Getting Started with File Dumps

Our mobile and connected TV (CTV) app file dumps provide insight into: app metadata, performance metrics, tech stacks, permissions, localization techniques, top chart rankings, classifications, content ratings, ad space resellers, and more.

Currently, our file dumps provide intelligence on Google Play, the Apple App Store, Amazon Appstore, Tencent MyApp, Huawei AppGallery, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV tvOS App Store, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung Smart TV Apps, LG Content Store, and Vizio SmartCast Apps.

# 1) Install awscli - https://aws.amazon.com/cli/
pip install awscli --upgrade --user

# 2) Configure awscli with the credentials we've provided in your account.
aws configure --profile YOUR_COMPANY

# 3) list the contents of a folder
aws s3 ls s3://external.42matters.com/1/42apps/v0.1/production/playstore/lookup/ --profile YOUR_COMPANY

# 4) list the contents of the timestamped folder
aws s3 ls s3://external.42matters.com/1/42apps/v0.1/production/playstore/lookup/2018-08-16/ --profile YOUR_COMPANY

# 5) download the file locally
aws s3 cp s3://external.42matters.com/1/42apps/v0.1/production/playstore/lookup/2018-08-16/playstore-00.tar.gz playstore.tar.gz --profile YOUR_COMPANY

# 6) unpack the file
tar xvfz playstore.tar.gz
            

Automation with Python Boto3

In order to programmatically download the file dumps, use a client library for AWS S3 in the language of your choice. For Python, we recommend the Boto3 or S3Transfer tools for bulk downloads.

Here we show an example of how to use Boto3 to find the latest available Monthly Playstore Standard file dump and then download it. This code snippet is written in Python.

Setup boto3 with the required credentials, which you can find in the Launchpad.

import boto3

s3 = boto3.resource(
    "s3",
    aws_access_key_id="xxx",
    aws_secret_access_key="xxx",
    use_ssl=True,
)

Download the file named "current", which can be found in the root folder of the dump type and is always updated when there is a new dump ready. Inside it contains a link to the location on S3. Note: Daily Google Play and App Store dumps produce two files — one for updated and one for removed apps. Accordingly there are two current files — "current-updated" and "current-removed".

current_file = s3.Object(
    "external.42matters.com",
    key="1/42apps/v0.1/production/playstore/lookup/current",
)
current_url = current_file.get()["Body"].read().decode("utf-8")

The format of the link inside is:

"https://s3.amazonaws.com/external.42matters.com/1/42apps/VERSION/production/PLATFORM/DUMP_TYPE/YYYY-MM-DD/FILE_NAME.tar.gz"

Boto3 requires to provide the bucket and key separately, so just split the url and extract the two values.

bucket, key = current_url.replace("https://s3.amazonaws.com/", "").split(
    "/", maxsplit=1
)

Download the file.

latest_dump = s3.Object(bucket, key).download_file(
    Filename="current_playstore.tar.gz"
)

Complete Script Example

import boto3

s3 = boto3.resource(
    "s3",
    aws_access_key_id="xxx",
    aws_secret_access_key="xxx",
    use_ssl=True,
)

current_file = s3.Object(
    "external.42matters.com",
    key="1/42apps/v0.1/production/playstore/lookup/current",
)
current_url = current_file.get()["Body"].read().decode("utf-8")

bucket, key = current_url.replace("https://s3.amazonaws.com/", "").split(
    "/", maxsplit=1
)

latest_dump = s3.Object(bucket, key).download_file(
    Filename="current_playstore.tar.gz"
)

head -n 100 playstore-00 | jq -c '.title' -r

head -n 100 itunes-00 | jq -c '.trackCensoredName' -r

Last Modified: 03 May 2023