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Help-Me-Help-U How do maintain our cumulative“install” count when we “deprecate” older versions
Whenever we update our AppExchange listing, we’ve been marking our old packages as "deprecated" to keep our publishing UI in the AppExchange tidy. Unfortunately this seems to affect our “install” count and resetting it to zero.Does this install count affect anything tangible such as our partner status on AppExchange, or our ranking on the various organic lists such as “Most Popular”? If so, how do we go about rectifying this “install” count back to being a cumulative count since our App was initially listed? Finally, is it advisable for us to deprecate old packages? And are other AppExchange partners doing the same?
Yes, install counts do directly affect the organic "Most Popular" search results. Whenever you have a new version of your package ready to list on the AppExchange, you should do the following:
1) Upload your new released version.
2) Login to the AppExchange using your Developer Edition org credentials.
3) Click the Publishing tab.
4) Click Start Review on your new package version in the Your Uploaded Packages section.
5) Review the information in the form and update as needed. Save. If your previous package version was approved, this one will automatically be approved as well. Otherwise, you'll have to wait to hear back from our security team.
6) Click Edit on your public listing.
7) Click the Offering tab.
8) Click Change Packages, select your new package version and click Ok. Do NOT deselect your previous package versions.
9) Assuming you are using a Get It Now button, select your new package version to be associated with the button.
10) Save the page.
11) Go back to you Developer Edition org and deprecate your older package versions if you like.
The older versions of the package (and all their installs) will continue to be associated with the listing, but if you login to the AppExchange publishing section, you will no longer see the package versions. We hide all deprecated package versions so that the interface stays clean and tidy and so that you don't try to associate one with a listing.
To address any deprecated package versions that you dissociated from your listing previously, you should log a case in the Partner Portal. We can reattach them for you and get you credit for your installs again. You'll need to specify both your listing URL as well as the package versions that you need to associate with it.
Wow, I'm glad I found this post. I'm experiencing a similar issue (we have been in the habit of removing old packages from our listing, and then marking them as "deprecated" in the DE org).
I spent most of the day today un-deprecating all our old packages, and re-submitting them for security review. Lots & lots of clicking.
I've run into two issues:
1. Only 25 packages can be linked to a listing at once.
Once you have 25, the UI lets you add more packages to the listing (moving them from the left to right-hand side) but they don't actually stay that way ... when you "save" the changes, the packages you just moved across don't actually move across.
2. Deprecating a package DOES remove its count from the cumulative install count, even though I never removed it from the listing linkage list. It doesn't happen right away (ie, not when you deprecate) but it does happen the next time you link a new package to the listing (or otherwise edit the package-listing linkage setup). So, deprecated packages don't show up in the UI but do count for the install count, but, because they don't show up in the UI, the next time you update your package/listing linkage, the deprecated package is unlinked from the listing, and the install count goes down.
So the process outlined above by RyanEllis does not work.
I just verified this in a reproducible fashion, btw, and would be happy to send a video to the right person at Salesforce.
Note also the Install count for older packages is incorrect. I just posted about it in a new discussion board post.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. A few comments:
1) The limit of 25 packages per listing is intentional. The AppExchange is a native force.com application and we hit governor limits higher than that number currently, so we limited it thinking it would be sufficient. Perhaps we were wrong. How many packages would you want to link to a listing in your worst case scenario? Unlimited is ideal, but not realistic given our current implementation. There is supposed to be an error message catching more than 25 packages, but that doesn't sound like it is working correctly. I'll have the development team look into it. One other thing, if the package version doesn't have any installs (you can see this in the AppExchange publishing UI), it doesn't matter if you link it to your listing. It doesn't contribute anything to the popularity.
2) This also sounds like a bug. The system is not supposed to dissociate deprecated package versions from the listing regardless of whether you add future package versions. I'll have the development team look into this one too.
