onepf / appdf

Application description file for the appstores. Best way to distribute your apps!

Dear friends

Currently our small team doesn't have enough time to support and develop the project. I hope in the nearest future we will continue the work.
Thank you!

AppDF

Uploading Android application to several appstores could be time consuming. AppDF format is designed to simplify this process. You describe your Android application once, create a simple AppDF file that includes description, APK file(s), screenshots, app icon, promo images, etc and just upload this AppDF file to all the stores that support AppDF uploading.

What Is AppDF

AppDF file is a ZIP archive with .appdf extension. This archive must contain description.xml file with application description (title, description text, category, price, requirements, etc.). This description.xml file contains links to the other files in the archive like APK file(s), screenshots, promo graphics, video, etc. The main sections of the description.xml file are:

• Category information
• Text description (title, short description, full description, keywords, etc)
• Images (app icon, screenshots, promo images)
• Videos
• Content rating information
• Availability (country list, etc)
• Price
• Requirements (you can specify supported devices if different from the APK file manifest)
• Testing instructions
• Consent
• Customer-support information
• Store specific section

How AppDF Works

There are more than 15 alternative Android appstores. All of them have their own audience. You loose many millions of potential addressable users by submitting your application to Google Play only. But submitting an app to all the appstores could take you several days, and then you need to upload each update to all the stores as well. AppDF allows you to submit your application as easy as uploading one file. You simply create an AppDF file using HTML5 AppDF Editor and submit the generated AppDF file to all the appstores.

1. Create AppDF file for your application either using AppDF Editor or just follow the specification to create an AppDF file manually
2. Submit your AppDF file to the supporting appstores

No Middle Man

AppDF is an open file format. It is not an aggregator. There is no middle man in the process. The app developers work directly with the appstores as before. There is just a common file format that makes it easier.

Appstores

We have just started the AppDF project. The following Android application stores already support AppDF format (you can go to their developer portals and submit AppDF files):

• Opera Mobile Store
• Yandex.Store
• SlideME
• Appland

The following appstores are working on AppDF support but not ready with implementation yet:

• Aptoide

Specification

Current AppDF specification status is 1.0. It can be found here:
http://www.onepf.org/appdf/specification/

Current version of AppDF specification in work can be found here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md

AppDF Samples

You can download four AppDF samples:

• SPB Geo Game - a simple paid game
• MX Player - a free video player localized to three languages
• SPB Swedish Cards - a paid application localized to many languages
• Yandex.Shell - a free application limited to several countries

There are two ways to explore the samples:

1. Open a sample in AppDF Editor
2. Download a sample, rename it to .zip file, unzip it, check description.xml file

AppDF Editor

We are developing an HTML5 AppDF editor (client-side only code). Current preview version that does not support several important features yet could be found at: http://onepf.org/editor

Source code here: https://github.com/onepf/AppDF-tools-editor

License

Source code of the AppDF Editor and the reference parser libs is available under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0:
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

The AppDF specification and the related texts are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

How Can I Help?

1. Join our mailing list.
2. Choose an open task from the task list or propose a new one.
3. Email the group that you want to work on this task and let's discuss on how to do it the best way.

What's Next (AppDF Roadmap)

• In-App Billing support in the next version of AppDF
• Add a feature to the AppDF Editor to automatically download application description from Google Play
• Add "What's Next" section to the AppDF Editor that explains how the generated AppDF file could be submitted to appstores
• Add better documentation about AppDF parser reference source code

appdf's Issues

Create AppDF validator

Create a sample AppDF file for Life game (finish)

There is a Life game sample in the "samples/Life" folder:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life

We need to create complete sample of AppDF file here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life/appdf

This project is already started but needs to be finished

Extract java script needed to convert categories json to Xml

It looks like it's a good idea to generate categories.xml and all such resources ( languages etc.) during build of parser-lib. Easiest way from my point of view would be to extract javascript code already wroten for that to separate file and call it via Rhino during build.,

Implement "Requirements" section loading from XML

The AppDF editor already supports editing of the Requirements section but there is no loading. This logic should be added in the follosing three places:

1. XML parsing code to be added into parseDescriptionXML function in appdfparser.js
2. Validation code to be added as a new function validateRequirements in appdfparser.js
3. Populating the editor with the loaded data code to be added into loadDescriptionXML function in appdfxmlloading.js file

Check if customer support info is optional in all the stores?

