path: root/src/help/appvalidator_help/src/topics/c_appvalidator-conditions.dita

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<concept id="c_appvalidator-conditions" xml:lang="en-us">
  <title>Interpreting App Validator results</title>
  <shortdesc>The App Validator runs a series of "checkers," each of which has one or more conditions that it checks for.
    This document provides detailed information about each checker and each condition, detailing the issues that the
    checkers and conditions are examining your Android apps for and noting the corrective action you may want to take in
    the event that your app is flagged for a given checker/condition combination. </shortdesc>
  <prolog>
    <metadata>
      <keywords>
        <!--<indexterm></indexterm>-->
      </keywords>
    </metadata>
  </prolog>
  <conbody>
    <p>Note that whether or not you elect to take corrective action is up to you; many conditions simply point out
      possible problem areas that in some cases may not actually require any correction.</p>
    <section>
      <title>Permissions Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>permissions</b></p>
      <p>Examines the permissions required by the app and the APIs used by the app, looking for possible problems.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: blockedPermission</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that the requested permissions are required by the application. Permissions have a "protection
              level" that characterizes the potential risk implied by the permission and indicates how the system will
              determine whether to grant the permission to the requesting application (see the Android documentation on
              AndroidManifestPermission_protectionLevel for more information on these protection levels). The
              blockedPermission condition looks to see if the application requires a permission that has a <b
              >signature</b> or <b>signatureOrSystem</b> protection level. Such permissions are not intended to be used
              by third-party developers; Android will deny their use.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, remove the requirement for the problematic permissions within your app's
              Android manifest file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingPermission</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Some APIs require that the app request specific permissions in order to be used. If the necessary
              permissions are not declared in the Android manifest file, a SecurityException is thrown at runtime. This
              checker looks at the permissions requested in the Android manifest file to ensure that all needed
              permissions (based upon an examination of the app's source) have been requested.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, add the noted permissions to your application's Android manifest file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: unneededPermission</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that all of the requested permissions are actually needed by the app</p>
            <p>If you are notified that your app is requesting unneeded permissions, ensure that they are truly needed.
              If they are not, remove the superfluous ones from your AndroidManifest.xml file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Google Play Filters Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>googlePlayFilters</b></p>
      <p>The Google Play Filters checker looks for situations where:<ul>
          <li>your app will be rejected by Google Play</li>
          <li>your app will not appear in Google Play on specific devices</li>
          <li>your app will appear in Google Play on devices for which it wasn't intended</li>
        </ul></p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingVersionCodeOrName</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies the existence of android:versionCode and android:versionName attributes in the &lt;manifest&gt;
              element within the app's Android manifest file. Google Play requires the presence of both of these
              attributes. It uses android:versionCode to identify the application internally and to handle updates, and
              it displays the android:versionName value to users as the application's version.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, add the required attributes to the &lt;manifest&gt; element in your app's
              Android manifest file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: certificatePeriodExpired</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that the validity period for the certificate used to sign the app meets the requirements set by
              Google Play. Google Play requires that your app be signed with a cryptographic private key that is valid
              beyond 22 October 2033.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, re-sign the app with a certificate that has the required validity
            period.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingManifestIconOrLabel</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies the existence of android:icon and android:label attributes on the &lt;application&gt; element
              within the app's Android manifest file. Both of these attributes are required by Google Play.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, edit the app's Android manifest file and add the missing attributes to the
              &lt;application&gt; element.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingMinSdkVersion</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that the &lt;uses-sdk&gt; element has the android:minSdkVersion attribute set to an explicit
              value. Although this attribute is not strictly required, Android assumes a value of "1" if it is not
              present, indicating that the app is compatible with all versions of Android. Most apps are not compatible
              with all versions of Android, for various reasons. If, for instance, your app uses an API that was
              introduced in a later version and you do not set the android:minSdkVersion attribute to that version (or
              later), your app could potentially be installed on a device running an earlier version of Android, where
              it will crash when the missing API is called. Because of this, apps should always explicitly declare the
              minimum SDK version they support.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, add the android:minSdkVersion attribute, with the appropriate API level
              value, to the &lt;uses-sdk&gt; element in your Android manifest file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: permissionToImpliedFeatures</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks if an application's manifest file contains &lt;uses-permission> elements that imply certain
              features without explicitly declaring those features. For example, if an application requests the CAMERA
              permission but does not declare a &lt;uses-feature> element for android.hardware.camera, Google Play
              assumes that the application requires a camera and does not show it on devices that do not have a camera. </p>
            <p>For a list of permissions that imply hardware features, see the <xref
                href="http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html" format="html"
                scope="external">documentation for the &lt;uses-feature> element</xref>. </p>
            <p>Because Google Play does not filter based on &lt;uses-permission> elements, and because it is able to
