path: root/docs/html/guide/publishing/publishing.jd

page.title=Publishing on Android Market
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">

<h2>Quickview</h2>

<ul>
<li>You can publish your application using a hosted service such as Android Market or through a web server.</li>
<li>Before you publish, make sure you have prepared your application properly.</li>
<li>Android Market makes it easy for users of Android-powered devices to see and download your application.</li>
</ul>


<h2>In this document</h2>

<ol>
<li><a href="#overview">About Android Market</a>
<li><a href="#marketupgrade">Publishing Updates on Android Market</a></li>
<li><a href="#marketLicensing">Using Android Market Licensing Service</a></li>
<li><a href="#marketintent">Linking to Your Apps on Android Market</a>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="#OpeningDetails">Opening an app's details page</a></li>
    <li><a href="#PerformingSearch">Performing a search</a></li>
    <li><a href="#UriSummary">Summary of URI formats</a></li>
  </ol>  
</li>
</ol>

<h2>See also</h2>

<ol>
<li><a href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/licensing.html">Application Licensing</a></li>
<li><a href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/preparing.html">Preparing to Publish</a></li>
</ol>

<div id="qv-extra">
  <img id="rule" src="{@docRoot}assets/images/grad-rule-qv.png">
  <div id="qv-sub-rule">
    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/icon_market.jpg" style="float:left;margin:0;padding:0;">
    <h2 style="color:#669999;">Interested in publishing your app on Android Market?</h2>
    <p><a href="http://market.android.com/publish">Go to Android Market</a> to
create a developer account and upload your application. For more information about the
required assets, listing details, and options, see <a
href="http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113469">Uploading
applications</a>.</p>
  </div>
</div>

</div>
</div>

<p>If you've followed the steps outlined in <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/preparing.html">Preparing to Publish</a>, the result of the process
is a compiled {@code .apk} file that is signed with your private release key. Your application is
now ready to be published publicly so users can install it.</p>

<p>You can publish your application and allow users to install it any way you choose, including
from your own web server. This document provides information about publishing your Android
application with Android Market.</p>


<h2 id="overview">About Android Market</h2>

<p>Android Market is a service that makes it easy for users to find and download Android
applications to their Android-powered devices, either from the Android Market application on their
device or from the Android Market web site (<a
href="http://market.android.com">market.android.com</a>). As a developer, you can use Android Market
to distribute your applications to users on all types of Android-powered devices, all around the
world.</p>

<p>To publish your application on Android Market, you first need to register
with the service using a Google account and agree to the terms of service.
Once you are registered, you can upload your application to the service whenever
you want, update it as many times as you want, and then publish it when you are ready.
Once published, users can see your application, download it, and rate it. </p>

<p>To register as an Android Market developer and get started with publishing,
visit the Android Market publisher site: </p>

<p style="margin-left:3em;"><a
href="http://market.android.com/publish">http://market.android.com/publish</a>
</p>

<p>If you plan to publish your application on Android Market, you must make sure
that it meets the requirements listed below, which are enforced by the Market
server when you upload the application.</p>

<div class="special">
<p>Requirements enforced by the Android Market server:</p>
<ol>
<li>Your application must be signed with a cryptographic private key whose
validity period ends after <span style="color:red">22 October 2033</span>. </li>
<li>Your application must define both an <code>android:versionCode</code> and an
<code>android:versionName</code> attribute in the
<a
href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-element.html"><code>&lt;manifest&gt;</code></a>
element of its manifest file. The server uses the <code>android:versionCode</code> as
the basis for identifying the application internally and handling updates, and
it displays the <code>android:versionName</code> to users as the application's
version.</li>
<li>Your application must define both an <code>android:icon</code> and an
<code>android:label</code> attribute in the <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/application-element.html"><code>&lt;application&gt;</code></a>
element of its manifest file.</li>
</ol>
</div>


