Is it possible to access the App Store Data for market analyzation? - iphone

I am wondering if the App Store provides an API that allows others to access the data like descriptions, prices, reviews, etc.?

The iTunes Store is the API.
All pages in the iTunes Store are simply XML files rendered by iTunes. You can parse these files yourself and navigate around to your heart's content.
Here's the URL for the front page:
http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.app.store.DirectAction/storeFront
You might also want to see:
http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/itms/
http://www.s-seven.net/itunes_xml

Apple has an official API for the App Store, it's named iTunes Search API. In the documentation there are also some examples on how to use the "lookup" and "search" endpoints, quite easy to use and data is returned in JSON format :)
Unfortunately that's not the same with Google Play (previously known as Android Market) which does not expose apps' meta-data through an API.
To get that data for Android, you could develop your own HTML crawler, parse the page and extract the app meta-data you need. This topic has been covered in other questions, for instance here.
If you don't want to implement all that by yourself, you could use a third-party service to access Android apps meta-data through a JSON-based API.
For instance, 42matters.com(the company I work for) offers a unified API for both Android and iOS, here more details:
https://42matters.com/app-market-data
The endpoints range from "lookup" (to get one app's meta-data, probably what you need) to "search", but we also expose "rank history" and other stats from the leading app stores. We have extensive documentation for all supported features, you find them in the left panel: https://42matters.com/docs/overview
I hope this helps, otherwise feel free to get in touch with me. I know this industry quite well and can point you in the right direction.
Regards,
Andrea

Related

Accessing Walmart API and setting up product mapping

To start: I'm completely new to working with APIs, so please bear with me.
My first question is related to getting access to the Walmart API. I see the example code to generate time stamp and signature. How do I run this file? I've looked at YouTube videos, the Walmart tutorial, and other posts in this forum and am still a little stuck.
Second, I'm guessing this file needs to be included in the actual application to continue to be able to access the products?
Third, my goal is to map only a subset of the product catalog for users of the app to view. Let's use 'soda' as an example. Is it the Taxonomy API I need to use? And how do I limit the available products a user can search?
Note: This will be implemented in a Flutter application, if it makes any difference.

How to scrape Facebook friends' info INCLUDING their real e-mail the way Facebook App does?

I recently found that Facebook App (for Android & iOS, but i'm using Android anyway) downloads almost all friends' information (including FB ID and real e-mail account) to a SQLite database called fb.db. I am trying to do the same thing programmaticaly (using python, perl, bash etc) but with no luck so far. I need a way that will do similar requests with FB APP, and will download all of my friends' info upon login, just like the way FB APP work.
I tried so far to:
Decompile com.facebook.katana and see how it's done - No luck (or just missed it).
Sniff the facebook app with burp - No luck (due to SSL and app's protection when certs have been changed)
I am sure you went through this: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html#db
There it is stated:
Android provides full support for SQLite databases. Any databases you create will be accessible by name to any class in the application, but not outside the application.
It was not the answer, it was just a text, which states that you can create a database for your web app. But unfortunately they are not providing any kind of helping material about writing and removing the data from that Database. So lets move to another source!
Related posts:
Please read this:
How to insert data into SQLite database in android?
There is a sweet example of how to add the content to a database in Android.
There is another example on this question too, Downloading data/content into Sqlite database
Why they didn't work:
Decompiling won't work! As they might have editted the app to be only fb-developer-readable on the first place. So you will never have success this way.
And the second thing is same.
All you can do, is to guess the algorithm or ask for it here: http://programmers.stackexchange.com and give it a try from scratch! :)
Suggestions:
I would try to recommend you to first learn how to:
Access Data connection on the phone.
Access the server from where to download the data.
Create a string or what ever data type to be inserted in database.
Create the connection, and save the data there!
I would now assume that you are a beginner, and want a tutorial! Then the first guess could be to visit their own project sites (SQLite, Android). Visit the developer network. And look for what you get!
Good luck buddy! Cheers.

how to search books by ISBN on Amazon on iphone

I want to know how to search the books on Amazon using a web URL resulting JSON or xml.
Many Thanks.
They used to have what was called "the advertising API" that would let you pull book and other listing data, but have since made it less accessible. Nowadays they encourage people to use their widgets rather than coding anything on top of the API.
Poke around http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/Welcome.html
if you're really determined.
Also keep in mind the business model of the API means that your app should directly drive purchases on amazon, anything else is gray area.