              infer certain features based upon permission requests, you are not required to supply the implied
              &lt;uses-feature> elements. However, it is good practice to do so: explicitly list all features and
              permissions required by your app in the app's Android manifest file. Note that if your app is able to use,
              but does not require, an implied feature, add <b>android:required="false"</b> to the feature declaration,
              and check for the presence of the feature at run time by calling <b>getSystemAvailableFeatures()</b>. </p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: declaredMaxSdkVersion</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks if the &lt;uses-sdk> element has the android:maxSdkVersion attribute. This attribute has been
              deprecated; it is ignored by Android version 2.1 and later. Declaring android:maxSdkVersion is not
              recommended. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, remove the android:maxSdkVersion attribute from the &lt;uses-sdk> element in
              your app's Android manifest file. </p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Device Compatibility Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>deviceCompatibility</b></p>
      <p>The App Validator maintains a set of specifications for various Android-powered Motorola devices. The Device
        Compatibility checker compares the requirements listed in the app's Android manifest file against these device
        specifications, noting those devices with which the app is incompatible.</p>
      <p>Note that you can get a list of the device specifications by issuing the <b>appValidator</b> command (on the
        command line) with the <b>-list-devices</b> option. To see the specifications for a given device, use the <b
          >-describe-device</b> option.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: smallScreenSupport</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks for a lack of support for small screen devices by examining the android:smallScreens attribute
              within the &lt;supports-screens> element in the app's Android manifest file. Note that if the
              &lt;uses-sdk> element has both its android:minSdkVersion and android:targetSdkVersion attributes set to 3
              or less (or are omitted, which implies a value of 1), android:smallScreens is defined to be <b>false</b>.
              Either or both of these values must be 4 or higher in order for your app to be able to target small screen
              devices.</p>
            <p>A small screen is defined as one with a smaller aspect ratio than the "normal" screen. An example of a
              small screen device is the <xref href="http://developer.motorola.com/products/charm-mb502/" format="html"
                scope="external">Motorola CHARM™</xref>.</p>
            <p>This condition is not checked if android:smallScreens is explictly set to <b>false</b>.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test and you want it to be available in Google Play for small screen devices,
              ensure that the android:minSdkVersion and android:targetSdkVersion attributes in the &lt;uses-sdk> element
              are set to 4 or higher, and set android:smallScreens (an attribute of the &lt;supports-screens> element)
              to <b>true</b>.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: xlargeScreenSupport</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks for extra large screen support. Unless the app has explicitly indicated a lack of extra large
              screen support (with &lt;supports-screens android:xlargeScreens="false"&gt; or extra large screens not
              listed in the &lt;compatible-screens> element within the manifest file), the checker looks to see if
              either targetSdk or minSdk are less than 4.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, either change your target API level to 4 or higher (if you intend for your
              app to support extra large screens) or indicate that your app does not support extra large screens by both
              adding &lt;supports-screens android:xlargeScreens="false"&gt; to your app's manifest file and ensuring
              that the &lt;compatible-screens> element, if present, does not mention xlarge screens.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: unsupportedFeatures</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Compares the permissions and features required by the application (as declared in the application's
              Android Manifest file) against the device specifications to see if the device has all of the required
              features. The app will not appear in Google Play on a device that does not have all of the required
              features (including those that may be implied by required permissions). </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, ensure that the noted permission or feature truly is required by your
              application. Consider adding <b>android:required="false"</b> to the feature declaration if the feature is
              optional, and not strictly required. Note that if the feature is optional your app can use <b
                >getSystemAvailableFeatures()</b> to check for the presence of the feature at run time.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Localization Strings Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>localizationStrings</b></p>
      <p>The Localization Strings checker attempts to verify that the application is correctly localized, specifically
        by checking if all values are translated to all languages.</p>
      <p>This checker only validates applications that have at least one language-specific resource.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingDefaultLanguageKey</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>The <b>missingDefaultLanguageKey</b> condition verifies that the default strings file
              (res/values/strings.xml) is present and that it contains a default string value for each key. If this
              default strings file is absent, or is missing a string that your application needs, your application will
              Force Close and present the user with an error message. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, ensure that res/values/strings.xml exists. Within it, supply default text
              strings for any keys that don't already have them. </p>
            <p>Note that this situation applies to all types of resources, not just strings: you should create a set of
              default resource files containing all of the layouts, drawables, animations, and other resources that your
              application relies upon. For information about localization in Android, see <xref
                href="http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/localization.html" format="html"
                scope="external">the Localization topic within the Android Dev Guide</xref>.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingLanguageKey</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Examines non-default text strings files for missing keys: keys that are present in the default strings
              file (res/values/strings.xml) but not in the locale-specific text strings file. This lack of a translation
              for a specific key can represent a failure in the translation process. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, ensure that it is OK for your app to fall back to the default string values.
