How to see the comments on an Apple app?

[ampos]

Is there a way to see the comments posted on my/any app?

I can see only the spanishs one on iphone appstore, but I would like to see all (if any) the comments the app can get in all markets.

Is there a way to see them? I can not find it...

[bigsofty]

I would imagine, you just change your locale within the app store. I don't have the app store on this computer but on one of the screens, there is a country flag on the bottom right hand side, click on it or change the region from the account menu.

[Ian Price]

I've submitted a positive review (4/5), but this won't appear on the site immediately. I would have given it 5 stars, but you'll have to see my review for why I didn't.

I'm disappointed that I never got a mention on the titlescreen (hint, hint), seeing as you implemented every single item I listed as ideas for this after your first, rather empty WIP, but I don't hold a grudge! Maybe in the update, eh?

However, I said I'd buy it, and I did and it's good. Could still be better, but a worthwhile investment.

[EDIT] My review is now up on the appstore

[ampos]

I can not see the comments but the Spanish ones. Any idea how to see the others?

[Ian Price]

I was able to read the Spanish comments and my own - odd that you can't.

bigsofty is correct - there is a circular flag button at the bottom right of the app store - click it and it will offer a selection of worldwide stores to visit - choose the UK flag (Union flag) and it'll take you to the UK app store, where you can see my comment and rating.

[ampos]

I have found this. A ¿program? that shows all the reviews in all the stores. No idea about how to compile it.  Anyone?

Code (glbasic) Select Expand

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

#
# appstore_reviews
#
# Fetch iTunes App Store reviews for each application, across all country stores, with translation
# -- reads rating, author, subject and review body
#
# Notes
# Derived from Erica Sadun's scraper: http://blogs.oreilly.com/iphone/2008/08/scraping-appstore-reviews.html
# Apple's XML is purely layout-based, without much semantic relation to reviews, so the CSS paths below
# are brittle.
#
# Jeremy Wohl
# relevant post: http://igmus.org/2008/09/fetching-app-store-reviews
#
# TODO: spider additional review pages
#

require 'rubygems'
require 'hpricot'
require 'mechanize'

# MODIFY YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE
NATIVE_LANGUAGE = 'en'

# MODIFY THIS HASH WITH YOUR APP SET (grab the itunes store urls & pull the id params)
software = {
  # http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289923007&mt=8
  'Domain Scout' => 289923007,
}

stores = [
  { :name => 'United States', :id => 143441, :language => 'en' },
  { :name => 'Argentina', :id => 143505, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Australia', :id => 143460, :language => 'en' },
  { :name => 'Belgium', :id => 143446, :language => 'nl' },
  { :name => 'Brazil', :id => 143503, :language => 'pt' },
  { :name => 'Canada', :id => 143455, :language => 'en' },
  { :name => 'Chile', :id => 143483, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'China', :id => 143465, :language => 'zh-CN' },
  { :name => 'Colombia', :id => 143501, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Costa Rica', :id => 143495, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Croatia', :id => 143494, :language => 'hr' },
  { :name => 'Czech Republic', :id => 143489, :language => 'cs' },
  { :name => 'Denmark', :id => 143458, :language => 'da' },
  { :name => 'Deutschland', :id => 143443, :language => 'de' },
  { :name => 'El Salvador', :id => 143506, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Espana', :id => 143454, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Finland', :id => 143447, :language => 'fi' },
  { :name => 'France', :id => 143442, :language => 'fr' },
  { :name => 'Greece', :id => 143448, :language => 'el' },
  { :name => 'Guatemala', :id => 143504, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Hong Kong', :id => 143463, :language => 'zh-TW' },
  { :name => 'Hungary', :id => 143482, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'India', :id => 143467, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Indonesia', :id => 143476, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Ireland', :id => 143449, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Israel', :id => 143491, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Italia', :id => 143450, :language => 'it' },
  { :name => 'Korea', :id => 143466, :language => 'ko' },
  { :name => 'Kuwait', :id => 143493, :language => 'ar' },
  { :name => 'Lebanon', :id => 143497, :language => 'ar' },
  { :name => 'Luxembourg', :id => 143451, :language => 'de' },
  { :name => 'Malaysia', :id => 143473, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Mexico', :id => 143468, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Nederland', :id => 143452, :language => 'nl' },
  { :name => 'New Zealand', :id => 143461, :language => 'en' },
  { :name => 'Norway', :id => 143457, :language => 'no' },
  { :name => 'Osterreich', :id => 143445, :language => 'de' },
  { :name => 'Pakistan', :id => 143477, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Panama', :id => 143485, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Peru', :id => 143507, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Phillipines', :id => 143474, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Poland', :id => 143478, :language => 'pl' },
  { :name => 'Portugal', :id => 143453, :language => 'pt' },
  { :name => 'Qatar', :id => 143498, :language => 'ar' },
  { :name => 'Romania', :id => 143487, :language => 'ro' },
  { :name => 'Russia', :id => 143469, :language => 'ru' },
  { :name => 'Saudi Arabia', :id => 143479, :language => 'ar' },
  { :name => 'Schweiz/Suisse', :id => 143459, :language => 'auto' },
  { :name => 'Singapore', :id => 143464, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Slovakia', :id => 143496, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Slovenia', :id => 143499, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'South Africa', :id => 143472, :language => 'en' },
  { :name => 'Sri Lanka', :id => 143486, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Sweden', :id => 143456, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Taiwan', :id => 143470, :language => 'zh-TW' },
  { :name => 'Thailand', :id => 143475, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Turkey', :id => 143480, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'United Arab Emirates', :id => 143481, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'United Kingdom', :id => 143444, :language => 'en' },
  { :name => 'Venezuela', :id => 143502, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Vietnam', :id => 143471, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Japan', :id => 143462, :language => 'ja' },

