Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#1

Post by jonursenbach » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 10:25 PM UTC

Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.
github.com

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#2

Post by waitwhatwhoa » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:07 PM UTC

Do you run into any query limits with aggressive scraping? A colleague wrote an android market scraper a year or two back and she was repeatedly stymied by limits on the number of queries she could make to the store before getting cut off.

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#3

Post by jonursenbach » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:13 PM UTC

waitwhatwhoa wrote: post #2

Do you run into any query limits with aggressive scraping? A colleague wrote an android market scraper a year or two back and she was repeatedly stymied by limits on the number of queries she could make to the store before getting cut off.

We don't do any aggressive scraping at the moment, so I can't really answer to that. The way our backend stuff works is that when we want to add an app to the site (http://gdgt.com/best/apps), we query for the search results, and then grab the app we're looking for.

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#4

Post by charliesome » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:27 PM UTC

https://github.com/pastfuture/MarketBot/blob/master/App/Andr...

    \PastFuture\MarketBot\App\Android\AmazonAppstoreApp

Welcome to Modern PHP.

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#5

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:32 PM UTC

If you want to add iTunes, here's an article on how to get the iTunes Store HTML from PHP:

http://hactheplanet.com/blog/5

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#6

Post by jonursenbach » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:34 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #5

If you want to add iTunes, here's an article on how to get the iTunes Store HTML from PHP: http://hactheplanet.com/blog/5

Yeah we're currently using their JSON API, it just hasn't been migrated over to this library yet.

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#7

Post by kanzure » Wed, Oct 10, 2012, 1:08 AM UTC

I see, it's based off of:

http://github.com/chadrem/market_bot

Edit: I would like to point out that Google Play actually does have an API. It uses protocol buffers, if you check the Google Play apk.

http://github.com/kanzure/android-market-api-py

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#8

Post by est » Wed, Oct 10, 2012, 1:11 AM UTC

Oh god parsing HTML pages.

Why don't Google Play provide JSON API like iTunes do?

http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=343200656

and alternatively

http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.clickgamer.Angry...

The second link can be used in client app to self-checking for new version updates.

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#9

Post by jonursenbach » Wed, Oct 10, 2012, 1:15 AM UTC

kanzure wrote: post #7

I see, it's based off of: http://github.com/chadrem/market_bot Edit: I would like to point out that Google Play actually does have an API. It uses protocol buffers, if you check the Google Play apk. http://github.com/kanzure/android-market-api-py

It's not official though, and the results you get back from it are incredibly varied.

Re: Google Play doesn't have an API. So I built one.

#10

Post by kanzure » Wed, Oct 10, 2012, 1:16 AM UTC

jonursenbach wrote: post #9

kanzure wrote: post #7

I see, it's based off of: http://github.com/chadrem/market_bot Edit: I would like to point out that Google Play actually does have an API. It uses protocol buffers, if you check the Google Play apk. http://github.com/kanzure/android-market-api-py

It's not official though, and the results you get back from it are incredibly varied.

> and the results you get back from it are incredibly varied.

Can you show me? I haven't noticed.