<h2 id="marketupgrade">Publishing Updates on Android Market</h2>

<p>At any time after publishing an application on Android Market, you can upload
and publish an update to the same application package. When you publish an
update to an application, users who have already installed the
application may receive a notification that an update is
available for the application. They can then choose to update the application
to the latest version.</p>

<p>Before uploading the updated application, be sure that you have incremented
the <code>android:versionCode</code> and <code>android:versionName</code>
attributes in the <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-element.html"><code>&lt;manifest&gt;</code></a>
element of the manifest file. Also, the package name must be the same as the existing version and
the {@code .apk} file must be signed with the same private key. If the package name and signing
certificate do <em>not</em> match those of the existing version, Market will
consider it a new application, publish it as such, and will not offer it to existing users as an
update.</p>


<h2 id="marketLicensing">Using Android Market Licensing Service</h2>

<p>Android Market offers a licensing service that lets you enforce licensing
policies for paid applications that you publish through Android Market. With
Android Market Licensing, your applications can query Android Market at runtime
to obtain the licensing status for the current user, then allow or disallow
further use of the application as appropriate. Using the service, you can apply a flexible
licensing policy on an application-by-application basis&mdash;each 
application can enforce its licensing status in the way most appropriate
for it. </p>

<p>Any application that you publish through Android Market can use the Android
Market Licensing Service. The service uses no dedicated framework APIs, so you can
add licensing to any application that uses a minimum API Level of 3 or
higher.</p>

<p>For complete information about Android Market Licensing Service and how to
use it in your application, read <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/publishing/licensing.html">Application Licensing</a>.</p>



<h2 id="marketintent">Linking to Your Apps on Android Market</h2>

<p>To help users discover your published applications, you can use two special Android Market URIs
that direct users to your application's details page or perform a search for all of your published
applications in Android Market. You can use these URIs to do the following:</p>

<ul>
  <li>Create a button in your application or a link on a web page that opens one of your
application's details page in the Android Market application or web site.</li>
  <li>Create a button in your application or a link on a web page that searches for all your
published applications in the Android Market application or web site.</li>
</ul>

<p>You can launch the Android Market application or web site in the following ways:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Initiate an {@link android.content.Intent} from your application that launches the
Android Market application on the user's device. The intent must use the {@link
android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} action, and include intent data with the appropriate
Android Market URI scheme.</li>
  <li>Provide a hyperlink on a web page that opens the Android Market web site.</li>
</ul>

<p>In both cases, you need to create a URI that indicates either the application you'd like to view
in Android Market or the search you'd like to perform. The URI is quite similar whether you want
to open the application or open the web site. The only difference is the URI prefix.</p>

<p>To open the Android Market application on the device, the prefix for the intent's data URI
is:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em"><code>market://</code></p>

<p>To open the Android Market web site, the prefix for the link URI is:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em"><code>http://market.android.com/</code></p>

<p>To complete each URI, you must append a string that specifies either the
application for which you want to view or the search to execute. The following sections
describe how to create a complete URI for each case.</p>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> If you create a link to open the Android Market web site and
the user selects it from an Android-powered device, the Android Market application will also resolve
the link so the user can use the native application instead of the web site. Also, because the
Android Market application also reads the {@code http://} URIs, you can also use them in an intent,
but you should usually use the {@code market://} URIs for an intent, so that the native application
is opened by default. You should use {@code http://} URIs only when creating links from a web
page.</p>


<h3 id="OpeningDetails">Opening an app's details page</h3>

<p>As described above, you can open the details page for a specific application either on the
Android Market application or the Android Market web site. The details page allows the user to see
the application description, screenshots, reviews and more, and choose to install it.</p>

<p>The format for the URI that opens the details page is:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em"><code>&lt;URI_prefix&gt;<b>details?id=</b>&lt;package_name&gt;</code></p>

<p>The <code>&lt;package_name&gt;</code> is a placeholder for the target application's fully
qualified package name, as declared in the <a
href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-element.html#package">{@code
package}</a> attribute of the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-element.html">{@code
&lt;manifest&gt;}</a> element in the application's manifest file.</p>


