[Bug]: App versions that do not follow semver cannot be installed through the UI

[MarcelRobitaille]

⚠️ This issue respects the following points: ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or a configuration/webserver/proxy issue.
• This issue is not already reported on Github OR Nextcloud Community Forum (I've searched it).
• Nextcloud Server is up to date. See Maintenance and Release Schedule for supported versions.
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct.

Bug description

I am an app maintainer. My app google_synchronization is a fork of integration_google.

As such, I was not originally using strict semver versioning. Instead of 1.2.3, I used 1.2.3-4, where 1.2.3 is the version of the upstream app, and -4 means that I released 4 versions of my fork based on this. This is similar to how linux package managers often add a suffix for the number of changes made to the package based on the same version of the software being packaged.

This 1.2.3-4 format means that the new releases of my app are not installable through the Nextcloud UI. Users with the app installed could not install the updates. However, there was no warning when releasing the new version and the version was viewable in the store.

I completely understand if this is intended behaviour. However, if you wish to enforce semver, I would kindly request to show some kind of error message when publishing a new version and/or in the app store. This was very confusing for me and my users as you can see in this issue thread.

Steps to reproduce

1. Publish an app with version 1.2.3-4

Expected behavior

It is possible to install the app through the UI OR there is an error when publishing the app.

Installation method

None

Nextcloud Server version

28

Operating system

None

PHP engine version

None

Web server

None

Database engine version

None

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

None

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

None

What user-backends are you using?

• Default user-backend (database)
• LDAP/ Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Configuration report

No response

List of activated Apps

No response

Nextcloud Signing status

No response

Nextcloud Logs

No response

Additional info

No response