

Hi @Marin

The images you’ve added are showing as not viewable in my region for some reason. Would you be able to use the network tab in your browsers dev tools and let me know what the response is for the listing endpoint when you try to save the form?

3

Hi @Marin

I suspect this is an issue due to not having a description field in your snapcraft.yaml. Could you try rebuilding the snap with a description?

4

Hello @steverydz,

The images you’ve added are showing as not viewable in my region for some reason.

Can you view these directly on Imgur’s website? I get an error when I try to use the upload feature on the Snapcraft Discourse forum.

Would you be able to use the network tab in your browsers dev tools and let me know what the response is for the listing endpoint when you try to save the form?

Find a HAR file here: https://transfert.free.fr/ZSPlt5N

I suspect this is an issue due to not having a description field in your snapcraft.yaml. Could you try rebuilding the snap with a description?

Done but it changes nothing (however the new version of my Snap was not validated yet.)

Regards,

5

Thanks for the info.

No, the images still show as unavailable.

I think we’ll need to wait until the new metadata is validated and try again. It’s the only significant difference I can see between that and other snaps.

6

Re,

It seems that my uploads have just been rejected with this comment:

“The DBus name, NAME, is too generic and instead should use a prefix that is specific to the upstream publisher. Please refer to https://developer.gnome.org/documentation/tutorials/application-id.html#guidelines-for-choosing-an-application-id for help on choosing an appropriate DBus name” — Chrisa Oikonomou

However, the name of the DBus service, “re.fossplant.songrec” ( SongRec/snapcraft.yaml at 0.6.4 · marin-m/SongRec · GitHub ) is just the name I use at Flathub (https://flathub.org/en/apps/re.fossplant.songrec) where it has been verified, and I also have an official front page living here (https://songrec.fossplant.re/).

It’s a domain that I own and that I verified for Flathub so I don’t understand why the rejection.

Regards,

1 Like
7

I wouldn’t expect that to work until your updated snap is uploaded and released. I’ve asked internally for someone to help you with that aspect of the issue.

1 Like
8

@steverydz

Re,

I have changed back the DBus ID of the package to com.github.marinm.songrec (I swapped to re.fossplant.songrec on the main build because it was a requirement from the Flathub team to get verified there but apparently the Snapcraft review team doesn’t want me to make the change…) and now the package is accepted by the automated review system.

And I can change the Snap visibility status over https://dashboard.snapcraft.io/snaps/songrec/

However, when I try to change anything at https://snapcraft.io/songrec/listing in the Listing or Settings tab, including the visibility status, description field or syncing with the metainfo.xml (currently the option is unchecked) I get the same errors and nothing is applied.

So there’s a bug with this web frontend in particular and I can’t add a public extended description for my app at all.

Could you please track this bug to the upstream?

Thank you!

9

Thank you for the info. We have an issue raised internally to investigate this. So far we haven’t been able to replicate this with another snap, but we will investigate further.

2 Likes
10

@Marin When I look at the snap info from the cli, it seems the snap still hasn’t be uploaded with a description, which I think is why the UI is failing, as a description is mandatory. Have you tried uploading a version of the snap via the cli with a snapcraft.yaml which has a description?

11

@steverydz There actually is a description in the recent versions of the uploaded snapcraft.yaml file, have these been uploaded at hand from CLI or pulled by your build system from Github.

It can be observed here: SongRec/snapcraft.yaml at main · marin-m/SongRec · GitHub

Maybe that you are looking at a very old version of the file?

Regards,

12

When I type snap info songrec on the command line, there is no description

songrec-snap
songrec-snap1394×586 91.5 KB

13

yes and again the bug is that I can’t set one

again, the option called “Update metadata on release:” available here: https://snapcraft.io/songrec/settings is unchecked, and I can’t check it, it throws one of the aforementioned errors

again, the field called “Description” here: https://snapcraft.io/songrec/listing is empty, and I can’t set it to something non-empty, it throws one of the aforementioned errors

at the moment where you posted your message, there were in fact two descriptions specified in snapcraft.yaml, one as an explicit description:field and one implicit through the adopt-info: field. this didn’t help.

I just modified the state of this to retain only one description, the implicit one ( Remove the explicit info in snapcraft.yaml, this is not needed when s… · marin-m/SongRec@b1e6bbb · GitHub ) like has previously been the case closer to the time where I created this thread, pushed it, released it, and, surprise, nothing changed:

$ snap info songrec
name:      songrec
summary:   An open-source, unofficial Shazam client for Linux, written in Rust
publisher: Marin (Fossplant.re) (marin-m)
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/songrec
license:   GPL-3.0+
description: |
  
snap-id: TjFPk1SFpIfph8MzO67iktXZSBHixfXX
channels:
  latest/stable:    0.6.6 2026-03-11 (92) 31MB -
  latest/candidate: ↑                          
  latest/beta:      ↑                          
  latest/edge:      0.6.6 2026-03-10 (89) 31MB -

Either way, I a) Can’t set a description in the store database at all while I should be able to, b) your UI spits inconsistent error messages when it should work instead of working and this is a bug.

I guess that the bug is related to the fact that the initial version of the snap was uploaded a very long time ago (2020), initially without a description and that this got corrupted through some migration process.

But now can you please try to address the bug as this can’t be regarded as functioning behavior?

Thank you!