SoftwareApp
1220aa6679
Selecting more than one file and choosing Rename now opens a pattern dialog rather than the
single-file one: a name, the number to start at, and a live preview of the names it will produce.
The number is the part that makes the feature worth having. A batch rename that always starts at 1
is useless the second time it is used, because the first batch already owns 1 to 12, so the dialog
reads the names already in the folder and starts at the highest "base (n)" it finds: a folder
holding "series (1)" and "series (2)" makes the next batch start at 3, which is the market survey's
most-helpful complaint answered exactly ("if I later find another group of photos which I want to
continue the batch naming with 'Ice (3)...'"). Three rules in core/BatchRename are decisions rather
than defaults, and are written down as such: the extension is kept per file, so a mixed batch of
.jpg and .png keeps each file's own; the series is counted across extensions, because "Holiday
(9).png" making the next number 10 is one series while "Holiday (10).jpg" beside "Holiday (1).png"
is two; and it continues from the highest number rather than from the first gap, because someone
renaming a second batch is carrying a series on rather than filling in the holes of one, with the
start number theirs to type where a gap matters more.
The batch is planned in full before a single file moves, and the plan has three answers and
deliberately no fourth: Ready, Blocked (naming the target that is already in the folder) or
NothingToDo. A batch that renamed nine files of twelve and then stopped would leave the user to work
out which nine and to guess whether the last three crashed or were skipped, so a collision refuses
the whole batch, the dialog names the file in the way and disables its button as the name is typed,
and a chain is declined outright - "a.txt" taking "a (1).txt" while "a (1).txt" is itself in the
batch would need the files shuffled through temporary names. Every rename still goes through the
same FileOperations.rename a single rename uses, so the refusal to overwrite anything is the same
one, and the successful renames are collected into the single Undo.Relocate step that already
existed: a feature that touches twelve files at once owes the user one tap back. The action bar now
offers Rename to any selection, since which of the two dialogs a tap means is described by the
dialog that opens rather than by the bar; Details stays single, because "the details" of twelve
files is not a screen.
Writing it turned up a quieter bug in the rename that was already there. rename(path,
"notes/final.txt") built a child path, which resolves into the subfolder rather than alongside the
file, so a name containing a separator moved the file instead of renaming it and nothing in the
dialog or the listing showed that anything had happened. Both rename paths now refuse a name that is
not one path segment (core/FileNames.isUsableName), and the dialog says which rule it is while it is
typed, which is where the user can still do something about it.
Twenty new core tests (BatchRenameTest, FileNamesTest) and six through the view model, 350 JVM
tests in total, lint clean. Verified by driving it on the phone against a folder that already held
"series (1).txt" and "series (2).txt": with three files selected and "series" typed in, Start at
moved to 3 on its own and the preview listed "series (3).txt, series (4).txt, series (5).txt";
afterwards the folder held all five series files, each file's contents having travelled with its
rename and the two originals untouched, and the snackbar's Undo put a later batch of three back in
one step. The collision and the slash were driven the same way - the file in the way named with the
button disabled, and "A name cannot contain a slash" - and the scratch folder was removed from the
device afterwards. CHANGELOG, ROADMAP (M14), COMPETITIVE_ANALYSIS (the gap moves from candidate to
closed), STORE_LISTING and EDGE_CASE_TESTING carry the feature, its decisions and the pass itself;
two tooling notes went into the last of them, that "adb input text" does not deliver a slash and
that the dialog lifts once the keyboard appears.
10 KiB
Play Store listing (M10)
Ready-to-paste copy for the Main store listing page, plus the graphics that go with it. Every graphic is generated from the app's own vectors, so a rebrand is a re-run rather than a redraw.
See PLAY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST § 7 for where this fits in the release.
App name
Plain Files
Deliberately not "File Manager": dozens of apps are literally called that, and a distinctive
name is what makes a listing findable and rememberable. It is one string
(app_name in values/strings.xml); the applicationId is separate and already locked.
