I'm doing a promotion for one of my apps with Deutsch Telekom, and they want me to put my app on a discount for their carrier exclusively. They have told me to achieve this by uploading a second version of my app to the Google Play Store, with the reduced price, and make it available only in that region on that carrier.
Is there a way I can duplicate my project in Eclipse without having to recopy all the files every time I update the original, but give the copy a different package name so it can be uploaded separately to the Play Store? Making my project a Library seems reasonable, except you can't export a Library Project, so that would hinder my development of the original app.
Thanks
I'm doing a promotion for one of my apps with Deutsch Telekom, and they want me to put my app on a discount for their carrier exclusively. They have told me to achieve this by uploading a second version of my app to the Google Play Store, with the reduced price, and make it available only in that region on that carrier.
Congratulations!
(assuming they're not forcing you at gunpoint to do this)
Making my project a Library seems reasonable, except you can't export a Library Project, so that would hinder my development of the original app.
Here's what I would try:
Step #1: Make your existing app project a library project.
Step #2: Make a standard app project, referencing the library project. Copy the manifest from the library project to this project. This should then build your original app as it was.
Step #3: Make another app standard project, referencing the library project, cloning the other standard project's manifest, but then updating its package to whatever you want the DT edition to be.
Related
Suppose we have different feature modules in our project, and there is a code change in one of the on demand features. Now What I want to know is can we build .aab(android app bundle) or .apk for only that feature in which there is code change and upload it on playstore, rather than building entire app again and the uploading the .aab file. And only the updated feature gets downloaded in users phones rather than entire app again.
No, it's not possible.
To ensure full compatibility between the base module and the dynamic feature modules, the whole App Bundle with all its modules must be uploaded every time.
Note however that the users will only get a patched version of your app, they won't have to download the whole app again, only the difference between the version they have and the new version, hence if the base module hasn't changed, the download will be very small for that APK.
There is no mechanism for a partial update. You upload an apk with the whole app in it.
I am working alone using Android Studio to make an android application, and I am completely new to the idea of versionName, and while I understand the principle of it, I do not know how it is used in developing.
My questions are:
1: While i'm developing my app does it make sense to increment my versionName?
2: If I change the versionName and make some changes to my project will Android Studio automatically save the old project's information under the old versionName, so that I can revert back to that if I don't like my changes?
3: When I have released an app, in for example Google Play, and I update the app with a new versionName do I need to save the old app version myself? If so, what is the best practice for saving older versions of your apps?
I normally increment the version number before I do a new release to publish. I usually use the format of x.x.x (major.minor.bug fix). For example, if your version is 1.0.0 and you do a bug a big it, it becomes 1.0.1. If you add a new feature but the app isn't drastrically different, it becomes 1.1.0 or if it its a really big upgrade with lots of new features, fixes, enhancements etc, then upgrade the major version so it becomes 2.0.0.
The version name is only in reference to what is displayed to the user in the Play Store when you publish your app.
If you want to have some sort of version control for easily reverting back changes and/or to see this history, you need some sort of version control system, such as SVN (Subersion) or Git (not necessarily GitHub).
You didn't specifiy whether you just want to keep the previous release of the APK (the APK is the file that is given to the play store and is the installer for your app) or the source code. If its source code, then using a version control system is your best bet, you'll be able to go back to specific points in time (as long as you keep committing your changes on a regular basis), and if you tag your code then you'll be able to go to a specific release. The idea of tagging is, you take a snapshot of your development code (the trunk or head its referred to as) and tag it (snapshot it) as the version you are releasing to the play store.
If you want to just keep the APK, then I usually just copy the APK some locally or on Google Drive or something when I create a new release build to give to the play store. Although I can't fully remember but I think the play store now lets you download previous APKs that were uploaded.
I'll try to answer the questions you asked which have not been answered yet.
But before, a brief explanation. Your application has a version in order to differentiate it and understand which features are implemented in the application. When you publish your application, a version is displayed, so that when you make changes, you can state which changes occurred since the last version.
When developing your application, you can initially create a version, I.E. 0.0.1 or 1.0.0. You don't have to change it with every little change you make within the application before actually publishing it.
I don't think AS will save older versions of your code.
When you publish an application to the Play store, you must provide an APK, which has a version. The next time you want to publish your application, because you made several changes, the newer APK will have a different version. I think your dashboard in the Play store will have all your older APKs.