<h4>Opening details in the Android Market application</h4>

<p>To open the details page in the Android Market application, create an intent with the
{@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} action and include a data URI in this format:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em"><code>market://details?id=&lt;package_name&gt;</code></p>

<p>For example, here's how you can create an intent and open an application's details page in the
Android Market application:</p>

<pre>
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setData(Uri.parse("market://details?id=com.android.example"));
startActivity(intent);
</pre>


<h4>Opening details on the Android Market web site</h4>

<p>To open the details page on the Android Market web site, create a link with a URI in this
format:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em">
  <code>http://market.android.com/details?id=&lt;package_name&gt;</code>
</p>

<p>For example, here's a link that opens an application's details page on the Android Market web
site:</p>

<pre>
&lt;a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.example">App Link&lt;/a>
</pre>



<h3 id="PerformingSearch">Performing a search</h3>

<p>To initiate a search in Android Market, the format for the URI is:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em">
  <code>&lt;URI_prefix&gt;<b>search?q=</b>&lt;query&gt;</code>
</p>

<p>The <code>&lt;query&gt;</code> is a placeholder for the search query to execute in Android
Market. The query can be a raw text string or you can include a parameter that performs a search
based on the publisher name:</p>

<ul>
  <li>To perform a raw text search, append the query string:
  <p><code>&lt;URI_prefix&gt;<b>search?q=</b>&lt;search_query&gt;</code></p></li>

  <li>To search based on the publisher name, use the {@code pub:} parameter in the query, followed
by the publisher name:
  <p><code>&lt;URI_prefix&gt;<b>search?q=pub:</b>&lt;publisher_name&gt;</code></p>
  <p>You can use this type of search to show all of your published applications.</p></li>
</ul>


<h4>Searching the Android Market application</h4>

<p>To perform a search in the Android Market application, create an intent with the
{@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} action and include a data URI in this format:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em"><code>market://search?q=&lt;query&gt;</code></p>

<p>The query may include the {@code pub:} parameter described above.</p>

<p>For example, here's how you can initiate a search in the Android Market application, based on the
publisher name:</p>

<pre>
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setData(Uri.parse("market://search?q=pub:Your Publisher Name"));
startActivity(intent);
</pre>

<p>The search result shows all applications published by the publisher and which are compatible with
the current device.</p>


<h4>Searching the Android Market web site</h4>

<p>To perform a search on the Android Market web site, create a link with a URI in this
format:</p>

<p style="margin-left:2em">
  <code>http://market.android.com/search?q=&lt;query&gt;</code>
</p>

<p>The query may include the {@code pub:} parameter described above.</p>

<p>For example, here's a link that initiates a search on the Android Market web site, based on the
publisher name:</p>

<pre>
&lt;a href="http://market.android.com/search?q=pub:Your Publisher Name">Search Link&lt;/a>
</pre>

<p>The search result shows all applications published by the publisher.</p>



<h3 id="UriSummary">Summary of URI formats</h3>

<p>The table below provides a summary of the URIs currently supported by the Android Market (both on
the web and in the Android application), as discussed in the previous sections.</p>

<table>
<tr>
<th>For this result</th>
<th>Use this URI in a web page link</th>
<th>Or this URI in an {@link android.content.Intent#ACTION_VIEW} intent</th>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Display the details screen for a specific application</td>
<td><code>http://market.android.com/details?id=&lt;package_name&gt;</code> 
<td><code>market://details?id=&lt;package_name&gt;</code></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Search for applications using a general string query.</td>
<td><code>http://market.android.com/search?q=&lt;query&gt;</code></td>
<td><code>market://search?q=&lt;query&gt;</code></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Search for applications by publisher name</td>
<td><nobr><code>http://market.android.com/search?q=pub:&lt;publisher_name&gt;</code></nobr></td>
<td><nobr><code>market://search?q=pub:&lt;publisher_name&gt;</code></nobr></td>
</tr>

</table>