Market does not filtering based on permission. There is no need to follow that line of thought (and it is no argument for wanting the feature that was brought up here).
The aapt tool is starting to infer features based on permissions, to prevent old applications from being delivered on devices that can now lack features they may have depended on. Some discussion of this can be found here: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/06/future-proofing-your-app.html There may be an issue with Market mistakenly thinking that a bluetooth permission implies the need for the bluetooth feature even on pre-2.0 devices, when it really should start with 2.0 where the feature was introduced. At any rate, the correct thing for an app developer to do is explicitly state which features they care about, and you can there use android:required="false" to tell Market not to filter your app based on it. On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2:26 AM, Jonas Petersson <[email protected]>wrote: > > On 07/14/2010 10:54 AM, Joe wrote: > >> I can see why Google wouldn't want to complicate the permissions for a >> user. I am not suggesting they let the user choose which permissions >> to allow. An obvious issue with doing that is that users could "break" >> your app by crippling the permissions, and then complain it doesn't >> work and give you a bad rating on the market. That is really a >> separate topic/argument. >> > > I think you misunderstood what I asked for: what I'm after is that the > DEVELOPER should have the ability to flag a particular permission as > optional. Market can use this for filtering - in your case an optional > BlueTooth permission would allow users with no bluetooth library > (theoretically 1.x) to install the application. For a user who installs it > on a device WITH bluetooth, the normal installation warning screen would > allow that option to be deselected. The application will have to check > whether it actually got the optional permission - if it doesn´t it deserves > a bad rating. > > Although this is not exactly your problem at the moment it certainly is > closely related. IMHO. > > > Any way back to my issue: >> >> Apps are (or were) filtered from the market based on screen size and >> android version. >> >> They were not filtered based on permissions. >> > > I wouldn't place any bets on that one. I'm pretty sure that for instance > the Barcode Scanner program is filtered out for devices that lack auto focus > for instance. This may not exactly be permissions, but rather a device > profile (I've noted that new/prerelease phones often see a lot less of the > apps on Market), but exactly how it works may be something that we really > shouldn't know too many details of since I would expect it to change > (hopefully improve) over time. > > > It seems some confusion >> has crept in. When i say in my app is android:minSdkVersion="3" - i >> mean it :) >> >> The bluetooth permissions have been around since the start, they are >> nothing new. >> >> This is obviously a mistake recently introduced on the Android >> Market. >> >> Anyone coding a bluetooth app should have made it backwards compatible >> (as mine was) OR have set their minSdkVersion="5" >> > > Well, the good old Bluetooth File Transfer app seems to work. I've not got > a 1.6 device handy, but the one installed on my Milestone has target sdk set > to 4 and it asks for BT admin plus create BT connections. > > > On Jul 14, 10:39 am, DonFrench<[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Ok, I clicked the star and added my support. >>> >> > Excellent! Anyone else? > > > Best / Jonas > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<android-developers%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- Dianne Hackborn Android framework engineer [email protected] Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails. All such questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and answer them. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
