New to mobile app development and the release process and nearly ready to release my first app. Now I've signed up to use AdMob and some other vendors, but they all want my android market id before I download the SDK. This doesn't make much sense to me, surely developers want to release the app with the ads from the start.
Do developers release the app and then immediately add the ad code? Also, is it necessary to repeatedly to download the SDK/jar files for each app you release ? (I ask this because the vendors ask you to download after you have an app added on their site)
Do developers release the app and then immediately add the ad code?
The market ID of your app is simply its package name as declared in the manifest. One option is to upload your app to the market, but do not publish it. From my understanding, that should "reserve" your package name. As long as your package name is unique, you should be fine.
Also, is it necessary to repeatedly to download the SDK/jar files for
each app you release
I haven't used Admob, but I know the Flurry SDK is the same jar for each download.
New App developer here.
You get the AdMob SDK by putting in your package name: com.example.app and that will never change for your app. You can integrate it right away and see ads within a few minutes.
Download the AdMob SDK and just put it in a folder somewhere that won't get moved, and just reference it in your Android Project settings. You don't need to re-download for each app
Related
I'm attempting to upload a build of an Android app to Google Play. I created a new keystore and signed it, but I get this error "You need to use a different package name" when I try to upload it.
I suspect that what happened is that another member of my team did this already but failed to commit their keystore file to version control. The app has never been published before, it is a new app.
I need a quick fix for this -- I won't be able to reach the team member who may have done this for several days. I tried removing the build that had been uploaded, but that didn't help.
Can I delete the entire app from Google Play and start over?
Can I change the package name? I've heard that this will work, but I'm not really sure what it entails. Do I have to actually change the package name of every class in my source code?
Thanks,
Frank
You can delete the application in the following cases
- Published apps or games that haven't been installed on any devices
- Published apps or games that no users are entitled to re-install
from here
also google does not allow uploading an app with a different signature and the same package name. What you can do now is to change the entire package name and this can be done easily in Android studio
More details
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9023647
I've a hybrid app to which I've published updates in past. In current update, I've added native facebook login, which required adding facebook jar package under 'libs' folder.
Now, when I add my APK in PlayStore, everything is fine except that Native platforms is being shown striked out (as shown in image). When I compare it with previous version, it shows the same but not striked out. I'm afraid publishing the update would not result in it being available on any devices. Any insights?
See snapshot here
I use native code in my application. And for it Google Play detects supported architectures by checking lib\armeabi, lib\armeabi-v7a, lib\x86 and so on. Can you check is that folders created into your APK?
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.
it´s a simple question. After having some problems with the implementation of the admob for an android app, finally it works.
I am programming in Android 2.2 (8) and I read that if I don´t want to have problems with the console etc, I have to change the target in properties (not in the manifest) to target13, and then simulate with the API 13 (a tablet view). OK, with this steps, the log cat works well and the console don´t give me a typical message saying "You must adActivity AndroidManifest..."
Now I have finish "my app". And my question is, I have to change again the target from 13 to 8 in eclipse, before publishing my app??? Or the project.properties file, doesn´t matter?
And finally, to get the ID of the publish from adMob first I have to had my app upload?
If it is yes the basic steps could be this ones? First upload the app- then get the id of the publish from adMOb- write the id on the eclipse- and finally refresh my app again on the market??
Thanks a lot!!!!
To build your admob enabled app ready for market publishing, leave the target=13 in project.properties, only modify the minSDKVersion property in your AndroidManifest.xml point to your targeting version (8 in your case).
You can get Admob publishID and use it into your application code before upload/publish app in android market, to get a publishID, sign in and login in your admob account, click Sites & Apps -> Add Site/App, choose create a Android App, in the setup menu, you will be ask to enter the application market URL, this does not need to be existed at this point. following Eg: market://details?id=packagename to make one. Admob will generate the publishID for you to use.
You can actually test admob at this stage now, install your admob enabled application on you phone, play with it (click the ads several times), you will start earning revenue in your admob account.
hope that help.
I want to publish a beta version of some app of mine on the android market and face the problem that I cannot upload an app with the same package-name twice - not even with a different certificate. But having 2 package-names for release and beta version makes a lot of trouble ( e.g. having to change references to the different location of R every time )
Is there a best-practice/good workaround for that problem?
Yes call your package
com.you.app.beta
Fix all the bugs in this app. Then when you go live just copy the project refactor your package name (Eclipse CTRL+ALT+R on the item) update your manifest and re-release. The beta package is then not supported by you any more and you can even click unpublish, or release an update that shows an upgrade screen linking to the new package (i.e. new market url)
com.you.app
What's the problem?
since IO 2013 there is now one option to do beta-testing:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en
We upload but do not publish beta versions of our apps. Once uploaded, the market will assume that any incoming license check is being done from a legitimate installation that was side loaded and will respond "licensed". So our beta testers can test a full implementation, including the licensing code. (Test account responses are also honored for uploaded but unpublished apps.)
When the testing is complete, we upload the release version using the same package (and signing cert), and publish.
I came across this blog which discuss Android Beta Testing and feels like that the better way. So just sharing with you guys. Hopefully it will be helpful for all . http://zubhium.posterous.com/android-app-beta-testing
Pushing app with com.packagename.beta is not a very good idea. It creates unnecessary confusion and secondly you don't want to get unstable version in market to get bad ratings for your brand.
Why can't you just use the same package name for the release version? Doing so would also let your beta users get notified of an "application upgrade" (that is, the release of the final version).
If you do want to use different package names, one way is to make an ant script that you can run that changes all the imports, and the manifest.xml, to use the new name. So you have your code that you develop in, then you can just run your ant script whenever you're ready to upload to the Market; say "ant beta". This would rename all your packages from com.company.app to com.company.app_beta, and you could release it on the Market.
It is good practice not to upload a beta version to the Market. You should only upload production ready applications to the Market, as this is what the users expect.
If you want to beta test your application, it is better to use a private distribution channel.
If you use the same certificate, then an application with the same package name will be considered as an update to a previous one. Users will be able to update easily.