feat: record the foreground-service video Play's declaration asks for
The App content > Foreground service permissions form does not just want the justification that
was already written down. Per declared type it asks for four things, one of which is "a link to
a video demonstrating each foreground service feature. The video should demonstrate the steps
the user needs to take in your app in order to trigger the feature."
tools/record-fgs-demo.sh records exactly that journey on a device or emulator: the app on its
intro, the user tapping Start scan, Home, the ongoing notification visible in the shade while
the scan keeps running, and back into the app for the results. It loads the generated demo
library first so no real photo is in frame, writes a checkpoint PNG at each milestone so the
recording can be checked without decoding it, and takes the library off the device afterwards.
The output is git-ignored, like the screenshots.
Four things the script has to get right, each learned by getting it wrong first:
- bounds="[x1,y1][x2,y2]" cannot be parsed by stripping everything but digits: the "][ "
between the corners goes too, which glued y1 to x2 and produced coordinates like
"976 723061" - a tap that lands nowhere and reports no error at all.
- No single text matcher works: an exact match never finds the results card ("2 duplicate
groups"), while a substring match lets "Scan" match both "Start scan" and "Scanned in
39.7 s". Both matchers exist and each call site uses the right one.
- A finished scan leaves the app on its results screen, where the intro's button no longer
exists - tapping those stale coordinates silently does nothing.
- `set -e` plus start="$(failing command)" aborts a run with no message whatsoever, which
cost a whole debugging cycle.
Checklist step 5 now carries all four fields with paste-ready text: the description, the user
impact if the scan is deferred or interrupted (a scan is not deferrable work - the user is
waiting for a result, so there is no WorkManager/JobScheduler fallback), the use case
(Local processing: Other, the only dataSync option that describes a local, user-initiated
scan), and the video link.
Recording the take on this machine is not reliable, and the docs say so rather than pretending
otherwise, because both failures are platform-level rather than app-level:
- a cold app can miss Android's 5-second startForeground deadline and be killed, giving
ForegroundServiceDidNotStartInTimeException -> Force finishing activity, i.e. the launcher
where the scan should have started. The warm-up phase fixes it (a process that has started
the service once never misses), but the fallback path of restarting the app gives the warmth
back again, which is why the recorded scan is now triggered from the results screen's top-bar
"Scan" instead of the intro's button.
- the app also died mid-scan on the emulator, with the launcher on screen afterwards and no
exception of its own anywhere in logcat. No amount of warming fixes that one.
Neither reproduces on the real test device, where the same 22-photo library scans without
incident, so the take belongs on the phone. The script is the checklist for what it must show.
This commit is contained in:
@@ -234,13 +234,55 @@ action except the items marked **[code]**.
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| `ScanService.kt` | `ServiceCompat.startForeground(…, ServiceInfo.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_TYPE_DATA_SYNC)` |
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| `ScanService.kt` | `onTimeout()` stops the scan at Android 15's 6-hour `dataSync` cap |
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In the Console go to **App content › Foreground service permissions**, select
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**Data sync**, and paste:
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The declaration page asks for **four** things per type, not one. Go to
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**App content › Foreground service permissions**:
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> The app finds duplicate photos on the device. The user starts a scan and may leave
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> the app while it runs; the foreground service keeps that user-initiated scan alive
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> and shows its progress. The scan reads the photo library and writes a small local
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> index of file hashes. It performs no network access and transfers no data.
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1. **Description** of the app functionality using the type:
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> The app finds duplicate photos on the device. The user starts a scan and may leave
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> the app while it runs; the foreground service keeps that user-initiated scan alive
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> and shows its progress. The scan reads the photo library and writes a small local
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> index of file hashes. It performs no network access and transfers no data.
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2. **User impact if the task is deferred or interrupted.** A scan is not deferrable work —
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the user is watching for a result — so there is no WorkManager/JobScheduler fallback:
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> If the scan were deferred, tapping "Start scan" would appear to do nothing and the
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> user would have to keep the app open for the work to begin at all. If it were
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> interrupted, the user would lose the progress of a whole-library comparison and
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> have to start again. Only reads are involved, so an interruption cannot lose or
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> corrupt data; the service stops as soon as the scan finishes or is cancelled, and
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> it is held only for the duration of the scan.
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3. **Use case**: **Local processing: Other** — *"Use for specifically user-initiated work
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and not for regular system or server-initiated tasks."* The other `dataSync` choices
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are network transfers (backup/restore, upload/download) and *Local processing: Import
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or export*, none of which describes a local, user-initiated duplicate scan.
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4. **A link to a video** demonstrating the feature — *"The video should demonstrate the
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steps the user needs to take in your app in order to trigger the feature."* Record it
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with `./tools/record-fgs-demo.sh`, which drives a device through exactly that journey
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(empty state → *Start scan* → Home → the notification visible in the shade while the
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scan keeps running → results) and writes
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`store-assets/fgs-demo/foreground-service-demo.mp4` (git-ignored, like the
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screenshots). Put the file where a reviewer can open it without signing in — an
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unlisted YouTube link is the usual choice — and paste that link in. Replacing the
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video later means resubmitting the declaration.
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⚠️ **Record it on a real device.** The capture proved unreliable on this machine's
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software-emulated AVD (no KVM), and both failures are platform-level rather than
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app-level:
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- A **cold** app can miss Android's 5-second `startForeground` deadline and get killed
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(`ForegroundServiceDidNotStartInTimeException` → *Force finishing activity*), so the
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launcher appears where the scan should have started. The script's warm-up phase gets a
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process past that — a process that has already started the service once succeeds — but
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- the app also died **mid-scan** on the emulator during testing, and the launcher was on
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screen afterwards with no exception from the app in logcat at all. A warmer process
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does not fix that one.
