Vending: Extended installation of third-party channel packages

[DaVinci9196]

Function extension: Allows installation of installation packages downloaded from other channels to solve the problem that most applications that require the installation source to be GP cannot be used.

The channel application needs to call the vending page in the specified way for installation.

[ale5000-git]

@DaVinci9196
Is it possible to also invoke this installation via adb? (without having another store app installed but just passing the path of a local apk file to microG Companion)

[DaVinci9196]

@DaVinci9196 Is it possible to also invoke this installation via adb? (without having another store app installed but just passing the path of a local apk file to microG Companion)
demo.zip
You can use this demo

[mar-v-in]

@ale5000-git this is effectively the same as installing with adb install -i com.android.vending [...], so it's not really needed to make this accessible from adb

[ale5000-git]

@ale5000-git this is effectively the same as installing with adb install -i com.android.vending [...], so it's not really needed to make this accessible from adb

@mar-v-in
Via adb you can set installSource but not installInitiator.
If microG can "hide" where the command originated (shell) without using root, then we can avoid this issue.

[mar-v-in]

I see. The problem is that on Android, activities only reliably learn the initiator of a request when it is invoked using startActivityForResult(), but the adb shell am start command uses a regular startActivity() call. But maybe we can use something else, e.g. a custom service call instead. Let's keep that out of the initial feature though.

[ale5000-git]

Recently I had another similar idea (but I hadn't yet time to really look at it):

• Integrate the code of F-Droid Privileged Extension (almost unchanged) directly inside microG Companion => https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension

It would bring two advantages:

1. F-Droid can use it directly with just a minor change (package name);
2. On new Android versions all app stores can install apps (with user confirmation), but on old Android no app stores can do it (except privileged system apps) without enable the option to install from unknown sources in Android developer settings; this thing would solve this problem.

[ale5000-git]

@mar-v-in
What do you think of this? #3074 (comment)

[mar-v-in]

@ale5000-git the purpose of this is not to give vending / microG Companion privileged install permission for use by other apps, but really is only about triggering installation from the com.android.vending package so that installSource/Initiator is set when apps have checks for it (e.g. Android Auto). The idea would be that Aurora Store implements this API (as one of its many installer options) for much better user-experience without any modification needed on the ROM.

[ale5000-git]

@ale5000-git the purpose of this is not to give vending / microG Companion privileged install permission for use by other apps, but really is only about triggering installation from the com.android.vending package so that installSource/Initiator is set when apps have checks for it (e.g. Android Auto). The idea would be that Aurora Store implements this API (as one of its many installer options) for much better user-experience without any modification needed on the ROM.

It seems good, but I hope it is implemented also in F-Droid since one may also want to allow an app installed by F-Droid to appears in Android Auto.