Technical priorities for the Open Food Facts Flutter app in 2023

[teolemon]

Hello all!

As we start planning for the year ahead, I wanted to gather your thoughts on the technical priorities for the Open Food Facts Flutter app in 2023.

Here are a few questions to consider:

• What improvements or optimizations should we focus on to make the app faster and more reliable?
• Are there any areas of the codebase that could benefit from refactoring or restructuring?
• What challenges or roadblocks have you encountered while working on the app, and how can we address them?
• Is there anything else you think we should consider as we plan for the year ahead?

I look forward to hearing your ideas, be it here, or tonight during the weekly call :-)

Pierre

[monsieurtanuki]

Hi there!

What improvements or optimizations should we focus on to make the app faster and more reliable?

I wish I could use the app on my smartphone (it is not the case: camera crash): that would be a huge improvement. This is very problematic for me, and I consider creating a different app, simple but that works. Plan C: use Yuka.
"More reliable": let's parse all the TODOs and check which ones should be converted into issues (e.g. we're not checking the return code from server after we tried to save a product).

Are there any areas of the codebase that could benefit from refactoring or restructuring?

I don't believe we should spend time refactoring if we have no strong needs underneath. Time should be used on P0 issues (only?).

What challenges or roadblocks have you encountered while working on the app, and how can we address them?

Not all contributors go in the same direction. My focus was on a fast and reliable app with simple code and plain UI. It looks like a lot of energy is put on UI, which is the opposite, and takes time - to code, to review and to discuss. Nothing wrong with a nicer UI, except that it considerably slows down the evolutions of the app, and that is frustrating.

Is there anything else you think we should consider as we plan for the year ahead?

I do believe the focus should be on P0 issues and on user feedbacks. Besides, I don't have a specific functional suggestion.

[codeyuvraj]

I have the same opinion on the app having a plain UI and faster execution.