How to setup a CMS as a backend for iPhone app

I would like my iPhone app to get dynamic content off the net. This content should be managed using a CMS. I would like to know in particular if I can setup Drupal or Joomla or other CMS as a backend for my iphone app to get the content.
Any advice on how this can be achieved would be helpful.
I am completely new to setting up/using CMS.
You can also take a look at StorageRoom, which is a CMS for Mobile Applications.
Disclaimer: I created this myself to scratch my own itch.
Wordpress with the JSON-API plugin is a great solution, especially if you need a web site as well.
You can find a good example here that uses Wordpress and Phonegap to get a basic app going.
If you can access the content in any serialized format (e.g. XML or JSON), it should be no problem to use any CMS as a "backend" for your application.
I'm checking out storageroom, and I'm searching for a similar answer, but I also found osmek to be a bit promising. I might use that one because of the menu templates .Osmek can provide responses in json and xml (and other formats that aren't useful in iphone dev like php, html, and templates)
Feed.Us is another option. I have a series of travel guides iphone apps and use Feed.Us to manage the businesses listed within the apps.
It creates a URL with XML that gets imported into the app.
This seems to be a very promising solution!
Apache Usergrid
I have briefly tried DreamFactory for some trial project but never got around to using it in production. Usergrid seems to be in the right direction in providing a full fledged solution (which can also work for modern web apps)
I'm very curious about Helios (helios.io) and will be trying it out shortly.
At least from the write-up on their site it looks very promising. Its open source, and in beta currently. They also have very easy heroku hosting support.
Helios is an open-source framework that provides essential backend
services for iOS apps, from data synchronization and push
notifications to in-app purchases and passbook integration.
I will update the answer again once I use this for some test project.
you can use any cms or framework to implement this. you need to make a jsonm api to communicate between app and backend server.
For php cms joomla, drupal and wordpress are best.
in frameworks you can use yii, cakephp, laravel or zend
hope this helps..
Also worth taking a look at Cloud CMS:
http://www.cloudcms.com
It's a cloud content management system for mobile and web applications, entirely oriented around JSON and having a fast, fully featured API. Your iOS application could easily grab things, render them, capture data, store it back into the CMS and more. Plus, it gives you a user interface you can drop in front of your business users so that they can create, edit and review things.
Note: I'm one of the developers. That said, worth checking out if for no other reason than for inspiration.
Depending on the data-complexity, perhaps willing a CMS into being a data-store or simple API is overkill when you can leverage file storage services like Google Drive/Apps to GET/POST spreadsheets or other documents in JSON, among other formats.
Is it possible to use Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive, etc. as a server space?

Query the AppStore?

How do sites like Apptism and Appbeacon build their list of apps from the AppStore? Is there some way to query the store and get information such as title, author, ratings, etc.?
They screen-scrape the html. This article may be helpful for you.
Several websites (such as Pinch) use this data to provide RSS feeds of different application categories and their associated information. Depending on your needs this may be an easier option.
There are also XML feeds of the App Store which includes category, release date, etc.
Here's an article that describes what's available and how to get at it.
Your View into the App Store
Some companies specialized in ASO services provide access to their underlying architecture. They scrape the stores to generate data for their SAAS products or consulting services. And they provide access to the data with API's (for a fee).
Examples include :
http://apptweak.io
https://developer.searchman.com/