Opening up the Gramps flatpak sandbox's access to more directories

Development
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The first Gramps 5.2 flatpak on user feedback restricted access from the entire home directory down to Documents, Downloads, and Pictures. This cut off access to some data directories. I am testing the addition of some more directories as shown below from the manifest

# for data directories and backwards compatibility  
  - --filesystem=~/.gramps:create
  - --filesystem=xdg-data
  - --filesystem=xdg-config
  - --filesystem=xdg-cache

@Nick-Hall Are there any more directories that Gramps needs access to?

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Gramps needs write permission to the directories in your list.

The default backup directory is the home directory, but this can be changed in the preferences. Maybe we should choose a better default path?

The media directory defaults to the special Pictures folder. Gramps only needs read access to this.

I can’t think of anything else at the moment.

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Can the default Backup folder be a subfolder in the GRAMPSHOME Directory?

Then the GRAMPSHOME can be an application-set shortcut in the Gramps Gtk File Chooser.

Further, perhaps installing could put the share\doc\gramps\example\ folder inside $GRAMPSHOME\backup\example instead of burying it in the Source. That would allow advanced users a clear way to prune out some excess baggage. Plus it would move those files to somewhere that doesn’t require admin right to update.

Which Gramps would have a consistent interface to the Backup folder and User Directory, regardless of OS.

Or perhaps the XDG Base Directory support is applicable to that goal?

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The default filesystem access for flatpaks (when given) is read/write. Options can be restricted to read only or expanded to creating new directories.

Doesn’t the Edit Exif addon require write access to Pictures in order to modify metadata in case a user has their Gramps media directory in Pictures?

My personal preference has always been to put backups into Documents so I can find them easily but without cluttering up my home directory. That is something I usually change right away in Gramps preferences.

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Unfortunately, t looks like xdg-data, xdg-config, and xdg-cache access are banned for Flathub. They cause the flathub compiler to fail the manifest, and link to here in the error message Flatpak builder lint | Flathub Documentation

Specifically naming the directories like filesystem=~/.config/gramps causes flatpak builder to fail with the below error
error: Unknown filesystem location ~/.config/gramps, valid locations are: host, host-os, host-etc, home, xdg-*[/…], ~/dir, /dir

Edit: nevermind the rest, I found a workaround

So it will only take adding ~/.gramps which I believe should be ok for now, since Gramps 5.1.6 used ~/.gramps anyway as I understand it. The problem in the future will be from a user switching from a system installed Gramps 5.2 over to a flatpak since Flathub won’t allow access to the xdg data directories for security reasons. In that case, restoring a backup or right-clicking the (filename).gramps file will open the database.

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The Gramps 5.2.0-1 flatpak should be available on flathub soon. It allows access to default data directories like ~/.gramps ~/.config ~/.local/share ~/.cache so that users can once again get to their 5.1.6 databases and potentially go between Gramps system installs and the Gramps 5.2.0-1 flatpak without difficulty.

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Flathub is being difficult. They don’t even want to allow ~/.gramps access, so the Gramps flatpak might have to go back to full home directory access.

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Gramps 5.2.0-1 flatpak has gone back to full home directory access for the sake of users’ data, and also for continuity between system installs, prior Gramps flatpaks, and the 5.2 flatpak.

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