How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?
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@quilty-weavy Why do you want to change the UI or fix bugs? I mean I am working on the app, and of course I will fix bugs when they are found
Do you have any comments or requests for improvements? Just let me know and I will take them into account.
I will publish the code to github tomorrow or on wednesday, not going to find time for it today.
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@s710 you can publish the code whenever you want. It is your decision, because it is your app.
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@s710 some news: there should be a clear mention somewhere that this is not an official Pl@ntnet app. And I believe you don't have to delay the publishing to the store when you're done, because:
"If you mention that this is NOT an official Pl@ntNet app, then we are good.
Publishing the app as open source should be mandatory for the quota to be increased." So as long as they've got the repo address for them to browse, I don't think that they care too much about how and when it's published. -
Alright, so here is the first version:
https://open-store.io/app/plants.s710
Let me know what you think of it, and if it works for you.
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@s710 You have your first review! I love it!
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Great!
I think I forgot to add a function which either converts images (e.g. PNGs) into jpeg, or warn the user. I think Pl@ntNet only accepts jpeg. This might lead to unspecified errors when someone tries to upload non-jpeg images.
Gonna add this soon.
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I fed it images straight from the camera and it worked just fine. I did not crop or edit in any way.
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@moem yeah those are jpeg. But you might have pngs in the gallery. Although maybe it would be unusual.
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@s710 said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:
yeah those are jpeg.
That's right. Sorry, I was not responding directly to your plan to add some kind of .png support... just reporting my workflow, out of general enthousiasm!
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@s710 Sorry for appreciating your efforts very late but thank you. I will submit a few more images of plants by tomorrow.
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@s710 awesome work. Copy paste to the api key doesn't work for me but copy paste is hit and miss in UT anyway. Btw i now realize I had this warning during my conversation with them: "Making users signup to the API individually is against our term of use.
You can find the agreement here: https://my.plantnet.org/documents/agreement_PlantNet_API_english_v4.pdf"
So this hardly can be a long term solution. I gave them the repo address just now, and even though i didn't imply it was already published, they'll find out. -
@emphrath said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:
@s710 awesome work. Copy paste to the api key doesn't work for me but copy paste is hit and miss in UT anyway. Btw i now realize I had this warning during my conversation with them: "Making users signup to the API individually is against our term of use.
You can find the agreement here: https://my.plantnet.org/documents/agreement_PlantNet_API_english_v4.pdf"
So this hardly can be a long term solution. I gave them the repo address just now, and even though i didn't imply it was already published, they'll find out.Hmm okay well. Then I am wondering how this could work out at all
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@s710 i'm confident they'll extend api rights for UT.
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@emphrath I don't see how this could be done in a secure way. They could supply a dedicated API-Key with increased usage limits, however it would be impossible to ship the key within the app without the possibility to reverse engineer the key and use elsewhere. Of course, depends if someone is actually willing to reverse engineer, and someone actually looking for an API-Key for Pl@ntNet. Just trying to say that shipping credentials is never a good idea.
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@s710 well, they could also increase quota for one specific existing api key - in that case, everything happens on their side
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@emphrath said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:
@s710 well, they could also increase quota for one specific existing api key - in that case, everything happens on their side
Same difference, that one API key would need to be distributed somehow.
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@arubislander Well how do they make their own android app work then ? I don't get it.
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@emphrath said in How to create a plant identification app for ubuntu touch?:
@arubislander Well how do they make their own android app work then ? I don't get it.
Yeah well, maybe they're using non-public APIs. Those, of course, can also be reverse engineered from the binary.
I am no expert in reverse engineering, but I was told that virtually anything can be reverse engineered with enough efforts. For example, someone reverse engineered the HTTP APIs used by the Bird Scooter app (which, btw, enabled me to make a scooter app).Unless you're using a dedicated authentication (user must login within the app), there is virtually no way of publishing something secure, you simply cannot ship credentials/hidden stuff. Of course, this is from a pure security perspective. The owner might still decide to ship apps like this and rely on no one caring about reverse engineering, which might be an acceptable risk.
In the end, it completely depends on what Pl@ntNet wants to do. I just wanted to point out that if I was given a dedicated API key, and Pl@nNet would increase limits for this single key, I would need to ship it within the app, which would be insecure per design. Of course, I can try to occlude it as best as I can, but it won't be bullet proof. If Pl@ntNet accepts this approach, I don't see any real issues, since I guess that not so many people would be that eager to get into possession of a Pl@ntNet API-key with increased limits so that they would actually take the efforts of reverse engineering it out of my app.
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I have given this a go just now and really like it and the way it has come into being from initial idea to working app all form within the Community. Great work from all involved. This is really what the UBports Community does well. One small idea if the link to the my.plant.org website could be a direct link from settings (if possible) it would make things smoother.
If any further help with api keys or/and gaurantee of or licensing usage and such become needed let me know and I will see what can be done. -
@s710 You should probably just make it such that the user would have to acquire their own API key, and provide a UI for entering it in your app. Otherwise, do you plan to pay the fees for going over the number of requests, or even paying €1000/yr?
The contract PDF you linked to is very much oriented toward scientific organizations building applications for research, and doesn't seem to be oriented toward people who want to occasionally query Pl@ntNet for what plant they find while out on a walk.
