Google Play links validation via PHP - php

Question

I want to check via script if Google Play link for app is valid:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggame - valid
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggamessdasd - invalid
but every script what I bought or is free is giving for me 404 or 303 response. There is some redirect probably.
How to validate links like that. I need to check some 1000 links in my ad system if apps exist in Google Play store.
I will write myself loops, reading from database, etc. but please someone familiar with php, help with the check. I spended some $300 for this and got cheated by 2 people, that is "checking" link. Always 404 or 303.

Answer 1

Try this :
<?php
/**
* Check google play app
*
* #param string $url Url to check
*
* #return boolean True if it exists, false otherwise
* #throws \Exception On Curl error, an exception is thrown
*/
function checkGooglePlayApp($url)
{
$curlOptions = array(
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET',
CURLOPT_URL => $url
);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($ch, $curlOptions);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
$http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
if ($curl_error = curl_error($ch))
{
throw new \Exception($curl_error, Exception::CURL_ERROR);
}
curl_close($ch);
return $http_code == '200';
}
$url = 'https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggameERRORERROR';
$result = checkGooglePlayApp($url);
var_dump($result); // Should return false
$url = 'https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggame';
$result = checkGooglePlayApp($url);
var_dump($result); // Should return true
It will return :
bool(false)
bool(true)

Answer 2

This can be easily done with the get_headers function. For example:
Incorrect URL
$file = 'https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggamessdasd';
$file_headers = get_headers($file);
print_r($file_headers);
Will return:
Array
(
[0] => HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found
[1] => Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate
[2] => Pragma: no-cache
[3] => Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT
[4] => Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2015 04:23:31 GMT
[5] => Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
[6] => Set-Cookie: NID=67=QFThy03gh34QypYfoLFTz7bJDI-qzXvuzI05DtrF3aVs1L7NJO9byV6kemHRVVkViz-sodx3Z0GuCQTu9a_1JvToen6ZtjfhNy8MH6DDgH6zix2I4Gm9mauBPCxipnlG;Domain=.google.com;Path=/;Expires=Wed, 02-Sep-2015 04:23:31 GMT;HttpOnly
[7] => P3P: CP="This is not a P3P policy! See http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=151657 for more info."
[8] => X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
[9] => X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
[10] => X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
[11] => Server: GSE
[12] => Alternate-Protocol: 443:quic,p=0.08
[13] => Accept-Ranges: none
[14] => Vary: Accept-Encoding
)
If the file does exist, will return:
Array
(
[0] => HTTP/1.0 200 OK
[1] => Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
[2] => Set-Cookie: PLAY_PREFS=CgJVUxC6uYnvvSkourmJ770p:S:ANO1ljKvPst7-nSw; Path=/; Secure; HttpOnly
[3] => Set-Cookie: NID=67=iFUl_Ls8EhAJE7STIJD7Wdq6NF-y4i6Xrlb78My75ZaruVWlAKObDRDNGDddGxD0hSsLRpvrQK7Tp5nuKCgGg2jF1GUf9_4H_zYsUDQ548Be2n8EDjp9clDfXKLYjmSg;Domain=.google.com;Path=/;Expires=Wed, 02-Sep-2015 04:26:14 GMT;HttpOnly
[4] => Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate
[5] => Pragma: no-cache
[6] => Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT
[7] => Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2015 04:26:14 GMT
[8] => P3P: CP="This is not a P3P policy! See http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=151657 for more info."
[9] => X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
[10] => X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
[11] => X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
[12] => Server: GSE
[13] => Alternate-Protocol: 443:quic,p=0.08
[14] => Accept-Ranges: none
[15] => Vary: Accept-Encoding
)
So you can create a script like:
<?php
$files = ['https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggame', 'https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggamesadasd'];
foreach($files as $file)
{
$headers = get_headers($file);
if($headers[0] == 'HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found')
{
return false;
}
else
{
return true;
}
}
?>

Answer 3

You can simply do as
function checkGooglePlayApp($url)
{
$headers = get_headers($url);
return $headers[0] == 'HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found';
}
$inValid = checkGooglePlayApp("https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ketchapp.zigzaggame");
if(!$inVald)
{
echo "URL Valid";
}
else{
echo "URL Invalid";
}