[Lvfs-announce] Enforcing release tags

Hi all,

Today I merged and deployed some new functionality to the LVFS that
allows per-vendor control of the release tag.

The release tag is usually specified in the metainfo.xml file, for
example: <release tag=3D"N1NET43W" =E2=80=A6> but can also be specified in =
the
component overview page on the LVFS. In most cases the vendor calls
the release tag, well, a "release tag" and it was optional to add for
each component and for most vendors this behaviour will continue as
before.

The string attribute value is supposed to match the internal tag used
by the vendor for the deliverable, for instance the "Build Package
Name" used by Lenovo and the "External release Software ID" used by
Dell.

Setting the value for the LVFS is really helpful, as it allows four
things to happen:

 * Automatic details URL generation using the release version and/or tag

 * Better matching up of updates with Windows Update, which allows
providing more information to the vendor QA users

 * We can optionally show the same version string (e.g. N1CET75W) as
is shown on the vendor homepage

 * Users can search for the tags to go to a specific firmware release
for the correct hardware

 The new functionality is specified per-vendor, per-category. So it's
possible to add 3 inclusive rules for a vendor, for example:

  * All ME updates _require_ a "SKU" before being promoted, example
"SKUMEXXXXXX"

  * All BIOS updates can _optionally_ provide a "SKU", example "SKUBIOSXXX"

  * All updates of any category default to a details URL of
https://foo.com/download/$TAG$/details

I've set this up for a couple of OEMs already on the LVFS and it seems
to work fine. If this sounds something that would be useful please let
me know and I'll add the required VendorTag attributes on your
account. At the moment only the admin team can add, remove or modify
vendor tag rules -- but if this is interesting for the vendor manager
to control please let me know.

Questions or comments off list please, thanks.

Richard.