3) The install count is based upon clicks in the AppExchange on the install button on the Confirmation page. It is deduped to prevent gaming of the system. Installs only go back to the time that the new AppExchange was introduced about a year ago now. It doesn't correspond to installs that you might have in the LMA. Those installs can include sources outside of the AppExchange and keeps track of uninstalls as well. Furthermore, if someone bails out of the install process part way through, there will be a record of an install (essentially an initiation of install) in the AppExchange, but no record in the LMA (as it was not completed). So to summarize, it isn't surprising that you might have different install metrics elsewhere.
Ryan,
Thanks for the quick response.
Once the deprecation bug is fixed, the limit of 25 is fine with me (after all, we were already in the habit of deprecating all but our most recent release until we saw our install count plummet). Looking back, I don't think I actually *did* unlink old packages from the listing - I just deprecated in the DE org, and then (b/c of the bug) those installs eventually stopped adding to the count. It was only your original workflow post that made me think "huh, I guess we were deprecating AND unlinking b/c we certainly lost the install counts!".
I'm happy to send over the video of the deprecation issue in a PM if you want it.
One other suggestion - I think that AppExchange LISTINGS should be what are linked to LMA orgs, rather than individual packages. I've been bitten a couple times lately b/c I forgot to click "manage licenses" for each new package I upload, and then I end up losing those LMA entries (for good, it turns out). I'm sure there are internal reasons why you do it at the package level (so unlisted packages can still integrate with the LMA), but it definitely confused me to have to keep setting the LMA app for each package instead of just doing it once at the Listing level.
Glad to help. Thanks for raising the issue! We're able to recreate it here, so no video is necessary. One more question regarding deprecated packages. We originally thought that it made sense to hide them from the UI as they became messy over time (some partners had hundreds of versions of their applications), but it does raise some odd situations like the one you found. Do you think it would be better for us to just show them in the UI and perhaps add a filter to the publishing page to "hide deprecated packages"?
As for your suggestion, I definitely agree with you. The current process can be confusing and easy to mess up. You're right, there is history around why it is the way it is right now. Personally, I think that this whole process shouldn't be in the AppExchange at all. I think it should be in the LMA itself or better yet, the LMA should just be part of Setup. But assuming that we won't be able to change that any time soon, perhaps we can do something to make this better in the meantime. For example, perhaps we could add a warning whenever a person associates a managed package with a listing to alert them to the fact that they haven't registered the package version yet and prompt them to do so. I'll discuss further with the Product Manager for the LMA and see if we can come up with any better options. Thanks for the feedback!
w/r/t your suggestion (show in UI, have "hide deprecated" as filter), then you'd need the UI to support hundreds of packages rather than the current 25.
I'm fine with the way it works now (assuming the bug is fixed).
One thing that would really be useful is if deprecated pages could alert their admin that a new version is available. We've baked this functionality into our app (using an <IMG> tag to our website with an embedded version string; the website then displays either just our logo or our logo plus "upgrade available") but it would be a useful feature for admins to be able to view their installed packages & find out if they're using a deprecated version.
This solution (deprecate but don't unlink from listing) doesn't work anymore, if it ever did.
Deprecated packages still show up in the AppExchange Offering tab, taking up one of those 25 slots and preventing you from linking a new package if you've already got 25 linked packages.
At this point, we have to unlink old packages to link new ones, which causes our install count to go down (b/c we have more than 25 package versions that have been installed over the years).
In response to several cases from partners who were confused about the interaction of deprecated packages and their association to an AppExchange listing, we made a change several months ago. Deprecated packages continue to be associated with your AppExchange listing (and shown on the Offering tab) until you remove them explicitly. These deprecated packages do count against the limit of 25 package versions per listing.
While we do recognize that we are imposing a limit on the number of package versions per listing and would like to increase or remove that limit in the future, the reality is that only a very small number of partners come anywhere near this limit today. Moreover, the primary sort on the AppExchange is based upon your listing's popularity in the last 30 days. Installs from older packages versions won't influence ranking by this sort order. It will only affect sort by All-Time Popularity which is relatively rarely used by customers.
Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and please be sure to post this idea on the IdeaExchange if you'd like to see us implement it.