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Neither failure has been seen on the real test device, where the same 22-photo library
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scans without incident. So treat `tools/record-fgs-demo.sh` as the checklist for the
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journey it records, and run it against the phone.
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The declaration is **per type**: if a new foreground-service type is ever added to
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the manifest, it has to be declared here too.
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+1
-1
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Legend: ✅ done · 🚧 in progress · ⏳ not started · 💡 candidate (propo
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| ~~Large-library scan stall~~ ✅ **fixed — verified on device** | The 5,363-photo library used to freeze at *“74 / 100 · Comparing file signatures…”* (a **blocked syscall**: zero CPU, workers sleeping). `BoundedCall` now abandons a stuck provider call **and** trips a stall breaker after three consecutive timeouts. **Verified on the real test device (Android 12 / MIUI): the scan completes — 20.2 s cold, 11.0 s warm, 15 groups, 6 unreadable — where it used to hang.** Covered by `BoundedCallTest` and `ScanEngineEndToEndTest` |
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| ~~Unreleased `BoundedCall` fix~~ ✅ | The provider-call deadline shipped in **1.0.1** (`versionCode` 2) |
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| **Play Console: foreground-service declaration** | Declaring the `dataSync` type (App content › Foreground service permissions) is release-blocking. **[code]** the manifest already declares it; the ready-to-paste justification is in [PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST](PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md) step 5 — this is a Console action, not a code change |
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| **Play Console: foreground-service declaration** | Declaring the `dataSync` type (App content › Foreground service permissions) is release-blocking. **[code]** the manifest already declares it, and [PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST](PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md) step 5 now carries all four things the form asks for: the description, the user impact if the scan is deferred or interrupted, the use case (**Local processing: Other** — the only `dataSync` option that fits a local, user-initiated scan) and the **video link** Play requires. `tools/record-fgs-demo.sh` records that video — empty state → *Start scan* → Home → the notification in the shade while the scan continues → results — into the git-ignored `store-assets/fgs-demo/`; hosting it and pasting the link is still a manual step. The take itself belongs on a real device: on this machine's KVM-less AVD the app missed Android's 5-second `startForeground` deadline when cold (`ForegroundServiceDidNotStartInTimeException` → *Force finishing activity*) and died mid-scan once with no exception of its own in logcat, neither of which the script's warm-up phase fully removes, and neither of which reproduces on the phone |
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| **Remaining Play paperwork** | Console actions only, no code: the **first upload + Play App Signing enrolment**, the **hosted privacy policy URL** (the working copy is now published to Gitea as [`fishfacegit/foto-duplicate-finder`](https://gitea.softwareapp-hb.de/fishfacegit/foto-duplicate-finder), so the policy renders at a public, login-free URL and only the Console paste is left), **Data safety**, the **Photo/video permissions** declaration, the **content rating / audience / app access / ads / export** questions, and the **listing copy + the three screenshot sets** (phone, 7-inch and 10-inch, all captured), plus the **paid-app setup**: a payments profile with tax rates, the €2.99 price and the 14-day €1.49 launch sale on *Products > App pricing* — the price must be set before the first upload, because free → paid is not possible afterwards (M9). Keystore, `versionCode`, listing copy, graphics, permission audit and the signed `.aab` (`sha256 f8e6a29a…`) are all in place; rollout goes internal → closed → production. Step-by-step: [PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST](PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md) |
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| ~~Store screenshots need one re-shoot~~ ✅ **done — verified on device** | The old captures showed the *Photo access needed* banner (an app-op is not a grant) and `03-results.png` showed the developer's own library. After a real grant the set was re-shot over the generated demo library: **01-empty** (no tap needed — results and selection live in `ScannerViewModel`, so force-stop + relaunch returns to the empty state with the grant still in place), **02-scanning** (`5353 / 5385`), **03-results** (**17 groups, 54 of 5385 photos, 83.5 MB reclaimable**; the headline group's 43.1 MB out-ranks the device's own 39.8 MB, so no real photo is in frame) and **04-options**. Captures are taken by watching for UI **text** changes, because MIUI refuses synthetic taps (`INJECT_EVENTS`). The demo library is deleted from the test device afterwards — MediaStore **5,386 → 5,364** rows, and the 22 stale rows it leaves in the hash index are pruned by `PhotoIndexStore.pruneTo` on the next scan. Deliberately not captured: the staged state and the system confirmation dialog, because staging clears the demo group and would put real photos back in frame. Details: [STORE_LISTING](STORE_LISTING.md) |
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| ~~Tablet store screenshots outstanding~~ ✅ **done — captured on AVDs** | Play has a **7-inch tablet** and a **10-inch tablet** screenshot slot of its own (asking for **≥ 4** screenshots on large screens). Both are now captured on AOSP Android 12 AVDs — `Nexus 7 2013` (1200×1920, `sw600dp`) and `medium_tablet` (1600×2560, `sw800dp`) — because this machine exposes no `/dev/kvm`: they ran in **pure software emulation** (`-accel off -no-window -gpu swiftshader_indirect`), ≈3 min to boot, with `hide_error_dialogs` on so SystemUI's ANR dialog could not sit in frame. Four screens per tablet over the same generated demo library: empty, scanning (20 / 22), results (**2 groups · 16 of 22 photos · 43.7 MB reclaimable**, 39.7 s / 53.1 s) and Options. `tools/make-store-screenshots.sh` is form-factor aware (`FORM_FACTOR=phone\|tablet-7in\|tablet-10in`) and the tablet form factors crop **0 px** of chrome, because a tablet frame is already inside Play's 2:1 cap. Recipe: [STORE_LISTING](STORE_LISTING.md) |
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