Add AndroidPit AppCenter support to the AppDF specification

In order to add information about the Android Pit AppCenter one needs to create a developer account there, publish a test application (you can take Life sample from https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life) and collection information about supported features.

You should add information about AppCenter to all tag descriptions here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#descriptionxml-structure

as well as general information about the store there:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#application-store-support

and category mapping to:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#category-list

Add Nook AppStore support to the AppDF specification

In order to add information about the Nook AppStore one needs to create a developer account there, publish a test application (you can take Life sample from https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life) and collection information about supported features.

You should add information about Nook AppStore to all tag descriptions here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#descriptionxml-structure

as well as general information about the store there:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#application-store-support

and category mapping to:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#category-list

How should we handle the situation that for privacy-policy some websites support URLs and some full text?

Add support for APK extension files to the documentation

Add checking that appstore name has no spaces or bad characters, show error messages if wrong

"Store Specific" section allows to add custom stores (not from the store list). We need to add validation that only small English letters are used in store name and show error message is a user tried to add a store with wrong characters in the name

Add Ouya support to the AppDF specification

Not sure what store data are publicly available yet. As soon as it is open for general submission, publish a test application (you can take Life sample from https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life) and collection information about supported features.

You should add information about Ouya to all tag descriptions here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#descriptionxml-structure

as well as general information about the store there:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#application-store-support

and category mapping to:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#category-list

Implement "Requirements" section saving into XML

Editor code for the Requirements section is already written but we need also to create code to save the data into XML.

This code should be implemented in generateRequirementsXML function in appdfxmlsaving.js file

Right now Amazon Kindle support is described in <amazon> tag, should we move it to generic <requirements>/<supported-devices>?

Add AppsLib support to the AppDF specification

In order to add information about the AppsLib one needs to create a developer account there, publish a test application (you can take Life sample from https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life) and collection information about supported features.

You should add information about SK Telekom T-Storeto all tag descriptions here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#descriptionxml-structure

as well as general information about the store there:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#application-store-support

and category mapping to:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#category-list

Add copyright and license to XSD

Misprint: 'gambling-refference' should be renamed to 'gambling-reference'

There is no word 'refference' in English.

Check if we should split short-description in two separate tags, one for listing and one for really short description?

Create XML scheme for description.xml

AppDF specification is described here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md

The central place of the specification is description.xml file that is described there as well.

We need to create XML Schema based on this specification.

More about XML Schema:
http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Schema
http://www.w3schools.com/schema/default.asp

Note that the specification is not final, so be ready to update the XML Schema when the specification is updated.

Which values content descriptors (from rating system) could get? Update the spec accordingly

Should we include some logic to the model classes?

Does it make sense to include some login to the model classes? For example make a class for a file inside AppDF package (screenshot, icon, APK file, etc) and where appropriate return such class instead of String?

It will allow to automatically check that the files exist, provide functionality to extract these files, etc.

Collect different prices for different countries support of all the stores

Add option to AppDF specification to specify is the application should be activated or just submitted

Collect form factor tag support in different stores

Add links to language XML and JSON to the specification

Do we need to add list of used ad networks to the description? SlideMe contains such field

Create a JavaScript webpage where you can submit all your application info and it will generate AppDF file

Let's try to go with client-side only JavaScript code.

A good example how such technology could work is here:
http://android-ui-utils.googlecode.com/hg/asset-studio/dist/index.html

Add SK Telekom T-Store support to the AppDF specification

In order to add information about the SK Telekom T-Store one needs to create a developer account there, publish a test application (you can take Life sample from https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/tree/master/samples/Life) and collection information about supported features.

