Checking my app version programmatically in Android market

mrYogi picture mrYogi · Aug 23, 2012 · Viewed 29.7k times · Source

Currently I'm checking the app version code on launch and match it with latest version code on my server and based on this matching I send user to get latest update from Android market.

It's working well but my problem is that I have to manually change the latest version code on my server and I don't know exactly when new version of APK gets activated in market.

Is there any way to check version code of app in Android market directly so that I can send user directly to market when new apk gets activated?

Answer

Rajesh picture Rajesh · Aug 23, 2012

Google Play does not provide any official APIs for retrieving metadata. You could however, check the unofficial API at http://code.google.com/p/android-market-api/.

Specifically, take a look at the Wiki page HowToSearchApps. The response to the query contains version information:

{
  "app": [
    {
      "rating": "4.642857142857143",
      "title": "Ruboto IRB",
      "ratingsCount": 14,
      "creator": "Jan Berkel",
      "appType": "APPLICATION",
      "id": "9089465703133677000",
      "packageName": "org.jruby.ruboto.irb",
      "version": "0.1",
      "versionCode": 1,
      "creatorId": "\"Jan Berkel\"",
      "ExtendedInfo": {
        "category": "Tools",
        "permissionId": [
...