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Author SHA1 Message Date
dhruv.godvani 22582bdcd7 Add developer email and website fields to CSV output
- Updated CSV_FIELDS to include "developer_email" and "developer_website".
- Modified play_row function to extract developer email and website from the response.
- Updated appstore_row function to include developer website, with a note that developer email is not available from Apple's API.
2026-06-18 12:36:17 +05:30
dhruv.godvani 159c00762d feat: enhance CSV handling with backup snapshots and last updated date parsing
- Added support for parsing multiple date formats for the "lastUpdatedOn" field from Google Play.
- Implemented a backup mechanism in CsvSink to create snapshots of the CSV file every N rows, with a configurable number of backups to keep.
- Updated the CsvSink class to handle file flushing and backup creation safely.
- Modified the run function to allow configuration of backup settings via command-line arguments.
2026-06-17 19:25:06 +05:30
3 changed files with 212 additions and 400025 deletions
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# Run Plan — Collect ~2 Lakh (200k) Apps + Scrape Overnight
A step-by-step runbook for one full-time laptop. Goal: discover **~200,000 apps**
(Google Play + Apple App Store) across multiple countries, then scrape full data
for **US + AU** (add more as needed) overnight.
> Full architecture & how everything works: see **ARCHITECTURE.html**.
---
## The strategy in one line
**App Store** is the volume engine (~180 apps per search term) → it carries you to 200k.
**Google Play** is slow (~30 per query, hard cap) → it adds ~4060k using the fast `--deep` set.
Running Play with the full wordlist would waste ~11 hours on duplicates, so we **don't**.
---
## PHASE 1 — Discover the apps (run during the day, ~36 hrs)
### Step 1. App Store — the big pull (full wordlist)
```powershell
python discover.py --skip-play --target 160000 --deep --terms-file english_words.txt --countries us,au,gb,in,ca,de
```
### Step 2. Google Play — bounded & fast (adds Play apps)
```powershell
python discover.py --skip-appstore --deep --countries us,au,gb,in,ca,de
```
Both steps **merge into the same `apps.json`** (Step 2 keeps Step 1's results).
More countries = more unique apps → edit the `--countries` list to match where you operate.
### Step 3. Back up the list immediately (it's a multi-hour artifact!)
```powershell
Copy-Item apps.json apps_backup.json
```
### Check the count anytime
```powershell
python -c "import json;c=json.load(open('apps.json',encoding='utf-8'));print('Play',len(c['google_play']),'+ App Store',len(c['app_store']),'=',len(c['google_play'])+len(c['app_store']))"
```
If under 200k, add more countries (e.g. `,fr,br,jp,mx`) and re-run **Step 1**.
---
## PHASE 2 — Scrape the data (overnight)
### Before you start: set a faster pace (one-time)
Open `apps.json` and set the delay in `settings` to `0.5` (currently `1.0`):
```jsonc
"delay_seconds": 0.5
```
Effective request rate ≈ `workers ÷ delay`. At `workers 8` and `delay 0.5` → ~16 req/s.
### Run the scrape (US + AU)
```powershell
python scraper.py --countries us,au --workers 8
```
- Produces **one row per app per country** → ~200k apps × 2 countries ≈ 400k rows.
- Output: **`output/app_data.csv`**
- Auto-backups every 1,000 rows to **`output/backups/`**.
### If it doesn't finish in one night
Just **run the exact same command again** the next night — it **resumes** and skips
everything already done. It's totally fine if this takes 12 nights.
**Rough timing:** ~400k rows at ~16 req/s ≈ **7 hours** (one night). 3 countries ≈ 1011 hrs.
---
## Safety (unattended overnight)
- The **circuit breaker** auto-pauses all workers if a store rate-limits, then resumes.
Seeing occasional `THROTTLING: pausing all workers` in the log = protection working, not an error.
- If you wake up to **constant** throttling messages → lower to `--workers 6` next run.
- Don't push workers too high while you sleep — an IP block at 2am costs more time than running slower.
---
## Recovery (if something gets deleted)
- **`output/app_data.csv` lost?** Copy the newest snapshot back, then re-run (it resumes):
```powershell
Copy-Item output\backups\app_data.bak3.csv output\app_data.csv
python scraper.py --countries us,au --workers 8
```
- **`apps.json` lost?** Restore your backup:
```powershell
Copy-Item apps_backup.json apps.json
```
---
## Output columns (`output/app_data.csv`)
`store, country, app_id, title, developer, developer_email, developer_website,
category, price, currency, free, avg_rating, total_ratings, text_review_count,
last_updated, version, url`
- `developer_email` → filled for almost all **Google Play** apps; **blank for App Store** (Apple's API has none).
