How to allow users to check for the latest app version from inside the app

Question

I want to add a  Check for update  button in apps so that when someone clicks it  it will display a toast message   progress dialog for checking the app s version    If new version is found the apps will auto download it to the phone and let user to  manually install the updated apps   Or any others method will do as long as it can check for latest version and notify the user to update     Update  Now you can do this inside your app using https   developer android com guide playcore in-app-updates

User · Answer

Here s how to find the current and latest available versions          try               String curVersion   getPackageManager   getPackageInfo getPackageName    0  versionName              String newVersion   curVersion              newVersion   Jsoup connect  https   play google com store apps details id     getPackageName       amp hl en                        timeout 30000                       userAgent  Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  WindowsNT 5 1  en-US  rv1 8 1 6  Gecko 20070725 Firefox 2 0 0 6                        referrer  http   www google com                        get                        select  div hAyfc nth-child 4   IQ1z0d  htlgb                        first                        ownText                Log d  Curr Version    curVersion               Log d  New Version    newVersion              catch  Exception e                e printStackTrace                return false

User · Answer

We can check Update by Add these Code  First we need to add dependencies    implementation  org jsoup jsoup 1 10 2   Second we need to create Java File    x000D   x000D  import android app Activity  import android app AlertDialog  import android app ProgressDialog  import android content DialogInterface  import android content Intent  import android content pm PackageInfo  import android content pm PackageManager  import android net Uri  import android os AsyncTask  import android widget Toast   import org jsoup Jsoup   public class CurrentVersion      private Activity activity      public CurrentVersion Activity activity            this activity   activity              current version of app installed in the device private String getCurrentVersion            PackageManager pm   activity getPackageManager            PackageInfo pInfo   null          try           pInfo   pm getPackageInfo activity getPackageName   0             catch  PackageManager NameNotFoundException e1            e1 printStackTrace                      return pInfo versionName            private class GetLatestVersion extends AsyncTask lt String  String  String gt        private String latestVersion      private ProgressDialog progressDialog      private boolean manualCheck      GetLatestVersion boolean manualCheck            this manualCheck   manualCheck             Override     protected void onPostExecute String s            super onPostExecute s           if  manualCheck                        if  progressDialog  null                                if  progressDialog isShowing                                          progressDialog dismiss                                                      String currentVersion   getCurrentVersion              If the versions are not the same         if  currentVersion equals latestVersion  amp  amp latestVersion  null               final AlertDialog Builder builder   new AlertDialog Builder activity               builder setTitle  An Update is Available                builder setMessage  Its better to update now                builder setPositiveButton  Update   new DialogInterface OnClickListener                      Override                 public void onClick DialogInterface dialog  int which                          Click button action                     activity startActivity new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW  Uri parse  market   details id   activity getPackageName                           dialog dismiss                                                  builder setCancelable false               builder show                      else               if  manualCheck                    Toast makeText activity   No Update Available   Toast LENGTH SHORT  show                                          Override     protected String doInBackground String    params            try                 It retrieves the latest version by scraping the content of current version from play store at runtime             latestVersion   Jsoup connect  https   play google com store apps details id     activity getPackageName       amp hl it                        timeout 30000                       userAgent  Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  WindowsNT 5 1  en-US  rv1 8 1 6  Gecko 20070725 Firefox 2 0 0 6                        referrer  http   www google com                        get                        select   hAyfc  htlgb                        get 7                       ownText                return latestVersion            catch  Exception e                return latestVersion                        public void checkForUpdate boolean manualCheck                new GetLatestVersion manualCheck  execute            x000D   x000D   x000D   Third We need to add this class in your main class where you want to show the update  AppUpdateChecker appUpdateChecker new AppUpdateChecker this     appUpdateChecker checkForUpdate false    I Hope it will Help you

User · Answer

add     compile  org jsoup jsoup 1 10 2   to dependencies in APP LEVEL build gradle   amp   Just add below code and you are good to go   private class GetVersionCode extends AsyncTask lt Void  String  String gt         Override     protected String doInBackground Void    voids             try               newVersion   Jsoup connect  https   play google com store apps details id     SplashActivity this getPackageName       amp hl it                        timeout 30000                       userAgent  Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  WindowsNT 5 1  en-US  rv1 8 1 6  Gecko 20070725 Firefox 2 0 0 6                        referrer  http   www google com                        get                        select  div itemprop softwareVersion                         first                        ownText                return newVersion            catch  Exception e                return newVersion                        Override     protected void onPostExecute String onlineVersion            super onPostExecute onlineVersion            if   currentVersion equalsIgnoreCase onlineVersion                   show dialog             new AlertDialog Builder context                       setTitle  Updated app available                         setMessage  Want to update app                         setPositiveButton  Update   new DialogInterface OnClickListener                             public void onClick DialogInterface dialog  int which                                   continue with delete                             final String appPackageName   getPackageName       getPackageName   from Context or Activity object                             try                                   Toast makeText getApplicationContext     App is in BETA version cannot update   Toast LENGTH SHORT  show                                    startActivity new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW  Uri parse  market   details id     appPackageName                                   catch  ActivityNotFoundException anfe                                    startActivity new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW  Uri parse  https   play google com store apps details id     appPackageName                                                                                                         setNegativeButton  Later   new DialogInterface OnClickListener                             public void onClick DialogInterface dialog  int which                                   do nothing                             dialog dismiss                                new MyAsyncTask   execute                                                                          setIcon android R drawable ic dialog alert                       show