              If not, add the missing keys to the non-default text strings file and supply localized string values.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingValue</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks for keys that do not have a value defined in either the default language or in other languages. If
              the default string is empty, nothing is displayed on screen, which is probably not what you intend. If a
              locale-specific key has the empty string for a value, it prevents a fallback to the default value, which
              is also probably not what you intend. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, and the key with the missing value is in the default text strings file
              (res/values/strings.xml), supply the missing value. If the missing value is in a locale-specific text
              strings file, do one of the following:<ul>
                <li>supply a localized value for the key if there should be one</li>
                <li>remove the key from the file if the value from the default strings file should be used</li>
                <li>leave the value empty if the empty string is the correct value for the key in that locale</li>
              </ul></p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Missing Drawable Resources Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>missingDrawableResources</b>
      </p>
      <p>Checks your application's drawable resources, looking to see if your app has properly-sized images for every
        supported screen size and density. </p>
      <p>This checker only runs if the android:anyDensity attribute of the &lt;supports-screens> element in your app's
        Android manifest file is set to <b>true</b> and the target SDK is higher than 3. Note that during app packaging
        AAPT automatically overrides the android:anyDensity value and forces it to <b>false</b> if there are missing
        drawables. Because of this, this checker does not generate results when you supply an APK to the MOTODEV App
        Validator.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: unsupportedDensity</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks for the existence of a drawable-xdpi folder when the application's API level is lower than 8. An
              API level of 7 or lower will cause the drawable-xdpi folder to be ignored, thus the existence of this
              particular condition. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, consider increasing the app's API level to 8 or above (and then verifying
              that your app properly supports extra-high-density screens). Alternatively, you can remove the
              drawable-xdpi folder, since it will be ignored and its contents simply take up unnecessary space in the
              application package. </p>
            <p>For more information on screen sizes and supporting the wide variety of Android devices on the market
              today, see <xref href="http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html" format="html"
                scope="external">Supporting Multiple Screens in the Android Dev Guide</xref>.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingDrawables</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Examines each of the drawable folders to ensure that they all contain the same set of images. Images that
              appear in one drawable folder but not in another have not been properly customized for every supported
              screen size and density. Although Android will fall back on the default in this case, scaling the
              corresponding default image as necessary, this may result in a less-than-optimal image. For the best
              results you should supply a full set of images corresponding to each drawable folder. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, consider supplying the missing images, properly sized and scaled as
              appropriate for the enclosing drawable folder. </p>
            <p>For more information on screen sizes and supporting the wide variety of Android devices on the market
              today, see <xref href="http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html" format="html"
                scope="external">Supporting Multiple Screens in the Android Dev Guide</xref>.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingDrawableFolders</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that separate drawable folders exist for the four supported densities: low, medium, high, and
              extra-high. Although Android can automatically scale a default drawable to make up for a missing density,
              for best results you should supply a full set of images for each supported density. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, consider adding folders for the missing density, complete with a full set of
              drawables scaled properly for that density. </p>
            <p>For more information on screen sizes and supporting the wide variety of Android devices on the market
              today, see <xref href="http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html" format="html"
                scope="external">Supporting Multiple Screens in the Android Dev Guide</xref>.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Layout Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>layout</b>
      </p>
      <p>Check the application layout files for problems within their definitions and inconsistencies among the layouts
        for different configurations.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingId</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Compares corresponding layouts to ensure that they each have the same set of IDs. If two corresponding
              layouts define different IDs for the same UI element, the resulting R.java file will have definitions for
              both, and any code that references either (or both) will compile. However, the app will force close at run