Graphics
./tools/make-store-assets.sh # icon + feature graphic -> store-assets/
./tools/make-store-screenshots.sh # phone -> screenshots/phone/
FORM_FACTOR=tablet-7in ./tools/make-store-screenshots.sh
FORM_FACTOR=tablet-10in ./tools/make-store-screenshots.sh
Screenshots
Play's slots, and what each needs:
| Slot | How many | Target here | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone | 2–8 | screenshots/phone/ — 1080×2160 |
A phone at its native 1080×2400 is 2.22:1 and is rejected; the normaliser crops chrome and clamps to 2:1 |
| 7-inch tablet | 4+ recommended | screenshots/tablet-7in/ — 1200×1920 |
A tablet frame is already inside the 2:1 cap, so 0 px of crop |
| 10-inch tablet | 4+ recommended | screenshots/tablet-10in/ — 2560×1600 |
Landscape profile (matches the tablet10 AVD); Play accepts either orientation |
The library the shots are taken over
Never shoot over a real device's storage. Published screenshots are public, and a file list exposes real folder names and document titles. The library is generated instead:
python3 tools/make-demo-library.py # -> demo-files/ (git-ignored, ~161 MB)
adb push demo-files /sdcard/Download/PlainFiles-Demo
⚠️ The home screen and the library views need this more than a folder listing does. A library is
not a folder — it lists files from everywhere — so shooting Images on a real phone publishes the
owner's own filenames and thumbnails, and the home screen's counts publish how many files of each
kind the device holds. Both must be shot on a device, or an AVD, whose only storage is the demo
library. This was found by running the libraries on a real phone and seeing its owner's files in
them: EDGE_CASE_TESTING.
tools/make-demo-library.py builds eight distinct sample images (so the grid view and
thumbnails have something to show), a handful of documents, sized stand-ins for video and
audio so the storage-usage screen has something worth ranking, and a real ZIP so the extract
action can be exercised. Every name and every pixel is fake by construction.
One consequence worth knowing before shooting the Videos library: the video stand-ins are zero-filled, so they cannot be decoded and photograph as the fallback film icon rather than as a frame. A screenshot that shows video thumbnails needs a real clip, which is one command:
ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "testsrc2=duration=3:size=320x240:rate=15" -pix_fmt yuv420p clip.mp4 # synthetic, no camera needed
adb push clip.mp4 /sdcard/Download/PlainFiles-Demo/Video/
| Asset | Play's spec | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| App icon | 512×512, 32-bit PNG with alpha, ≤ 1 MB | store-assets/icon-512.png — 512×512, RGBA, ~5 KB |
tools/store-assets/icon.svg, mirroring ic_launcher_background.xml + ic_launcher_foreground.xml. Background, paths and opacities are identical, so the store icon is the launcher icon rather than a lookalike that drifts. |
| Feature graphic | 1024×500, JPEG or 24-bit PNG without alpha | store-assets/feature-graphic-1024x500.png — 1024×500, RGB |
tools/store-assets/feature-graphic.svg |
| Phone screenshots | no alpha, shorter side ≥ 320, longer side ≤ 3840, longer side ≤ 2× shorter | store-assets/screenshots/phone/ (1080×2160) |
tools/make-store-screenshots.sh, from adb captures in store-assets/raw-screenshots/phone/ |
Two details worth keeping:
- The icon is full bleed. The background rect covers all 108 dp, so every pixel is opaque and Play's mask can crop to any shape without showing a gap.
- A phone at its native 1080×2400 is 2.22:1 and is therefore rejected. The normaliser crops the status and navigation bars and then clamps to 1080×2160 — system chrome only, never app content. Tablets are already inside the 2:1 cap, so their crop defaults to 0.
The feature graphic's safe area
Play crops the feature graphic to a centre square for some placements, so all of the copy sits inside x 262…762 and the motif — which does not survive — is decoration. Verified by actually cropping the rendered PNG rather than by trusting the arithmetic:
magick store-assets/feature-graphic-1024x500.png -gravity Center -crop 500x500+0+0 +repage /tmp/square.png
Short description (80 characters max)
Browse, organise and manage your files. Ad-free, offline, pay once.
Full description (4000 characters max)
Plain Files is a straightforward file manager for Android — no ads, no account, no
subscription, and no network access at all. You buy it once and it is yours.
