APK Downloader Chrome Extension

This original version of this Chromium extension can be found on http://codekiem.com/2012/02/24/apk-downloader/. Improvements have been made by Bexton.

This version is based on apkdownloader-1.3.4.zip as found on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809458. This project was started because the 1.3.4 version became broken with Chromium 23 and because I (Lekensteyn) prefer a public git repository to work on code instead of some obscure zip package from a random forum.

Contributions are always welcome.

Installation

Prior to version 1.4.1, only a source distribution was available, but since I found out that some third parties provide a CRX file with spyware, I decided to make a CRX available as well. For installation instructions, see:

https://lekensteyn.nl/apk-downloader/

Changelog

For changes before and including 1.3.4, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809458.

Version 1.4.2 - 2013-02-03

Fix internal crash when trying to download certain apps.

Version 1.4.1 - 2013-01-13

Packaging-only change, add update URL to manifest file and provided ready-to-install CRX file.

Version 1.4 - 2012-12-09

Rewrite Javascript core of extension, do not make it look too obfuscated.
Chromium 23 compatibility. Due to restrictions on changing headers for clients.google.com, a new approach on retrieving the download URL and actually downloading an APK is implemented.
Due to the rewrite, you should not need to disable SSL warnings anymore.
Add help to options page.
Hide SIM operator options by default as you usually do not need those.

Known issues

No feedback when pressing icon (make it glow?).
No useful error when a download failed or auth expired/removed (todo: decode response).
MarketDA session cookie is not cleared when download is initiated/complete.

Credits

Many thanks to redphoenix89 for the original version and Bexton for the improved version.

Lekensteyn started cleaning the extension, fixing header-related bugs and tried to make the options page more obvious. Rob W rewrote the download code.

Other projects

While trying to find out how things work, I encountered some other projects: Python download script: https://github.com/evilsocket/google-play-downloader (uses the same idea as redphoenix89's Chrome extension, but implemented in Python)

PHP script for downloading (I could not test the actual APK download process as tcpdump did not show the necessary UserID): http://thomascannon.net/blog/2011/06/downloading-apks-from-android-market/

License

The original version (1.3.4) did not have a software license. The newly written code is licensed under GPLv3:

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.