How to programmatically fetch a list of applications from the Software Center

Question

Im writing a PyGI app where I'd like to show a list of matching applications from the Ubuntu Software Centre in an auto-completion text entry or dropdwon. I haven't yet figured out the best way to present the information, I just want to make it easier for the user to type the name of an application.

But before that, I'd like to figure out how to get the data. Is there an API to get a list of all applications from the Software Centre, or indirectly through the Applications Dash in Unity?

Answer 1

You can use the xapian DB directly:

import xapian
db=xapian.Database("/var/cache/software-center/xapian")
for m in db.postlist(""): 
    appname = db.get_document(m.docid).get_data()

Or the internal software-center API:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "/usr/share/software-center/")
import softwarecenter.db.database
db = softwarecenter.db.database.StoreDatabase()
db._aptcache.open()
# 'use_axi' is use apt-xapian-index
# 'use_agent' is use the Software Center Agent database
db.open(use_axi=False, use_agent=False)
for doc in db:
    app = db.get_application(doc)
    print app.appname, app.pkgname
    appdetails = app.get_details(db)
    # Icon names are relative to /usr/share/app-install/icons/
    print appdetails.icon

Answer 2

Use the package python-apt , there are docs in /usr/share/doc/python-apt

For example to get a list of all installed packages use

import apt
cache = apt.Cache()
installed_packages = [p for p in cache if p.is_installed]

As the Software Centre is written in Python you may want to have a look at its source code as well.