Android and Symbian Aplication

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Localize Your Promotional Graphics on Google Play

Posted by Ellie Powers, Product Manager on the Google Play team


Google Play is your way to reach millions and millions of Android users around the world. In fact, since the start of 2011, the number of countries where you can sell apps has increased from 30 to over 130 — including most recently, the launch of paid app support in Israel, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Poland, Brazil and Russia, and fully two-thirds of revenue for apps on Google Play comes from outside of the United States.


To help you capitalize on this growing international audience, it’s now even easier to market your apps to users around the world, by adding images and a video URL to your Google Play store listing for each of Google Play’s 49 languages, just as you’ve been able to add localized text.






A localized feature graphic can show translated text or add local flavor to your app — for example, changing its theme to reflect local holidays. Always make sure that your feature graphic works at different sizes.


Once you’ve localized your app, you’ll want to make sure users in all languages can understand what your app does and how it can benefit them. Review the graphics guidelines and get started with localized graphics.


Localized screenshots make it clear to the user that they’ll be able to use your app in their language. As you’re adding localized screenshots, remember that a lot of people will be getting new tablets for the holidays, and loading up with new apps, so you’ll want to include localized tablet screenshots to show off your tablet layouts.


With localized videos, you can now include a language-appropriate voiceover and text, and of course show the app running in the user’s language.


Ready to add localized images and videos to your store listing? To add localized graphics and video to your apps, you need to use the Google Play Developer Console preview — once you add localized graphics, you won’t be able to edit the app using the old version anymore. Those of you who use APK Expansion Files will now want to try the new Developer Console because it now includes this feature. We’ll be adding support for Multiple APK very soon. Once you’ve saved your application in the new Developer Console, automated translations become available to users on the web and devices — with no work from you.


What are you doing to help your app reach a global audience?

You have read this article Google Play / Promo Graphics with the title . You can bookmark this page URL https://azaquery.blogspot.com/2012/12/localize-your-promotional-graphics-on.html. Thanks!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The 2012 Android Developer Survey


The Android Developer Relations team is passionate about making Android app development a great experience, so we're asking all of you involved in building Android apps -- from engineers, to product managers, and distribution and support folks -- to let us know what you think.








We want to better understand the challenges you face when planning, designing, writing, and distributing your Android apps, so we've put together a brief (10-15min) survey that will help us test our assumptions and allow us to create better tools and resources for you.




We've had a great response from thousands of Android developers who have already responded - thank you! If you haven't yet filled in the survey, you can find it here: 2012 Android Developer Survey.



We'll be closing this year's survey this Sunday (December 17th) at 12pm Pacific Time, so be sure to get your responses in before then.



To keep the survey short and simple, there are no sections for general comments. That's because we want to hear your thoughts, questions, suggestions, and complaints all year. If there's anything you'd like to share with us, you can let us know by posting to us (publicly or privately) on Google+ at +Android Developers or using the hash tag #AndroidDev.



We can't always respond, but we're paying close attention to everything you have to say.



As always, we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

You have read this article with the title . You can bookmark this page URL https://azaquery.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-2012-android-developer-survey.html. Thanks!
Monday, December 10, 2012

In-App Billing Version 3

Posted by Posted by Bruno Oliveira of the Android Developer Relations Team



In-app Billing has come a long way since it was first announced on Google Play (then Android Market). One year and a half later, the vast majority of top-grossing apps on Google Play use In-app Billing and thousands of developers monetize apps through try-and-buy, virtual goods, as well as subscriptions.



In-app Billing is expanding again today, making it even more powerful and flexible so you can continue to build successful applications. Version 3 introduces the following new features:

  • An improved design that makes applications simpler to write, debug and maintain. Integrations that previously required several hundred lines of code can now be implemented in as few as 50.

  • More robust architecture resulting in fewer lost transactions.

  • Local caching for faster API calls.

  • Long-anticipated functionality such as the ability to consume managed purchases and query for product information.
In-app Billing version 3 is available to any application that uses in-app items (support for subscriptions is coming shortly). It is supported by Android 2.2+ devices running the latest version of the Google Play store (over 90% of active devices).
Instead of the four different application components required by the asynchronous structure of the previous release, the new version of the API allows developers to make synchronous requests and handle responses directly from within a single Activity, all of which are accomplished with just a few lines of code. The reduced implementation cost makes this a great opportunity for developers who are implementing new in-app billing solutions.



Easier to Implement



In contrast to the earlier model of asynchronous notification through a background service, the new API is now synchronous and reports the result of a purchase immediately to the application. This eliminates the necessity to integrate the handling of asynchronous purchase results into the application's lifecycle, which significantly simplifies the code that a developer must write in order to sell an in-app item.



