Uploading Your Application

You should be able to click the blue area marked “Upload Application” to start the process of officially uploading the application. You should see the screen that you see in Figure 9-20. If you have navigated away from this screen, just go back to http://market.android.com/publish.

Figure 9-20. Time to upload your APK

You will then need to upload the application that you just unlocked in your keystore. Be certain that the name you want for the application is the same name as the APK file. If you want to change the name of the APK file, you should do that before you upload it. When it is loaded, you should see something like Figure 9-21.

Figure 9-21. What you should see after your APK is loaded. Note that the icon is clearly visible.

Now you will need to upload a variety of other items for your app, as shown in Figure 9-22.

Figure 9-22. The “Upload assets” area

You will then need to upload the screenshots from wherever you saved them on your computer; you will see these screenshots very clearly after they are uploaded. I discussed earlier in this chapter the proper dimensions of a screenshot and what kinds of shots you’ll want to include, so take a look back if you need a refresher. As of November 2010, the Android Market allows for eight possible screenshots, so you should make the most of them.

As shown in Figure 9-22, you are required to submit a high-resolution icon, which will appear in various locations in the Android Market. It is not meant to replace your launcher icon; note that its dimensions are relatively large in comparison (512×512).

The promotional graphic is different from the screenshots, and it will only show on the Android Market on devices with version 1.6 or later. According to the official Android Market site, this will be in use in various locations in the Android Market, and that is about as specific as it gets. This is completely optional, but you have hopefully created a lot of promotional material for your application, so you might as well use it here.

The feature graphic will be used on the Android Market, and it “will be downsized to mini or micro,” according to the Android Market help section. The specs are officially spelled out as 1024w×500h, 24-bit PNG or JPEG, with no transparency. Also required is a safe frame of 924×400 with 50-pixel padding on each side. The feature graphic can be the application’s official logo, combined with any official graphics. Android recommends large font sizes and a simple graphic, as it could be scaled down from the original size. Like the promotional graphic, the feature graphic is optional.

The promotional video is another optional step that I recommend doing. I already discussed the basics of a promotional video in the last chapter as part of generating prerelease buzz. The Android Market requires you to use a YouTube video in this case; you can simply copy and paste your YouTube video URL into the Promotional Video field.

The marketing opt-out allows you to choose not to have your application feature in whatever promotions Google may run for the Android Market. You should check the Marketing Opt-Out box if you want Google to use your application in any sort of promoting.

The next section is for the listing details, as shown in Figure 9-23.

Figure 9-23. The “Listing details” section of the Android Market publishing form

The first step in this section is merely deciding what language you want your listing in. It automatically defaults to English in the United States. This was good for my first application, as it was designed for a specific audience in the United States. If you really want your application to succeed worldwide, though, then you need to think globally. Set it for any language of any country that will use your application. This does not mean that your program will necessarily work in these other countries, though, as certain APIs (such as those from Yahoo) only work in the United States. You will probably want to test out your application in other countries with various Android users to make certain it works.

The Title section is where your application finally gets a name. I discussed this in Chapter 2, and hopefully you have finally settled on one that is short, sweet, and memorable. Perhaps you have taken it a step further and bought the domain so you can use it as the URL of your web site. Also make certain that the name of your application will be easily found by a search engine.

Like naming a child, you have to settle on something, and here is the moment of truth. If you are marketing free and paid versions, don’t forget to put “free” or “lite” if it is a free application, or “plus” if it is a paid one (or whatever you are planning to name these if you are using this popular Android marketing strategy).

The Description field allows you to enter a 4,000-character description of your application. If this isn’t enough space for you, you can use the Recent Changes section to add more content. Your description should be a brief, easy-to-read overview of all your application’s best features.

As you might have guessed, you don’t have to deal with the Recent Changes section if this is your first time. In the next section, I will talk about what to do when you need to update your application. Here you can list what is new in your application, but for now, leave it blank.

You only have to worry about the Promo Text section if you are using a promotional graphic. (In fact, if you try to type in this field without a promotional graphic, you will get an error message when you try to publish). This promo text will appear when a user clicks the promotional graphic.

As I discussed in Chapter 2, you will have to eventually choose an application category. It is a difficult choice, and it narrows it with games or applications. The Games section has different categories:

• Arcade and Action
• Brain and Puzzle
• Cards and Casino
• Casual
• Racing
• Sports Games

Personally, I would have preferred more categories on the game front, as some of the best games defy a genre-naming convention. If that’s the case for your application, just choose a category and run with it.

The next section deals with publishing options (see Figure 9-24).

Figure 9-24. The “Publishing options” section of the Android Market publishing form

When it comes to copy protection, many of my sources say to choose the Off option, as the On option doubles the size of the APK file. The reason this section is here is because before Froyo (version 2.2), Android users could not install applications on their SD card. You should probably keep your file size as small as you can, so Off is the best option if you have a program that takes up a lot of memory. Now, if your file takes up little memory, and you are concerned about copy protection, go ahead and choose On.

You will then need to rate the content of your application, and you have four choices:

• Everyone
• Low Maturity
• Medium Maturity
• High Maturity

Notice that there is a link there that will take you to page that goes into great detail about what level your application should be rated. Factors include the following:

• Alcohol, tobacco, and drug use
• Gambling
• Profanity and crude humor
• Sexual and suggestive content
• User-generated content and user-to-user communication
• Violence

If your application contains any of these things, make sure you have it set for the proper rating, according to the Android Market. This is one rule that you really want to follow, as a violation of it could cause you to be flagged as incorrectly rated, and it will be then re-rated. Google states that “Repeat offenders may be subject to further action, up to and including account termination.” In other words, Google is serious about not wanting certain stuff on their Android applications.

From there, it is time to list the price. Chapter 6 discusses the pros and cons of free and paid applications, so revisit that chapter if you’re still unsure of what or whether you want to charge. You can then set up a merchant account by clicking the link on the Pricing line.

The list of locations really speaks for itself, and you can probably just leave all of them checked unless there is something on this application that is only good in one country. For example, a San Francisco street map application isn’t going to do much good in any other country but the United States. The country list gets really complicated after the first part, as there is another checklist of countries after the first list. I am not certain why all the countries are not grouped together, but you should find whatever country you are looking for there.

You will then notice a section that says “Supported Devices” and “This application is only available to devices with these features, as described in your application manifest.” I was taken aback when I saw this for the first time, especially when I saw the part saying, “This application is available to over 0 devices.” My first thought was, “Uh-oh, did I do something wrong?” As a developer, these thoughts tend to go through your head sometimes. As it turns out, I had nothing to fear, as after the application was published, I saw that it had over 507 devices, and I could even click to see what devices were using it. So don’t worry about what the Supported Devices section says for now.

From here, there are two sections left to be filled out. The first is for contact information, and the next is for consent, as shown in Figure 9-25.

Figure 9-25. The last two sections of the Android Market publishing form

Unless you have someone else who will handle all matters pertaining to your application, you should put your e-mail address here, along with your phone number.

Chapter 3 discussed creating a web site and blog for your application. It had better be up and running by this point, as this will appear on the Android Market in the Developer section.

As for the phone number, this is required too. Google has a link to a page explaining that you must provide your phone number so that Google can contact you should any problems arise. I’m sure you do not want to be flooded with calls in regard to your application. Believe me when I say that if your application runs smoothly, very few people will contact you to say how good it is. Chances are you’ll receive calls when your application isn’t working, though. These calls from users can happen any time day or night, so be prepared for that!

You should read anything that has a link in the consent section, and scroll back to the top and click Publish. If any errors are detected, you will have to go back and correct them.