I spent a bit of time today looking at the API calls/endpoints being done from the current fab frontend and go to thinking that a bunch of the missing features/browsing options can potentially be realized with a chrome (or other browser) extension and an optional external database depending on the missing feature. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in working on this or if it’d be against their ToS. The plan would be to just open source it and maintain it as the new features slowly trickle into production and we can deprecate them as they are implemented officially. Some examples would be:
Wishlisting - Store listing ID/url in tandem with their account id. Inject a button that either stores the wishlists locally client side or on an external database.
Custom Listings Lists/Tagging - Similarly to wishlisting you can build your own collections of assets, and store them in an external database for permalinking and sharing.
Custom Layouts - Redoing the existing layouts into a format that others would prefer. Ie. List mode vs grid. Pagination offsets.
Custom Sorting/Client Side Filters
Commenting - Externalize the comments into an external captchaed database. Would be more problematic for moderation but better that it exists. Visibility can be injected into listings pages.
Publisher Rating - Either a starred average of all their assets or a community vetted rating. Gives more confidence to potential buyers. Can be injected into publisher tags.
Product Media - Since video uploads aren’t supported for assets and only links (ie, youtube). Can scrub the description field and inject cards into gallery carousel at the front to include embedded videos with thumbnail.
Open to community suggestions and thoughts. I haven’t started any of this but rather than just seeing everyone’s dissatisfaction with the current state of things, with the open source nature of things this can get some traction to give everyone as a whole a better experience going forward with fab.
PS. I’ve also posted this on reddit in case anyone wants to see or continue the discussions there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/1hjm63e/potential_fixes_and_features_for_fab_via/