You should add information about SK Telekom T-Storeto all tag descriptions here:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#descriptionxml-structure

as well as general information about the store there:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#application-store-support

and category mapping to:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md#category-list

Add Samsung Apps to the list, category mapping and check that format is OK

Should we bind "What's new" description to APK file or make it unified for the entire app?

Add browser compatibility checking

Check which browsers are supported right now. Add checking that a supported browser is used. Show error message if unsupported browser is used.

Make better extandability in XML description file for custom appstore features

Add all the existing Android device models to typeahead in Requirements/Unsupported Devices

One can add a device model to the list of unsupported devices in Requirements/Unsupported Devices. Right now the input box supports typeahead selection but the suggest list is a dummy one.

We need to find the actual list of all Android device models and put it there. I think such list should be a separate .js file in the data folder and populated in Javascript.

Create reference C++ code for parsing AppDF files

Add tags (where to use the apps, for whom is the app) like in Samsung Apps and SK T-Store to the specification

Write code that checks if APK files are ZIP aligned

Google Play could show the following error message for some APK files:

You uploaded an APK that is not zip aligned. You will need to run a zip align tool on your APK and upload it again.

We should also learn how to check it

Create code that gets information from Google Play and automatically generate AppDF file

Decide how to add SlideMe SlideLock key to description.xml file

Here is a detailed description of SlideMe SlideLock which seems to be similar to Google LVL:
http://slideme.org/slidelock

Make it possible to describe each language in a separate XML file inside the ZIP package

Should we use Enum or String for the lists?

For example the following XML:

    <included-activities>
      <in-app-billing>no</in-app-billing>
      <gambling>no</gambling>
      <advertising>no</advertising>
      <user-generated-content>no</user-generated-content>
      <user-to-user-communications>no</user-to-user-communications>
      <account-creation>no</account-creation>
      <personal-information-collection>no</personal-information-collection>
    </included-activities>

Should we create Enum with all included activity tag options or simply pass a string?

Write/find JavaScript code for APK file parsing

Do we need to add EULA text/link to the description file? SlideMe uses it

Bug. Sometimes typeahead suggestion is not added to the input box

If I enter just one letter "a" in the "Application store name" input field (id=storespecific-input) in the "Store Specific" section and select the first value (amazon) from the typeahead suggestion dropbox it is not added to the input field.

Which language should we use for the parser/validator library?

What this library should do:

• Extracting the files from ZIP archive
• Check description.xml validity
• Parse description.xml file and present it as an easy to use structure
• Check APK files vavility
• Extract information from APK files
• Check that all the files mentioned in the description.xml are presented in the ZIP archive
• Resize the images to the needed resolution

Where this library will be used:

• By appstores for parsing AppDF files as a reference implementation
• In our online validation tool

So the question is: which language should we use for this parser/validator library?

Create PHP AppDF parser

Create reference PHP code for parsing AppDF file. It should be located here
tools/parser/php

What function returns technical device model name? (like "SHW-M130K") Add answer to the documentation

What should be interface of Java library to parse/validate/create AppDF files?

Our main library for AppDF file support will be in Java. It should support the following functionality:

• Creating AppDF file (will be used in our website for AppDF file generating)
• Parsing AppDF files (will be used by appstores for parsing submitted AppDF files)
• AppDF file validation (will be used by our online validator tool)

Couple of questions about the library structure:

1. What should be top level library interface (classes/interfaces/main methods)?
2. What are similar Java libraries? For creating/parsing some format files with package structure and a description file?
3. Should we merge creating/parsing functionality in one class?

Create a sample AppDF file for some Android app (for Android app owners)

If you an owner of an Android app it will be great if you can create an AppDF file for it.

Just check the specification:
https://github.com/onepf/AppDF/blob/master/specification/appds_spec_1_0.md

and make a ZIP archive with all the APK files, screenshots, images and description.xml file.

If you can post it as a sample to this repository (inside the Samples folder) it will be a big help for other Android developers.

Add current version to the specification

Add SlideME categories mapping

Split <short-description> is two different tags

Right now is used in very different ways on different stores. We need to split it in two tags.