Android Market Optimization: Part II

Earlier this year I wrote about Android Market Optimization blog posts. Now there are few sites that can help you do that:

• AppBrain AppTimizer - Checks application submission and rank it.
• MobileDevHQ - Keywords optimization.
• Appnique - Keywords optimization.
•  Applause - Check user's comments sentiment.

In general you should follow ASO tag in your favorite tech blog, for example on TechCrunch.

Eclipse: Unable to find Action Set

Problem: After updating Eclipse my Android plug-in stopped working. Checking a bit more, all my Eclipse plug-ins stopped working (they even didn't appear in the Help->About windows).

In the errors log window (Window->Show View->Error Log) I saw the error "Unable to find Action Set" for all the plug-ins. For example, the Android plug-ins errors:
Unable to find Action Set: adt.actionSet.lint
Unable to find Action Set: adt.actionSet.avdManager
Unable to find Action Set: adt.actionSet.refactorings
Unable to find Action Set: adt.actionSet.wizards

Solution: I checked many options, bottom line, the problem was solved in my case when I've uninstalled (Help->About->Installation Details) a package called: Object Teams Patch for JDT/Core

Advanced ACRA 2: Frequent errors detection

In my first ACRA post I wrote about detecting which Android versions generates the errors using Google Docs. This time I'll write on the most basic problem - finding which error happens the most. It is possible to group by full stack trace, however, the stack trace are not the same even on exactly the same errors. Instead, my approach is to compare the exception & the function that actually threw the exception. It might produce incorrect results if there are multiple similar exceptions.

Here's how it's done, open the Google Doc's ACRA spreadsheet:

1. Rename the first sheet to 'Sheet1'
2. Add new sheet
3. In Cell A1 set text: "Short Stack"
4. In Cell A2 set text: "=LEFT(Sheet1!P2,FIND("(", Sheet1!P2, 1))"
5. Copy cell A2 to match the rows in Sheet1 (e.g. to cells A3, A4, A5, ...)
6. Select column A in Sheet2, and create a pivot table ("Data" -> "Pivot table report...")
7. In the pivot table sheet:
• "Rows" -> "Add field" : "Short Stack"
• "Values" -> "Add field" : "Short Stack", summarize by: "COUNTA"

Note: this list is for ACRA v4.2.3. With ACRA 4.3.0+ the 'Stack Trace' column might not be P

Eclipse autocomplete doesn't work

After formatting my computer I had to reinstall everything. When I started to work with my new Eclipse Juno on my Android project the autocomplete didn't work. It took my few searches on Google to find the answer, so I'll improve that page pagerank so others can find it faster. The answer is here.

Diagnosing repetitive BSOD

I had repetitive BSOD on my Windows 7 x64 Samsung laptop.

Here is the steps I think I should have taken (stop when the problem found):
1. Download Blue Screen View by Nir Sofer and check which driver cause the BDOS. If it's the same driver all the time - root cause found.

2. Memory check: (don't use the Windows 7 built-in memory check, it missed my problem) Download memtest86+ and check your physical memory. This tool might taken few hours to run.

3. Disk check: Run full disk check - open the disk in Windows Explorer, right click on the driver root, click on "Properties", than "Tools", under "Error Checking", check all check boxes and press on check now. After rebooting you can view the results in the "Events Viewer" under "Windows Logs" -> "Application", sort by "Source" column and search for "Wininit"

If nothing found so far, my best guess is  to backup the computer & re-format it. If the BDOS continues it's an hardware issue, otherwise it was some other software issue.

Android SDK installation: Java not found

If you don't have Java installed - do that.
If you do, check the following:

• Windows x64: The Android SDK is looking for Java 32bit. If you installed Java 64bit, install 32bit too.
• In the Android SDK installer, try pressing "Back and "Next". Few people reported that this fix the problem.

Mobile application analytics

Just viewed this presentation from Google IO 2012, in which Google describe the new Google Analytics for mobile. The interesting part, is how they list what should be included in a mobile app analytics:

• User acquisition - Where should I spend my marketing dollars?

• Application store download - from which sources the download are coming (store search, web search, ad campaign, e-mails, referrals).
• New users
• Active users

• Engagement - Once the user get your application how they are using it?

• Engagement flow
• Top app screens
• Events
• App crashed - A bit overlapping with the app store.

• Outcome

• App sales
• In-app purchases
  
• Ad-monetization 
• Goal conversions