User · Answer

Google updated play store two months before  This is the solution working right now for me    class GetVersionCode extends AsyncTask lt Void  String  String gt          Override      protected String doInBackground Void    voids             String newVersion   null           try               Document document   Jsoup connect  https   play google com store apps details id     MainActivity this getPackageName        amp hl en                        timeout 30000                       userAgent  Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  WindowsNT 5 1  en-US  rv1 8 1 6  Gecko 20070725 Firefox 2 0 0 6                        referrer  http   www google com                        get                if  document    null                    Elements element   document getElementsContainingOwnText  Current Version                    for  Element ele   element                        if  ele siblingElements      null                            Elements sibElemets   ele siblingElements                            for  Element sibElemet   sibElemets                                newVersion   sibElemet text                                                                                              catch  IOException e                e printStackTrace                      return newVersion                Override      protected void onPostExecute String onlineVersion             super onPostExecute onlineVersion            if  onlineVersion    null  amp  amp   onlineVersion isEmpty                   if  Float valueOf currentVersion   lt  Float valueOf onlineVersion                       show anything                                   Log d  update    Current version     currentVersion    playstore version     onlineVersion              and don t forget to add JSoup library  dependencies   compile  org jsoup jsoup 1 8 3     and on Oncreate     Override protected void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState        super onCreate savedInstanceState       setContentView R layout activity main         String currentVersion      try           currentVersion   getPackageManager   getPackageInfo getPackageName    0  versionName        catch  PackageManager NameNotFoundException e            e printStackTrace               new GetVersionCode   execute         that s it   Thanks to this link

User · Answer

If it is an application on the Market  then on app start-up  fire an Intent to open up the Market app hopefully which will cause it to check for updates   Otherwise implementing and update checker is fairly easy  Here is my code  roughly  for it   String response   SendNetworkUpdateAppRequest       Your code to do the network request                                                     should send the current version                                                     to server if response equals  YES       Start Intent to download the app user has to manually install it by clicking on the notification     startActivity new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW  Uri parse  URL TO LATEST APK        Of course you should rewrite this to do the request on a background thread but you get the idea      If you like something a little but more complex but allows your app to   automatically apply the update see here

User · Answer

To save time writing for check new version update for android app  I written it as library and open source at https   github com winsontan520 Android-WVersionManager

User · Answer

I did using in-app updates  This will only with devices running Android 5 0  API level 21  or higher

User · Answer

There is no API for this  and you can t auto install it  you can just redirect them to it s Market page so they can upgrade  You can have your latest version in a file on a Web server  and have the app check it  Here s one implementation of this   http   code google com p openintents source browse  svn 2Ftrunk 2FUpdateCheckerApp

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You can use this Android Library  https   github com danielemaddaluno Android-Update-Checker  It aims to provide a reusable instrument to check asynchronously if exists any newer released update of your app on the Store  It is based on the use of Jsoup  http   jsoup org   to test if a new update really exists parsing the app page on the Google Play Store   private boolean web update        try                  String curVersion   applicationContext getPackageManager   getPackageInfo package name  0  versionName           String newVersion   curVersion          newVersion   Jsoup connect  https   play google com store apps details id     package name     amp hl en                    timeout 30000                   userAgent  Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  WindowsNT 5 1  en-US  rv1 8 1 6  Gecko 20070725 Firefox 2 0 0 6                    referrer  http   www google com                    get                    select  div itemprop softwareVersion                     first                    ownText            return  value curVersion   lt  value newVersion     true   false        catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace            return false            And as  value  function the following  works if values are beetween 0-99    private long value String string        string   string trim        if  string contains                   final int index   string lastIndexOf                 return value  string substring  0  index     100   value  string substring  index   1                else           return Long valueOf  string               If you want only to verify a mismatch beetween versions  you can change   value curVersion   lt  value newVersion  with value curVersion     value newVersion

User · Answer

Navigate to your play page   https   play google com store apps details id com yourpackage   Using a standard HTTP GET  Now the following jQuery finds important info for you   Current Version      itemprop  softwareVersion     text     What s new      recent-change   each function     all      this  text       n        Now that you can extract these information manually  simply make a method in your app that executes this for you   public static String   getAppVersionInfo String playUrl        HtmlCleaner cleaner   new HtmlCleaner        CleanerProperties props   cleaner getProperties        props setAllowHtmlInsideAttributes true       props setAllowMultiWordAttributes true       props setRecognizeUnicodeChars true       props setOmitComments true       try           URL url   new URL playUrl           URLConnection conn   url openConnection            TagNode node   cleaner clean new InputStreamReader conn getInputStream              Object   new nodes   node evaluateXPath       class  recent-change              Object   version nodes   node evaluateXPath       itemprop  softwareVersion               String version       whatsNew               for  Object new node   new nodes                TagNode info node    TagNode  new node              whatsNew    info node getAllChildren   get 0  toString   trim                           n                     if  version nodes length  gt  0                TagNode ver    TagNode  version nodes 0               version   ver getAllChildren   get 0  toString   trim                      return new String   version  whatsNew         catch  IOException   XPatherException e            e printStackTrace            return null            Uses HtmlCleaner

User · Answer

You should first check the app version on the market and compare it with the version of the app on the device  If they are different  it may be an update available  In this post I wrote down the code for getting the current version of market and current version on the device and compare them together  I also showed how to show the update dialog and redirect the user to the update page  Please visit this link  https   stackoverflow com a 33925032 5475941

User · Answer

I know the OP was very old  at that time in-app-update was not available  But from API 21  you can use in-app-update checking  You may need to keep your eyes on some points which are nicely written up here

[java] How to allow users to check for the latest app version from inside the app?

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