              time if the particular layout being shown does not contain the ID being referenced. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, update the named layouts so that they properly declare the noted IDs.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: repeatedId</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Scans through your layout files, looking for duplicate IDs. Two or more widgets that share an ID can
              cause problems if your code references one of those widgets by ID: the wrong widget might be referenced,
              causing unexpected behavior.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, update the widgets containing the listed IDs so that they no longer share a
              common ID value.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: viewTypeIds</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that a given ID is always used by the same kind of view when that ID appears in multiple layout
              configurations. This condition arises, for example, when you have both portrait and landscape
              configurations of your layout in which a given ID is used for one widget type (a TextView, say) in one
              configuration and an entirely different widget type (a Button, say) in the other. A situation such as this
              can result in a class cast exception: a call to findViewById(), for instance will succeed or fail
              depending upon the device's current orientation.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, examine those layout configurations that use the listed ID and update them
              as needed to ensure that different widget types used different IDs.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: xlargeLayouts</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Examines your project to see if it contains layouts within the res/layout-xlarge folder.</p>
            <p>If your application fails this test and you intend for it to run on a device with an extra large screen
              (such as a 10" tablet), be sure that it runs with the look and feel you expect. Most applications will
              need layouts designed specifically for extra large screens. If your app is not intended to be run on a
              device with an extra large screen, add &lt;supports-screens android:xlargeScreens="false"&gt; to your
              AndroidManifest.xml file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Single Main Activity Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>singleMainActivity</b>
      </p>
      <p>Checks the number of activities set as "main". Although some applications can have more than one (or zero)
        entry points, most applications have only one.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: exactlyOne</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Checks for the presence of exactly one activity set as "main", indicating that the app has a single
              activity that initiates the application. Although having more (or less) than one main activity is not
              wrong, it is rare enough to warrant a condition check. </p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, and you intend for it to only have a single main entry point, examine your
              app's Android manifest file and ensure that only a single activity has an intent filter with the following
              action: </p>
            <codeblock>&lt;action android:name="code android.intent.action.MAIN"/></codeblock>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Code Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>codeChecker</b></p>
      <p>Looks for possible issues with Java code.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: openedCursors</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Looks for methods that don't seem to properly close their cursors. Note that this checker can report a
              problem when none exists, if the cursor is closed in a non-obvious way. Also note that managed cursors
              don't need to be closed by your app.</p>
            <p>If your app fails this test, verify that all cursors are properly closed.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Widget Preview Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>widgetPreview</b></p>
      <p>Examines widget projects to see if they support the preview feature.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: missingWidgetPreview</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Warns you if your widget project does not appear to contain a preview of what the AppWidget will look
              like after it's configured. A widget project that doesn't include a preview image will initially be
              displayed to the user as the AppWidget's icon. </p>
            <p>This condition is only valid for Android 3.1 or higher.</p>
            <p>If you receive this warning, consider whether your widget project should contain a preview image. If so,
              add the image to your project and then add the the android:previewImage attribute to the &lt;receiver&gt;
              element in your AndroidManifest.xml file.</p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Building Blocks Declaration Checker</title>
      <p>Checker ID: <b>buildingBlocksDeclaration</b></p>
      <p>Looks for inconsistencies within the Android components—such as Activities, Services, Content providers, and
        Broadcast receivers—declared in your AndroidManifest.xml file.</p>
      <dl>
        <dlentry>
          <dt>Condition: buildingBlockMissDeclaration</dt>
          <dd>
            <p>Verifies that the Android components declared in your project's AndroidManifest.xml file extend the
              classes from which they should inherit. If your app fails this test, verify that the indicated building
              block extends the listed class. If it does not, your app may crash.<note type="note">A class that
                indirectly inherits from an Android building block will be flagged as a possible problem, even though it
                is not.</note></p>
          </dd>
        </dlentry>
      </dl>
    </section>
  </conbody>
</concept>