Thanks Roman, That's pretty much what I came up with too. To my knowledge an application is a single APK, so if I wanted to have two APK's installed I'd have to get the user to download both, and run through the install process for each. Installing apps outside of the Market isn't exactly a picnic for the user - especially if it's their first time...
1. Download the APK via a link 2. Try to "open" it - phone complains that "Install from unknown sources is not on" 3. Go ahead and enable that 4. Now, where did that download go? What do you mean I have to get back to the browser and re-download the file (or know how to get into the "Downloads" screen in the browser)? 5. Lets try that install again 6. And lets not forget the wonderful "Force Close" that the installer presents to the user if they stupidly rotate their phone at any time between tapping "Install" and getting back to the browser ( http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2707 ) 7. Rinse and repeat for the second APK. My slight tweak on the above is to have APK #1 (the first installed) do nothing more than: 1. Write the "vendor specific" details to a place that the "real" app can use 2. Start a "market:" intent - so all the user needs to do is tap the "Install" button from the market. I have a feeling that going through all the steps to download and install from a non-market source will prove a disincentive for a good number of potential users. Doug On Aug 11, 10:22 am, Roman <roman.baumgaert...@t-mobile.com> wrote: > Doug, > > I could think of the following > > - your partner specific version comes in two APKs. > - when your client downloads the app from your web server two APKs are > downloaded and installed on the device > - The additional APK is only used to write an entry in a persistent > data record (sharedPreferences or DB) after your apps are installed. > - The persistent data is used to distinguish which kind of version is > installed on the device. If a user downloads the normal version the > persistent data record would be empty or not existing. > - the second APK can be uninstalled after the persistent data record > is created > > This might be not the best way to do this but pretty easy to > implement. Let me know whether you come up with another solution. > > -- > Roman Baumgaertner > Sr. SW Engineer-OSDC > ·T· · ·Mobile· stick together > The views, opinions and statements in this email are those of the > author solely in their individual capacity, and do not necessarily > represent those of T-Mobile USA, Inc. > > On Aug 10, 7:03 pm, Doug <dougforp...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > I have an interesting problem: > > > My boss/the-marketing-team want to be able to distribute a separate > > version of our application to a number of 'partners'. The application > > itself would be *exactly* the same app, except that they'd like a > > partner-specific property to be passed to our web-service when the app > > runs (for tracking). > > > The last thing I want to do is have 'n' builds of the product, each > > with a single constant changed (or a difference in the Manifest). > > This would be a maintenance nightmare, as well as the obvious issues > > you have when you have multiple mostly-identical versions of a product > > floating around. I also suspect the Android Market would have a > > problem with "MyProduct for X users", "MyProduct for Y users", etc... > > showing up for download. > > > In a perfect world everyone would download the same app, and there > > would be some cool undiscovered Android feature where the Market URL > > could include "&vendorcode=X" that would be passed into the app on > > install. > > > My question is this: > > > Since the install process would be initiated by the user clicking on a > > link in their browser of choice (on the Android device), is there > > *any* way that the web server could be sent some 'device specific > > identifier' by the browser that would also be available to my APK? > > (In this way the web server would be able to match up the original > > install request and the first run of the app after install). > > > Thanks > > Doug --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