You can read about Semantic Versioning.
I Have a query
I have an app on the Google Play store since long and it was developed using Cordova
Now I have made a separate APK using Native Android (Android Studio)
I have 1000 downloads!
I want to replace the new Native built Apk with the old Cordova
without losing any downloads or review & ratings
How can I Do that?
As long as it is the same keystore and package name, you don't have to worry.
Simply create a new Android Studio project (or in whatever IDE you use) and make sure the package name is the same as the previous one. You can change it after the project is generated, but it is harder than making sure it is right.
After you generate the project, write the code.
After you write the app finished, just upload it with a higher version code than the current one (just like normal). Make sure it is signed with the same keystore and has the same package name and you can update it running different code
AS you already have the code (or so is my understanding) make sure the package name is the same, the version is higher than the previous upload and it is signed with the same keystore. Upload and you are good to go
Hi I'm experimenting with xdk and created few apk for from different projects, but whenever I install the apk on my mobile, it will install as an update and replaces the app though the app and project is different. How do I install the apk as a new app? Thanks.
change the App ID for your projects, if your projects have same default App ID then it will replace the previous install
Click Projects -> Build Settings and change the App ID
The App ID usually has this format: com.companyName.appName
I have the same problem, changing the ID did the trick for building android apps, but did not solve the problem in App preview (second app replaces the first).
I got this answer on the HTML5 Dev forum from a Technical Consulting Engineer
Intel Corporation, HTML5 Dev Tools:
The XDK gets its information regarding the name of the app, etc. from the .xdk file inside the project directory. If you did not change that, it might be the source of the problem. There is also a unique GUID inside that file which is probably the same for both of your projects. I believe if you set that GUID to all zeroes (replace each number in it with a zero) the XDK will reassign a new one to the project.
Just guessing, not 100% clear on what happened, but give that a try.
Worst case you may have to remove both projects, delete the .xdk files from each, and "import" them into the XDK.
EkG: !! Changing the GUID in the *.xdk file does work, but not if you set them both to zero's.
You have to make them different manually.
What are the things to do for posting an app to the Android market when posting their first app to the market?
Most of it is explained in official docs, I'll add some points from experience:
Create your key store for App signing. Make sure you put some relevant info in your certificate if your App has copyright. keep a backup and guard it in every possible way, play store only accepts apk updates signed with same key as the original one, so does the device when installing an update.
Finalize your package name, make it unique , in future if you lose the signing key, you will have to re-upload app under a different package name.
Make a thorough review of code, watch out for test code, notes, useless comments and unwanted logging traces you might have placed there. Check your TODO items, run a code inspection from your IDE, remove any critical issues if found. Clear useless jar files, and resources. Also consider externalizing hard-coded strings to xml, so that you can add translations later on.
Check and validate manifest file, update version name and version code. Version name is shown when your app is listed in play store. Version code is incremented whenever you upload updated apk to play store. If its a major release you can bump up version name too.
Finally, build your apk in release mode, and optionally run pro-guard. If your app uses plain vanilla android API and no fancy external libraries such as RoboGuice etc, proguard will run fine. Other wise you will have to tell proguard to ignore classes under those packages. Proguard is optional, you can upload app without using it. Some IDE's have a nice GUI to do this.
Sign your apk with the key you created. Install it on test device, do a test run. Additionally, use emulator to test it across android versions. Take some screen shots, maybe a video too.
Prepare publishing material, write down few lines about your app, a list of features and any additional notes. Also, create a 512x512 icon image for your app.
If you have a website about your App, great, else make ready a valid mail id as a developer contact point.
Log in to developer console, upload apk file, fill in relevant screen shots, description, contact details etc etc. Save and publish. It can take anywhere between 2 to even 9-10 hours for your app to be visible in play store listings.
Your app url will be like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.myapp. Keep an eye on statistics, put keywords along with app name like "muzo - music player" , most people don't know "muzo" they usually search for "music player". Have your app reviewed, links pointing to your app improve its search ranking.
There is an excelent topic in the android documentation talking about how to prepare your app for release. The procedure is the same for your 1st or you 1000st published app.
Please see here: http://developer.android.com/tools/publishing/preparing.html
PS: And a +1 for you, interesting question.