Determine if the user has installed our application through the "Market" link

Question

I have an application that is linked to (via the Android Market URL) on several different sites. What I need to implement is a way to determine where my users came from. Is there a way to determine the URL of the link that the user has completed to download my application through the Android Market?

For example, user A browses xyz.com and clicks a link to view my application on the Android Market, and then proceeds to download it. After installation, is it possible to "programmatically" find out where the user came from (xyz.com)?

I need to implement this myself (in the application) and not rely on external tools or services.

Answer 1

You can use Google Analytics to track usage of your application.

Android Google Analytics provides re-tracking. This should allow you to create a link for each of the sites that link to your application, and keep track of how many applications are installed, because of which site.

See the Referral Tracking chapter in the Google Analytics documentation for Android.

You must rely on the Google Analytics bank, which must be called in the application and registered in the manifest.xml file

Update

If you do not want to use a separate bank, you can try to get referral information yourself. Google Analytics work by registering this Intent filter:

<!-- Used for install referrer tracking --> <receiver android:name="com.google.android.apps.analytics.AnalyticsReceiver" android:exported="true"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" /> </intent-filter> </receiver> 

It seems that the application on the market will send the specified intention immediately after installing the application from the market. Then the intention will be inferred from the AnalyticsReciever class, and they will save the referrer for later use in analytics.

Google says this is how it works:

Android version 1.6 supports the use of the referrer URL parameter in download links in the Android Market. The Google Analytics SDK for Android uses this option to automatically fill in the information about referral / advertising campaigns in Google Analytics for your application. This allows you to record the installation source of the application and communicate with future pageviews and events.

It also means that sites linking to your application must include a specific parameter in the market URL. How this is done is also explained in the Google Analytics documentation.

Answer 2

Afaik no.

However, you can use the URL shortening service, which remembers the HTTP referent , then you will share this URL with the websites. One of these services is referer.us .

Or you can turn your own on AppEngine (reliable and free) using the HttpRedirectFilter .

Edited

Pls take a look at @Janusz's post. He presented the right solution.