  # stores added April 1, 2009
  { :name => 'Dominican Republic', :id => 143508, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Ecuador', :id => 143509, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Egypt', :id => 143516, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Estonia', :id => 143518, :language => 'et' },
  { :name => 'Honduras', :id => 143510, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Jamaica', :id => 143511, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Kazakhstan', :id => 143517, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Latvia', :id => 143519, :language => 'lv' },
  { :name => 'Lithuania', :id => 143520, :language => 'lt' },
  { :name => 'Macau', :id => 143515, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Malta', :id => 143521, :language => 'mt' },
  { :name => 'Moldova', :id => 143523, :language => '' },
  { :name => 'Nicaragua', :id => 143512, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Paraguay', :id => 143513, :language => 'es' },
  { :name => 'Uruguay', :id => 143514, :language => 'es' },
]

DEBUG = false

TRANSLATE_URL = "http://translate.google.com"

def translate(opts)
  result = WWW::Mechanize.new.post(TRANSLATE_URL, :sl => opts[:from], :tl => opts[:to], :ie => 'UTF-8', :text => opts[:text])

  begin
    return result.search('input').to_a.select { |elem| elem['name'] == 'gtrans' }.first.attributes['value']
  rescue => e
    if defined?(DEBUG) && DEBUG == true
      puts '-----------'
      puts 'translation failed on:'
      puts opts[:text]
      puts '-----------'
    end

    return opts[:text]
  end
end

# return a rating/subject/author/body hash
def fetch_reviews(software_id, store)
  reviews = []
 
  # TODO: parameterize type=Purple+Software
  cmd = sprintf(%{curl -s -A "iTunes/4.2 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.2" -H "X-Apple-Store-Front: %s-1" } <<
                %{'http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?id=%s&} <<
                %{pageNumber=0&sortOrdering=2&type=Purple+Software' | xmllint --format --recover - 2>/dev/null},
                store[:id],
                software_id)

  rawxml = `#{cmd}`
 
  if defined?(DEBUG) && DEBUG == true
    open("appreview.#{software_id}.#{store[:id]}.xml", 'w') { |f| f.write(rawxml) }
  end
 
  doc = Hpricot.XML(rawxml)

  doc.search("Document > View > ScrollView > VBoxView > View > MatrixView > VBoxView:nth(0) > VBoxView > VBoxView").each do |e|
    review = {}
   
    strings = (e/:SetFontStyle)
    meta = strings[2].inner_text.split(/\n/).map { |x| x.strip }

    # Note: Translate is sensitive to spaces around punctuation, so we make sure br's connote space.
    review[:rating] = e.inner_html.match(/alt="(\d+) star(s?)"/)[1].to_i
    review[:author] = meta[3]
    review[:version] = meta[7][/Version (.*)/, 1]
    review[:date] = meta[10]
    review[:subject] = strings[0].inner_text.strip
    review[:body] = strings[3].inner_html.gsub("<br />", "\n").strip
   
    if ! store[:language].empty? && store[:language] != NATIVE_LANGUAGE
      review[:subject] = translate( :from => store[:language], :to => NATIVE_LANGUAGE, :text => review[:subject] )
      review[:body] = translate( :from => store[:language], :to => NATIVE_LANGUAGE, :text => review[:body] )
      review[:body].gsub!("<br>", "\n") # br's reintroduced by Translate
    end
   
    reviews << review
  end

  reviews
end

# a simple command-line presentation
software.keys.sort.each do |software_key|
  puts "== App: #{software_key}"

  stores.sort_by { |a| a[:name] }.each do |store|
    reviews = fetch_reviews(software[software_key], store)

    if reviews.any?
      puts "=== Store: #{store[:name]}"
     
      reviews.each_with_index do |review, index|
        puts sprintf(%{%s %s, "%s", by %s, for version %s, on %s},
          review[:rating], review[:rating] > 1 ? "stars" : "star", review[:subject],
          review[:author], review[:version], review[:date])
        puts review[:body]
        puts "--\n" if index + 1 < reviews.size
      end
    end
  end
end

[bigsofty]

That's a Ruby script, looks like it's tuning on Linux, you will need a Ruby interpreter for a start.

Cheers,


Ian

[Kitty Hello]

I use www.appfigures.com for that. Very convenient, but not totally free (or was it for one app?)