In app promotion project

A discussion on this forum has let to a nice project. The goal is to have a system to advertise applications from members on this forum in each other’s app.

Currently I am working on a test concept. This will be a small Android app that will get a feed from the internet and display it in a list.[hr]
[status update 23 December]
Well it takes a bit more time, I have to make a form to add publishers and apps to have data to create a test. So I had to make a login system and a bunch of stuff to get everything working.
My admin login now works, so next week I will create a small form to get some data in the database and then I can make a test app for Android.

I was thinking to get this thing working I need to build some kind of cache system, else the server will be overloaded in no time. But that’s a problem that I will need to tackle once the system go’s live. For now I will get the feed directly from the database.

If anyone has any idea’s just put them in this topic.

Sounds like an interesting idea, it does remind me of a startup I found recently called Aduru (www.aduru.com). They describe themselves as “a collaborative ad network which lets Android developers advertise their applications for free”. Might be worth checking them out so you’re not duplicating work that’s already been done :slight_smile:

The main difference I see is that Aduru work on a global basis, so you’d be showing ads from any random developer around the world. If the goal is to focus on a smaller group of developers (like the ones on this forum as you mentioned), it could be worth developing a completely new framework to use. Just that developing a new framework of any size takes time and effort to maintain, which would require a pretty big ongoing commitment from one or more people.

Hi David,

I looked at your link. They offer a advertising platform. Thats not what I had in mind really. I would like a platform for promotion only. The idea I have at the moment will not replace the admob ads. I found one website that has about the same idea as I have, but they focus on iOS only. So thats no use for us Android developers.

Running the platform will take time and effort. But I hope people of this forum can help. Especially with the Android code.

[update 24-12-2011]
Well I made a small admin panel. Locally it runs fine and a xml feed is created.
Now to get it running on my hosting. For some reason the site cannot connect to the database on my hosting. So hopefully the hosting support can fix this problem.

Ok, fair enough. I like the idea, especially if it can be used in conjunction with AdMob or other advertising frameworks. Perhaps down the track there could be a configuration variable which lets you set how often the promotion is displayed, vs. paid ads from another framework.

Once you’ve got an XML feed up & running, with some kind of a basic client, perhaps you could make it a Google Code project so that others can check out the code as well? That way we can get some idea of the way it’s built & offer some suggested patches / improvements to get things up & running.

Client code will be fully available.
I will check out if Google code will be a good hosting platform for the client code.
Server code will stay closed though.

As for admob like promotion banners. I have a couple of ideas. It would involve the publisher to set a x number of displays for each day. This gives the publisher the option to tweak the showing of banners.

But first things first. I need to get the database connection working :smiley:
Have tried a lot of things on the server. But because I have a shared hosting account I cannot manually add new accounts. And I think that’s the problem with the connection. So I have to wait till the support desk gives a solution. I also really need to get the cache to work. i have 250 gig bandwidth so that should be enough. But may only have about 3000 database connections per hour. So without caching a popular app would push the connections over the limit. Also working with a cached file would speed up performance of the server.

[Update 27-12-2012]
It looks like the helpdesk is back from xmas vacation. Sadly the solution they gave me did not work. So I have to wait till tomorrow. Hopefully it will be solved soon.
This is the first time I upload a .net website to this hosting so I did expect something like this. Again, it shows you are better off with a dedicated server so you can install everything yourself. Now I have a crippled account on the database and because of that I cannot try to fix the problem myself.

[update 29-12-2012]
Well it looks like the supportdesk is not that helpfull at the moment. I got a mail yesterday asking if I was connecting to localhost, while I stated in my first email that I was using the ip address of the database server. Also the error message clearly indicates that its a permission problem. So the problem continues. I did write a big part of the caching routines yesterday, so the is great progress.

To get a test feed I need a few publishers and apps to put in the database. So I have room for 3 publishers 2 apps each. Who would like to have the honor of being those publishers. Of course these publishers will also be first to get a spot in the actual live version of the platform.

Please reply in this threat with the following info:
Publisher name
Max 2 apps
Name of the app (english)
short description (max 255 characters)
link to your app in the Android market.

fiveHellions Development

30 Day Love Spark
Take the 30 day relationship challenge. This simple app’s main goal is to motivate you to do something special/romantic/sweet for your significant other every day for 30 days. This will hopefully strengthen your relationship.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fivehellions.android.spark

Beale Street Music Fest
The Beale Street Music Fest app is a must have for music fest attendees in Memphis, TN. It shows the lineup of bands performing as well as a schedule that shows when and where each band is performing.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fivehellions.android.musicfest

Major update! *salutes

Finally the problem with the database connection is fixed. Something with ip addresses and password rules, a big pain in the *** it was.
So I deployed the website and of course it did not work. I got an error message about a cast. So I downloaded the latest connection provider for mysql and it appears the have reintroduced a bug that was fixed in my local version. Now I know this bug and well… So next thing to do is check all my code for cast to integers because they will be, wait for it… Unsigned.

