Empirical Analysis of Play Store Applications
Published:
Goal
The goal of this project is to obtain large amount of Play Store applications and analyse patterns regarding how they are built.
1. Manifest Files
Manifest file is usually like an index of a book. We can see how apps are structured, permissions the app requests from user, permissions other apps require to interact with this app. These files also tell us what components apps expose like services and activities.
2. UI Design XMLs
UI XML files tell us how the UI is built with minute details. That information could prove useful to mine patterns regrading how UI is built across categories, ratings and popularity etc.
Tasks
Building APK Repository
So we need ton of apk files from which we will have to extract manifest files and Design XMLs. Since there is no official API to download play store apps, we are using the tool gplaycli to download the apps. Also this means we need to keep all the apps updated.
Manifest & Design file extraction (TO DO)
We intend to use apktool to extract the manifest and UI Design files