AppReviews 1.0.1

Yesterday I posted a simple tool to check application reviews / ratings.

It works fine except:

1. Applications must be added / removed editing a XML file in the installation directory
2. To change the stores (set / clear Active-Flag) you must also edit a XML file in the installation directory
3. Reviews are loaded one Store after the other (not a problem but slow)
4. Problems with the Japanese Store

So I decided to change this.
First I move the XML files to a location where a user (non admin) has write access.
Next I added two windows holding a RadGridView. Using this telerik control it took me just a few minutes to implement editing of Applications and Stores – including some simple validation.

I did it very simple – just two dialogs with a RadGridView and 2 buttons.
The fix for the Japanese store is also done. It was a parser problem. While usernames in other stores are inside a b tag - they are not in the JP store.

The next thing I changed was about point 3. Instead of loading on store after another I fire all calls to the web on start and collect the results as they are returned from iTunes.

Compared to version 1.0.0 the current version collects data about 30 to 50 times (if only a little number of stores have entries) faster.

Have fun

Manfred

Release1.0.1.zip (1.40 mb)