SoftwareApp
ae44cdb994
The archive preview could say what a zip held but not show any of it, and the search could only answer "is it here?" for the folder tree the user was standing in. Both are now answered. ArchiveEngine gains a single-entry reader: a ZIP the backend can seek jumps straight at the entry's data through the central directory, 7z scans its index, a streaming container decompresses past whatever is in front of the entry, and a compression wrapper has exactly one entry whose name is derived from the archive's own. extractEntry is rewritten on top of it, so there is one implementation of "reach this entry" rather than two that could disagree, and the now-dead extractFromZip and only= parameters are removed. A tap on a row now previews and the row's action extracts, which is what a row means everywhere else in this app. Text and markup are read into memory, so the commonest question - what does this readme say - writes nothing at all and works in both storage modes. Everything else needs a file a decoder can open, so the entry is copied into the app's own cache, one folder per preview and under its own name so the viewer's title bar does not read copy-0.png, and deleted when the preview closes with a non-recursive delete. The copy is a real path, so image, PDF and media previews work even in the SAF fallback, where the browsed files cannot be previewed at all. A copy has no file to save back to, so the text editor shows no Save and markup offers no editor; closing returns to the archive rather than out of it. SearchIndex is a small port over SQLite beside the trash index, inheriting that one's doctrine that an index is not the truth: a reader drops rows whose file has gone and forgets them, freshness is reported rather than assumed, and a volume's rows are replaced wholesale so an interrupted pass leaves the previous listing rather than half of this one. Timestamps are written only when a pass finishes, so a walk cut short by a new keystroke reads as older than it is, which is the safe direction to be wrong in. Names are matched with NameMatcher's semantics translated into LIKE - substring, anchored glob, and a literal % or _ escaped - because a search that quietly widens what was typed is what an index does badly. The search field gains a scope toggle, and every search everywhere carries the age of the index and a way to rebuild it, because a search that silently omits what arrived since the last walk is worse than one that spends a minute being sure. Rows are written in batches of 500 and the counter reported every 100, since a row reading "0 files" for the whole first second reads as nothing happening. Deliberately not a foreground service: a pass runs while the screen is up and stops when it is not. Verified on the API 35 phone rather than inferred: a .txt and a .png inside a real zip, both previewed from the archive list with their own names, the copy gone on close and the archive list restored behind it; then the first search building the index with a full walk, and a search after an app restart answering instantly and finding a file in Download/cline-zip while browsing Internal storage. Watching it caught two lies, both fixed here: the empty state claimed "Nothing matches" while the index was still being written, and two progress bars stacked on each other. 268 JVM tests, lint clean, release APK builds and installs. The store listing gains the archive preview and the scoped search and is re-measured at 2730/4000.
9.2 KiB
9.2 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 § 6 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
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.
| 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
• 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+.