In short, problem solved, new problem introduced.

But all that will have to wait because its almost new years eve and im not going to code the next couple of days.

Happy new year to you all, till 2012!!

I’d be willing to put apps on my market account, but rather than supply banner ads, I’d rather just do a simple revenue share or possibly a fixed fee basis. I’d also have to check that the apps are not inappropriate or likely to get banned, as that would impact my market account.

Obviously the revenue share would depend on your being able to identify which of the ads had been served through apps downloaded through my market account, or otherwise by applying some sort of sensible ratio to the total revenue. I’d be happy to take the judgement of the supplier on this.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

EDIT: Incidentally, if anyone wants to put an ad-free app on the market that would not make them any money, I’d be happy to host this on my account for free, subject to it not being inappropriate.

Appuni please open a new topic for your discussion, this is a separate topic see the opening post.

Update 11-01-12
I got a test feed working, just need two more publishers to join the test phase. So if you like please read my message on page 1 of this topic.
I did not have any time last week, currently moving to a new pc and I need to reinstall all software. Im planning to pick up development next week.

Martin,sorry for intruding,deleted my posts in your thread…All the Best- appuniq

Just a small preview :slight_smile:

I have a domain registered but I like to wait till the first sample app is done.
So here is a preview screenshot. (layout needs work, but list comes from the website)

Good work! Sounds like the project’s progressing well. If you’re still looking for publishers to test it with, here’s my details:

Publisher Name: The Big Byte

App Name: Tap That! Number
Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wowebbs.android.tapthat.number
Description: An addictive number tapping game for Android.
Try to tap all the numbers from 1 to 25 as fast as you can! Compare your score with others from around the world and compete for the top spot, with Scoreloop.

App Name: Upside Down Camera
Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bb.upsidedowncamera
Description: Ever wanted to know what the world looks like upside down? Now you can see for yourself! This app shows a live camera view for your front or back facing camera. But unlike all the other boring apps, this one shows the image upside down!

Thanks David.

A small update.
Im learning a lot working on this project. The test worked, so the next hard thing is creating a usable library. I never made my own libraries for android/java, so I have to learn a lot of new stuff. I managed to get a sample project loading my jar file. But there is a downside. You cannot add resources to a jar. So I have to create all views in code.
But it was a good day. I got my sample application working with my jar file and loading the activity from the library. The activity adds a basic view with a list. Next step will be to create the list item views, font styles and background drawables. All from code of course.

I also implemented the code to open the Android market. So now when a user clicks an item it will open the application page in the Android Market.

I did more that I thought I would do today.

Awesome work.

I think us indie developers cross promoting each other’s apps will be very beneficial.

Hi guy’s,

Here is a new progress update:
I finally got the site running on my web hosting. It took this long because I use a unusual combination of mysql and asp.net. So after some updating of drivers, relocating the site to a new server, downgrading drivers, it finally runs!!! pfew!
So finally I could test the website and client over the internet insted of my local network. And everything seems to be working like it should.

I also got my library working. The library uses a minimal sdk Android version 1.6. I still have to try to use the library with an app that uses a higher sdk version. My sample app is updated to make use of the library and everything works. Like I mentioned in my previous post I cannot add any resources to the library so I had to create all view objects in code. This took some time because I made a small typo and it took about 2 hours before I found the type. sight

I still have room for 1 more publisher in this test phase. So please leave a message if you like to join. These publishers will also be the first to get a spot when the network go’s live. So take your chance because open spots will be limited in the live version.
If you like to join this test phase please leave a message with the following information.
Publisher name
Website url
Publisher profile (500 characters max)

Apps (max 2)
App name
Short description (250 char max)
Android market url

Please look at the screenshot in this post and give your oppinion. This is an activity that can be called in your application. For example an menu item “more apps”

Small update. I Desided to create support for application icons. The list will look much nicer with them. So I have add support for application icons on my webservice. It can automaticly resize a png icon to suitable formats. Next I need to load the icons in the Android application.

Icons is a good idea. They’d need to load asynchronously, and separate from the main list loading I’d think. That way people can see the list even while the icons are still downloading.