- `developer_website` → filled for both stores.
---
## Command cheat sheet
```powershell
# DISCOVER (App Store volume + Play)
python discover.py --skip-play --target 160000 --deep --terms-file english_words.txt --countries us,au,gb,in,ca,de
python discover.py --skip-appstore --deep --countries us,au,gb,in,ca,de
Copy-Item apps.json apps_backup.json
# SCRAPE (overnight, resumable)
python scraper.py --countries us,au --workers 8
# CHECK COUNT
python -c "import json;c=json.load(open('apps.json',encoding='utf-8'));print(len(c['google_play'])+len(c['app_store']))"
```
---
## Notes / limits (honest)
- No store has an "all apps" list — you only get what discovery finds. 200k is realistic; *every* app is not.
- Google Play search is capped at ~30 results/query — Play volume comes from many terms, not from one big query.
- Developer **phone numbers** are not available from either source.
- Data collected is **public, non-personal** app metadata. Using `developer_email` for bulk
outreach is governed by anti-spam law (CAN-SPAM / GDPR / CASL) — get sign-off before any marketing use.
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@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ import argparse
import csv
import json
import logging
import os
import shutil
import threading
import time
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor, as_completed
@@ -60,7 +62,8 @@ MAX_RATE_LIMIT_WAITS = 12
MAX_TRANSIENT_RETRIES = 4
CSV_FIELDS = [
"store", "country", "app_id", "title", "developer", "category",
"store", "country", "app_id", "title", "developer",
"developer_email", "developer_website", "category",
"price", "currency", "free",
"avg_rating", "total_ratings", "text_review_count",
"last_updated", "version", "url",
@@ -74,6 +77,33 @@ def epoch_to_date(ts):
return None
# Google Play's displayed "lastUpdatedOn" string can appear in several locale
# formats. We parse it to ISO (YYYY-MM-DD) because it matches what the store
# shows; the raw epoch is only a fallback (it can be off by a day in UTC).
_PLAY_DATE_FORMATS = (
"%b %d, %Y", # Jun 16, 2026
"%B %d, %Y", # June 16, 2026
"%d %b %Y", # 16 Jun 2026
"%d %B %Y", # 16 June 2026
"%Y-%m-%d", # 2026-06-16
"%d-%m-%Y", # 16-06-2026
"%m/%d/%Y", # 06/16/2026
"%d/%m/%Y", # 16/06/2026
)
def play_last_updated(text, epoch):
"""Return the last-updated date as ISO YYYY-MM-DD."""
if text:
t = str(text).strip()
for fmt in _PLAY_DATE_FORMATS:
try:
return datetime.strptime(t, fmt).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
except ValueError:
continue
return epoch_to_date(epoch) # fallback when the string can't be parsed
# --- Google Play ------------------------------------------------------------
def play_row(app_id: str, lang: str, country: str) -> dict:
d = gp_app(app_id, lang=lang, country=country)
@@ -83,6 +113,8 @@ def play_row(app_id: str, lang: str, country: str) -> dict:
"app_id": app_id,
"title": d.get("title"),
"developer": d.get("developer"),
"developer_email": d.get("developerEmail"),
"developer_website": d.get("developerWebsite"),
"category": d.get("genre"),
"price": d.get("price"),
"currency": d.get("currency"),
@@ -90,7 +122,7 @@ def play_row(app_id: str, lang: str, country: str) -> dict:
"avg_rating": d.get("score"),
"total_ratings": d.get("ratings"),
"text_review_count": d.get("reviews"),
"last_updated": d.get("lastUpdatedOn") or epoch_to_date(d.get("updated")),
"last_updated": play_last_updated(d.get("lastUpdatedOn"), d.get("updated")),
"version": d.get("version"),
"url": d.get("url"),
}
@@ -117,6 +149,8 @@ def appstore_row(app_id: int, country: str) -> dict | None:
"app_id": meta.get("trackId"),
"title": meta.get("trackName"),
"developer": meta.get("sellerName"),
"developer_email": None, # Apple's lookup API does not expose a dev email
"developer_website": meta.get("sellerUrl"),
"category": meta.get("primaryGenreName"),
"price": price,
"currency": meta.get("currency"),
@@ -134,9 +168,16 @@ def appstore_row(app_id: int, country: str) -> dict | None:
class CsvSink:
"""Append rows one at a time, flushing each so progress survives a crash."""