To launch a purchase, simply obtain a buy Intent from the API and start it:



Bundle bundle = mService.getBuyIntent(3, "com.example.myapp",
    MY_SKU, ITEM_TYPE_INAPP, developerPayload);

PendingIntent pendingIntent = bundle.getParcelable(RESPONSE_BUY_INTENT);
if (bundle.getInt(RESPONSE_CODE) == BILLING_RESPONSE_RESULT_OK) {
    // Start purchase flow (this brings up the Google Play UI).
    // Result will be delivered through onActivityResult().
    startIntentSenderForResult(pendingIntent, RC_BUY, new Intent(),
        Integer.valueOf(0), Integer.valueOf(0), Integer.valueOf(0));
}


Then, handle the purchase result that's delivered to your Activity's onActivityResult() method:



public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (requestCode == RC_BUY) {
        int responseCode = data.getIntExtra(RESPONSE_CODE);
        String purchaseData = data.getStringExtra(RESPONSE_INAPP_PURCHASE_DATA);
        String signature = data.getStringExtra(RESPONSE_INAPP_SIGNATURE);

        // handle purchase here (for a permanent item like a premium upgrade,
        // this means dispensing the benefits of the upgrade; for a consumable
        // item like "X gold coins", typically the application would initiate
        // consumption of the purchase here)
    }
}


Also, differently from the previous version, all purchases are now managed by Google Play, which means the ownership of a given item can be queried at any time. To implement the same mechanics as unmanaged items, applications can consume the item immediately upon purchase and provision the benefits of the item upon successful consumption.



Local Caching



The API leverages a new feature of the Google Play store application which caches In-app Billing information locally on the device, making it readily available to applications. With this feature, many API calls will be serviced through cache lookups instead of a network connection to Google Play, which significantly speeds up the API's response time. For example, an application could query the owned items using this call:



Bundle bundle = mService.getPurchases(3, mContext.getPackageName(), ITEM_TYPE_INAPP);
if (bundle.getInt(RESPONSE_CODE) == BILLING_RESPONSE_RESULT_OK) {
    ArrayList mySkus, myPurchases, mySignatures;
    mySkus = bundle.getStringArrayList(RESPONSE_INAPP_ITEM_LIST);
    myPurchases = bundle.getStringArrayList(RESPONSE_INAPP_PURCHASE_DATA_LIST);
    mySignatures = bundle.getStringArrayList(RESPONSE_INAPP_PURCHASE_SIGNATURE_LIST);

    // handle items here
}


Querying for owned items was an expensive server call in previous versions of the API, so developers were discouraged from doing so frequently. However, since the new version implements local caching, applications can now make this query every time they start running, and as often as necessary thereafter.



Product Information



The API also introduces a long-anticipated feature: the ability to query in-app product information directly from Google Play. Developers can now programmatically obtain an item's title, description and price. No currency conversion or formatting is necessary: prices are reported in the user's currency and formatted according to their locale:



Bundle bundle = mService.getSkuDetails(3, "com.example.myapp", 
        ITEM_TYPE_INAPP, skus); // skus is a Bundle with the list of SKUs to query
if (bundle.getInt(RESPONSE_CODE) == BILLING_RESPONSE_RESULT_OK) {
    List detailsList = bundle.getStringArrayList(RESPONSE_SKU_DETAILS_LIST);
    for (String details : detailsList) {
        // details is a JSON string with 
        // SKU details (title, description, price, ...)
    }
}


This means that, for example, developers can update prices in Developer Console and then use this API call to show the updated prices in the application (such as for a special promotion or sale) with no need to update the application's code to change the prices displayed to the user.



Sample Application



In addition to the API, we are releasing a new sample application that illustrates how to implement In-app Billing. It also contains helper classes that implement commonly-written boilerplate code such as marshalling and unmarshalling data structures from JSON strings and Bundles, signature verification, as well as utilities that automatically manage background work in order to allow developers to call the API directly from the UI thread of their application. We highly recommend that developers who are new to In-app Billing leverage the code in this sample, as it further simplifies the process of implemention. The sample application is available for download through the Android SDK Manager.



App-Specific Keys



Along with the other changes introduced with In-app Billing Version 3, we have also improved the way Licensing and In-app Billing keys are managed. Keys are now set on a per-app basis, instead of a per-developer basis and are available on the “Services & APIs” page for each application on Google Play Developer Console preview. Your existing applications will continue to work with their current keys.



Get Started!



To implement In-app Billing in your application using the new API, start with the updated In-App Billing documentation and take the Selling In-App Products training class. To use In-App Billing Version 3, you’ll need to use the new Google Play Developer Console preview.

Join the discussion on



+Android Developers
You have read this article Google Play / Google Services / In-app Billing with the title . You can bookmark this page URL https://azaquery.blogspot.com/2012/12/in-app-billing-version-3.html. Thanks!