Wikidata:Property proposal/Android ID

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Google Play Store ID[edit]

Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Authority control

Descriptionpackage name of an app registered on Google Play
Data typeExternal identifier
DomainAndroid apps
Allowed valuesalphanumeric, dot
ExampleVLC media player (Q171477) → org.videolan.vlc
Robot and gadget jobsCheck for consistency
Motivation

This ID is currently used in the Google Play Store, F-Droid or the the F-Droid wiki. The wiki can be particularly useful for checking consistency and extracting metadata. ~★ nmaia d 12:42, 3 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion
  •  Support. Datatype changed to "external id"; formatter URL added. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:52, 3 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    • @Pigsonthewing: Are you sure that's the most appropriate datatype? I refrained from choosing it since it's an identifier used by more than one publisher. In my view it would be unfair to privilege any of the two publishers, besides the privacy/security considerations of linking to Google. ~★ nmaia d 14:30, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
      • Yes, I am. Who issues these IDs? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:35, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
        • Not Google. It's the developers themselves. ~★ nmaia d 15:09, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
          • IMHO the fact that Pigsonthewing misunderstood your proposal should be taken into account. If I understand correctly the developer is free to choose the ID but the oganization running the web site guarantees that it is unique. The same application could very well have an id foo.bar on play.google.com and foo2.bar on f-droid.org. It would be sensible to have as many properties as there are name spaces in which the ID is interpreted. Does that make sense ? Dachary (talk) 20:18, 4 October 2016 (UTC
          • That's no more true than claiming that Twitter users issue their own @ identifiers. The user requests the ID, the host site either accepts ("issues") or declines. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:23, 7 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
            • @Pigsonthewing: I don't think that analogy is correct. Please take a look at ChristianKl's description of the process below. ~★ nmaia d 17:05, 7 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
              • That confirms my point. Or are you saying that you could create and publish - to the sites listed - another app with the ID "org.videolan.vlc"? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:32, 7 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
                • Perhaps we read the same thing, but differently. The Android ID has no intrinsic relationship to any of the publishing venues. They just use the ID in their URL to tell them apart. Some apps are released on the Play Store, some apps are released on F-Droid, and other apps are either not released at all, or released independently through standalone .apks. It doesn't make sense to solely benefit the Play Store from publicity. In my opinion it is better to have a general-purpose string that can be used as a link by the end-reuser if desired, so I'm accepting Dachary's suggestion of reverting the proposal back to its original intent. ~★ nmaia d 11:48, 8 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • As far as how the ID works, when developing an Android App the App developer has to assign an ID that's internally used within the Android operating system to address the App. If one App wants to talk to another it addresses the other App by this ID and not like in Windows via a file path.
    Defacto I don't think that a developer wants to publish an App under different ID's in different shops.
    Given that the play store is the major shop for Android I think creating this property with `external-id` with the play store as primary formatter ids (but the other ids can be provided.  Support ChristianKl (talk) 21:31, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Danrok (talk) 19:24, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm supporting this as an external ID for Google's Play store only. So, the same premise as Steam application ID (P1733). Danrok (talk) 20:31, 10 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @NMaia: since there seems to be good support to create a Google Play Store ID would you mind renaming the proposal accordingly ? There should be no need to modify the description since Pigsonthewing already edited it to be just that. Keeping a generic name such as Android ID would create confusion when an ID only exists in a name space different from the Google Play Store (F-Droid for instance). Even if they are a minority, there is no reason to assume their name space is a subset of the Google Play Store, even if they intersect for the most part. A second step could be to create a F-Droid ID etc. Does that sound sensible ? Dachary (talk) 20:44, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support It makes sense to me that a string is used because it makes room for the fact that Google Play Store and F-Droid are two independent name spaces although they largely overlap. This minority of cases does not allow for a Formatter URL such as https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=$1 because it would not match the IDs that only exist in F-Droid. I also acknowledge that this choice is debatable and that there is a strong case for preferring multiple properties (one for Google Play Store ID and another for F-Droid ID). Dachary (talk) 19:29, 10 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @NMaia: since the proposal was modified (i.e. support was given on the variant proposed by @Pigsonthewing: which is slightly different from your original proposal), @ChristianKl: and @Danrok: may want to review it in the next few days. Dachary (talk) 19:35, 10 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose I can no longer support this, as it is not clear that the IDs are unique; nor if it is to be a string rather than an external ID. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:16, 10 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • At the moment it seems clear to me that the property is in need of a better description. ChristianKl (talk) 21:17, 10 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@NMaia, Pigsonthewing, Dachary, ChristianKl: After reviewing the discussion, it seems appropriate to have a dedicated property for "Google Play Store ID" as "external id", and a separate one if wished for F-Droid. If there are no objections, I will create the property "Google Play Store ID" in the next days.--Micru (talk) 16:18, 15 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If that's the compromise that gets this going, so be it. But I still find redundant to have both external ids with exactly the same ID, just pointing at different websites. ~★ nmaia d 16:34, 15 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I remain opposed, for the reasons I gave above, and the lack of clarity. We still don't have a plausible answer to the question "Who issues these IDs?". Dachary says, above, "in a minority of cases they [IDs for a single app, on Google and F-Droid] would be different"; under what circumstances may this happen? What (if anything) stops two app developers from using the same ID? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:23, 16 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
During the registration process of the app the developer chooses a package name, which is reserved for unique use. The registration process and package naming.--Micru (talk) 13:11, 20 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

✓ Done @NMaia, Pigsonthewing, Dachary, ChristianKl: Google Play Store app ID (P3418)--Micru (talk) 13:21, 20 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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