def __init__(self, path: Path, fields: list):
def __init__(self, path: Path, fields: list,
backup_every: int = 1000, keep: int = 5):
self.path = path
self.fields = fields
self.lock = threading.Lock()
self.backup_every = max(0, backup_every)
self.keep = max(1, keep)
self.backup_dir = path.parent / "backups"
self.n = 0 # rows written this session
self._bak_idx = -1 # ring-buffer index for rotating snapshots
write_header = not path.exists() or path.stat().st_size == 0
self.fh = path.open("a", newline="", encoding="utf-8-sig")
self.writer = csv.DictWriter(self.fh, fieldnames=fields, extrasaction="ignore")
@@ -147,10 +188,35 @@ class CsvSink:
def write(self, row: dict) -> None:
with self.lock:
self.writer.writerow({k: row.get(k) for k in self.fields})
self.fh.flush() # row is on disk immediately
self.n += 1
if self.backup_every and self.n % self.backup_every == 0:
self._snapshot()
def _snapshot(self) -> None:
"""Force to disk, then copy the live CSV into backups/ (ring of `keep`)."""
try:
self.fh.flush()
os.fsync(self.fh.fileno()) # guarantee physical write
self.backup_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
self._bak_idx = (self._bak_idx + 1) % self.keep
dest = self.backup_dir / f"{self.path.stem}.bak{self._bak_idx + 1}.csv"
shutil.copyfile(self.path, dest)
log.info("backup snapshot -> %s", dest)
except Exception as exc: # never let a backup break the run
log.warning("backup snapshot failed (continuing): %s", exc)
def close(self) -> None:
self.fh.close()
with self.lock:
if self.backup_every:
self._snapshot() # final snapshot before closing
else:
try:
self.fh.flush()
os.fsync(self.fh.fileno())
except Exception:
pass
self.fh.close()
# --- orchestration ----------------------------------------------------------
@@ -220,7 +286,8 @@ def fetch_one(job, lang: str, delay: float, throttle: Throttle):
def run(config_path: Path, out_dir: Path, countries_override: list | None,
workers: int, shard: int, shards: int, resume: bool) -> None:
workers: int, shard: int, shards: int, resume: bool,
backup_every: int, backups_keep: int) -> None:
if not config_path.exists():
log.error("Config %s not found — run discover.py first to create it.",
config_path)
@@ -239,6 +306,17 @@ def run(config_path: Path, out_dir: Path, countries_override: list | None,
name = "app_data.csv" if shards == 1 else f"app_data_shard{shard}of{shards}.csv"
out_path = out_dir / name
# If the live CSV is gone but snapshots exist, the user can recover instead
# of re-scraping from zero.
backup_dir = out_dir / "backups"
if not out_path.exists() and backup_dir.exists():
baks = sorted(backup_dir.glob(f"{out_path.stem}.bak*.csv"),
key=lambda p: p.stat().st_mtime, reverse=True)
if baks:
log.warning("%s is missing but a backup exists: %s", out_path, baks[0])
log.warning("To resume instead of restarting, copy that backup back to "
"%s, then re-run.", out_path)
skipped = 0
if resume:
done = load_done(out_path)
@@ -248,7 +326,7 @@ def run(config_path: Path, out_dir: Path, countries_override: list | None,
total = len(jobs)
throttle = Throttle()
sink = CsvSink(out_path, CSV_FIELDS)
sink = CsvSink(out_path, CSV_FIELDS, backup_every=backup_every, keep=backups_keep)
log.info(
"shard %d/%d | %d jobs (%d already done, skipped) | %d workers | %s",
@@ -308,6 +386,10 @@ def main() -> None:
help="total number of machines splitting the work")
parser.add_argument("--no-resume", action="store_true",
help="ignore existing CSV and scrape everything again")
parser.add_argument("--backup-every", type=int, default=1000,
help="snapshot the CSV to backups/ every N rows (0 = off)")
parser.add_argument("--backups-keep", type=int, default=5,
help="how many rolling snapshots to keep")
args = parser.parse_args()
if not 0 <= args.shard < args.shards:
@@ -318,7 +400,8 @@ def main() -> None:
if args.countries else None
)
run(Path(args.config), Path(args.out), countries,
args.workers, args.shard, args.shards, resume=not args.no_resume)
args.workers, args.shard, args.shards, resume=not args.no_resume,
backup_every=args.backup_every, backups_keep=args.backups_keep)
if __name__ == "__main__":