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I'm currently building an app for a client who wants to manage the apk afterwards, without publishing it on the Android market. He wants to provide the app to a limited number of users.

  • To do so, I've first thought making a second app that will manage the updates of the first one.
  • Then I thought it was a bit complicated and I found Pushlink. This is exactly what I need except one part of the terms and conditions that I fear :

1.1 PushLink reserves the right to update and change the Terms of Service from time to time without notice.

I've got actually two questions :

  • Does anyone of you have experience using Pushlink, how supported is it?
  • Is there any alternative to Pushlink?

Many thanks.

Romain

Romain Piel
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  • Have you thought about implementing your own update service where your app reaches out to a server.. checks a version code there.. if its a new version it will download it and attempt to install it. ? – dymmeh Mar 15 '12 at 13:59
  • I've thought of that solution but I'm not sure how to manage the update from the app itself. Do you have any ideas? – Romain Piel Mar 15 '12 at 14:02
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    Well, in my app I have a plain text file sitting on my server that just has a version number in it. I check that value against the actual value in APK file installed. If its higher I download the new APK to the SD card. Once the download finishes you create an intent to install the app. [See the answer to this question on how to create that intent](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4967669/android-install-apk-programmatically). It's fairly easy to do, actually. – dymmeh Mar 15 '12 at 14:06
  • it sounds good, add your comment as an answer and I'll accept it ;) – Romain Piel Mar 15 '12 at 14:14
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    FWIW, I have a work-in-progress JAR for adding self-update logic to an app: https://github.com/commonsguy/cwac-updater – CommonsWare Mar 15 '12 at 14:40

2 Answers2

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An alternative to your proposed solution would be to implement your own internal updating logic.

I've done this myself and it's very simple to maintain.

  • Have a plain text file on a server that can be accessed from your application.
    • This file will contain the most up to date version number.
  • Every so often (maybe once or twice a week) check the server to see if the version numbers differ (Server # > In app #).
  • Download your new APK from the server onto the SD card.
  • Once you finish downloading the file you'll need to launch an intent to install the application. The user will still have to accept to install the update so its not %100 autonomous but you prevent the user from doing anything aside from clicking "Install".
Community
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dymmeh
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0

I know this is an old question, but I use http://auto-update-apk.com - it is really simple but it does what it's supposed to, and it's free for small apps.

mszaro
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