JusticeRage
Search button appends "varies with device" to package name
When I click the search button it will send a search engine the name of the app as well as saying "Varies with device." Consequently, apkmirror or any other search engine won't say it found that app.
This is a known issue for some apps which obtain their version information from the Play Store. Switching to another update source and performing a new update should resolve the issue for now.
I think it is meant, that the string that is appended to the external search engine (Google, DDG, GPlay...) is wrongly constructed. That is, because the returned version is simply attached to the URL. If the returned version value is "varies with device" this is also simply attached.
Oh. I think this is expected behavior then. Kind of. The search action triggers a search for "[app name] [latest version] apk". If the latest version is detected as "Varies with device" (which is definitively a problem, albeit a separate one), then the search will be "[app name] varies with device apk". Everything should get sorted when that issue with the Play Store is solved.
This problem is getting worse over time.
My opinion is that "varies with device" has the same informational value as "no update information found"
I suggest the following:
- When "varies with device" is detected drop the play store result and check other sites, if nothing else is found print "no update information found"
- Put the play store last in the order of checking by default, so we get usefull results first.
In my case, none of the available update sources gives me any hint for new version/s of that kind of apps. All other sources say: "no update information found", the play store shows the: "varies with device" tag. This is the only thing I dislike on your great app. Thanks for making it free and sharing the code by the way.
It would be awesome, if there could be implemented some kind of "workaround". While the [current Version] only offers "varies with device", you probably could save the value [updated], which holds: "September 25, 2017", for example. If that timestamp changes on the next scan cycle, you know (pretty sure) that there is "a new version available", what would be a more useful information.
This would really help me - and possibly other people using your wonderful app. What do you think?
Sorry for being so long to reply. The main problem is to detect Google's message. Depending on your IP address, this error will be localized (i.e. "Varies with device" will be displayed in German if your IP is recognized as German). This makes recognizing the message extremely difficult, as all languages in the world would need to be taken into account. I /could/ reject any version strings that doesn't contain numbers, but as they are totally arbitrary, it's bound to create inconsistencies for some cases. Finally, ApkTrack works by comparing a version string found somewhere with the local package's. No code has been written to remember dates, and comparing "v1.2.3" to "September 25, 2017" wouldn't make sense. So while this approach could theoretically work, it doesn't really fit the current design and would require significant refactoring. There's also the issue of two (or more) updates pushed on the same date, which would cause the latter updates to be missed.
My position on this matter is that the Play Store should only be used as an update source on a case-by-case basis. For most apps, using the Proxy will yield more reliable results.
As "varies with device" (or a localised variant of this) is exactly the "version information", which is also displayed on the corresponding Google Play Store page of these apps, the information is technically correct, although not really meaningful for the user. And I absolutely disagree that this is practically equivalent to "No update information found", so I believe it is best to just leave it the way it is.
