Check if a package exists on Android Market

Question

I am trying to find if a specific package already exists in Android Market.

I know I have no problem to actually open the Market application in the package page:

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setData(Uri.parse("market://details?id=" + PACKAGE_NAME));
startActivity(intent);

But I want to know if it exists before I try this - so the user won't get the default "not found" market page.

One way to do it, of course, is to use the web Market URL with an HttpClient (https://market.android.com/details?id=) - this will return 404 if the package does not exist.

However, I'm looking for a way to do that with the Market application installed on the device.

Solution 1

You can perform a simple test on the Android market URL as

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycompany.myapp

Pass your Application Package name with the letters indented in bold letters in above URL, if you get any result then it is concluded that the Application Package name is already been used, if you get "We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server." then you can use the app package name.

Solution 2

For details url and package name (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.x.y.z)

Server returns

• HTTP 200: package exists.
• HTTP 404: package does exist

Comments

[Erez A. Korn]

Thank you :) I know I can search the Web Market (see my post - I mentioned this option). My question was regarding the Market Application.

[Manish Champaneri]

jQuery always returns status 0. How can I use this with jQuery ? Any idea.

[Jovylle]

You're My Angel.