BROWSE ANYTHING
• Internal storage, SD cards and USB drives, side by side
• List or grid view, with sorting by name, size, date or type
• Breadcrumb navigation, and a search that can look in one folder or everywhere
• Hidden files on request
ANY SIZE OF SCREEN
• On a tablet or a wide window you get two panes: the folder list on the left, and what is
inside the folder you pick on the right — no jumping back and forth
• Pictures preview at full size beside the list, with their details
• The same layout on a phone, a 7-inch tablet and a 10-inch tablet
WORKS WITH YOUR OTHER APPS
• Share a file to Plain Files from anywhere, then pick the folder to drop it in
• Choose Plain Files when another app asks you for a file
• Search everywhere at once: an index means answers arrive right away instead of after a
long scan — and it always says how current it is
• Delete, rename or move by mistake? Undo it
MANAGE YOUR FILES
• Copy, move, rename and delete, one item or many at once
• Rename a whole batch at once, numbered in a series that carries on where the last one stopped
• Create folders and edit text files in the built-in editor
• See the details of anything: size, type, location, modified date
• Open a file in any app, or share it
FIND OUT WHERE THE SPACE WENT
• A storage-usage view that measures every folder and ranks it largest first
• Spot the folder that is actually eating your storage, then act on it
ARCHIVES
• Create ZIP archives, and extract ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.XZ, GZ, BZ2, XZ and 7z
• Look inside an archive before you extract anything — text, images, documents, audio and
video included, read straight out of the file
• RAR is not supported — it needs native code this app does not ship, and it says so rather
than failing with a strange error
PRIVATE BY DEFAULT
• No INTERNET permission. The app cannot send your data anywhere, because it has no way to.
• No analytics, no advertising SDKs, no third-party trackers
• No account, no sign-in, nothing to remember
• Your files stay on your device, always
SOLD ONCE
• One purchase, every feature, no ads and nothing to buy inside the app
• No subscription
PERMISSIONS, EXPLAINED
Plain Files asks for "All files access" because that is what browsing and managing files
anywhere on a device requires — the app's core purpose. Google Play only grants this
permission to app types that genuinely need it, and a file manager is one of them. If you
would rather not grant it, the app still works: it can browse a folder you pick yourself
through Android's own folder picker, and it remembers that choice.
Read the privacy policy: https://example.invalid/plain-files/privacy
Replace the privacy-policy URL with the real public URL before publishing — a repository file is not acceptable to Play. PRIVACY.md is the source text.
Why the permission sentence matters
Play requires that an app's core functionality be prominently documented and promoted in
the app's description when it declares MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE. The "PERMISSIONS,
EXPLAINED" section is not marketing copy — it is the evidence the Permissions Declaration
Form asks for.
Ad headlines (App campaign, 30 characters each)
Google App campaigns take up to five headlines, and the system mixes and matches them, so each one has to stand on its own rather than continue the one before it. Counts include spaces and are measured, not estimated:
| Headline | Chars | Angle |
|---|---|---|
| Ad-free file manager | 20 | The whole pitch, in three words |
| Pay once, keep it forever | 25 | One-time price, no subscription |
| Works offline. No network. | 26 | The privacy claim the APK actually backs |
| SD cards and USB drives | 23 | Reach beyond internal storage |
| See where your storage went | 27 | The storage-usage view |
Spares, to swap in when an asset group wants a different emphasis: Two panes on your tablet
(24), Undo a delete you regret (24), Built for phones and tablets (28).
Three rules these are written to:
- Never "free". This is a paid app, so a headline implying otherwise is misleading as well as a policy problem. The launch price is the only discount, and it belongs in the price field, not in a headline.
- No superlatives. "Best", "top" and "#1" are unverifiable claims, and they are not how this app sells anyway — the differentiator is what it does not contain.
- Sentence case, no shouting. No all-caps text, no emoji, no stacked punctuation; Google's editorial policy refuses all three, and it matches the voice of the listing copy above.
The app name is taken from the store listing (App name above) and is not repeated in a headline.
Still to do before publishing
- Screenshots.
tools/make-store-screenshots.shis written and the raw-screenshot directories are in place, but no captures have been taken yet, sostore-assets/screenshots/is empty. Capture against a synthetic library — never a real one, since published screenshots would expose real file names. - Tablet screenshots. Play has a 7-inch and a 10-inch slot, each wanting 4+.