SourceDNA launches Searchlight, a developer tool to find coding problems in any app
It’s estimated that there are 1.6 million apps in the Google Play store and 1.5 million in Apple’s app store. And while they all vary by service, many of them share common libraries and code. But what if one of these common elements had a problem and needed to be tweaked — is there any way for developers to find out and make sure their apps are up-to-date?
SourceDNA is on the case, acting as the code watchdog for both app developers and the code progenitor, the platform. The company is announcing the launch of its latest product, called Searchlight, which helps developers analyze their app’s code and find security and quality issues that can be fixed.
Available in both free and paid versions, Searchlight gives developers a better look into what could potentially go wrong with their app.
SourceDNA chief executive Nate Lawson cited an example of Searchlight’s potential: when Google replaced OpenSSL in Android M, there was a private API in use that wasn’t intended for use by apps. Apps using this API ran the risk of eventually crashing as a result. Lawson provided VentureBeat with a partial list of apps that are affected: UC Browser (over 100 million installs), Waze (at least 50 million installs), HBO Go (more than 5 million installs), and Modern War(more than 10 million installs). More than 3,000 people signed up for Searchlight after the company published details about this issue.
The point here is that Searchlight allows developers to proactively improve their apps without worrying about problems that may crop up in the future, freeing them to concentrate on providing the best user experience possible.
With the free version, developers can set up a maximum of five store accounts from either Apple, Google Play, Baidu, Tencent, and/or Zhushou 360. They’ll receive a unified view of all their apps that are already published in the marketplace and will receive updates if any issues are discovered.
However, through the paid version of Searchlight, developers will get more support, earlier notification of code issues, the option to add more app store accounts, better management features, and the ability to not only inspect apps that have already been published, but to also submit unpublished apps in secret to ensure that there aren’t any problems. What’s more, paid users can prevent other users from inspecting their apps’ code.
How much will developers have to pay for all of the aforementioned? Lawson wouldn’t disclose the amount, but he did say that there are more than 3,000 developers using Searchlight today.
これまで紹介したことすべてを利用するために、開発者は、いくら支払わなければならないのだろうか？ Lawson氏は金額を明らかにしないだろうが、現時点でSearchlightを利用している開発者が3000人以上いると述べた。
これら全ての項目にたいして開発者はどれだけの額を払わなければならないのだろう? Lawson氏は額については公表していないが、現在「Searchlight」に3千人を超えるユーザがいると述べている。
Looking out for developers more than app stores
“People think about the most obvious ways to solve problems. With developers, it’s solving a problem when they’re writing the code,” said Lawson. “Most people don’t think about reviewing their work after the code has been written. You have to do a lot of detective work.”
What Lawson is referring to is that developers aren’t always looking deep into their code to find out what’s broken and needs to be fixed. Often it might just be a referral to a code library and if something is broken, it can be difficult to find out which customers are affected by the bad code.
Lawson氏が述べているのは、開発者は常に自分の書いたコードを深く精査し、何が壊れているか、何を直すべきかを探している訳ではないということだ。単にコードライブラリへの参照の問題だったということもよくあり、何か不具合を起こしていても、どのユーザが問題のコードに影響を受けているかを見つけ出すのは困難と言える。
「人々は問題解決の為の明白な道を模索するものです。開発者にとっては、コードを書いている時が問題解決をしている時なのです」と Lawson氏は述べた。「ほとんどの開発者はコードを書き終えた後に見直そうなんて考えていません。沢山の探知作業をしなければならないですから。」
Lawson氏が言及したのは、開発者が壊れている部分や修復すべき箇所を探すために常に自らのコードを注意深く観察しているとは限らないということだ。多くの場合それらはコードライブラリへの委託だったり、有事時にどの顧客が間違ったコードによって被害を受けたか把握するのが難しいといったことにある。
This is something SourceDNA wants to showcase — its ability to give developers the tools to build better apps than are currently out in the marketplace. Lawson explained that the company is already scanning through 60,000 apps a day, but is still playing catch-up. However, the service is something existing marketplaces don’t provide: When you submit an app to Apple or Google, the reviewers are going to make sure that the app doesn’t violate any of its standards. They won’t examine the code to see if there are any potential problems in the code itself. SourceDNA takes things one step further.
Lawson氏は既に同社が毎日6万個のアプリを走査しており、それでもなお巻き返しを図っている最中であると説明した。しかしながら市場が提供することのないこのサービスは実際に存在しているのだ。ApplemoかGoogleにアプリを提供すると、そのアプリが自社の基準を冒すことが無いかを検閲物が確かめる。検閲物がコード自体に潜在的な問題があるかどうかを審査することは無い。SourceDNAはこの一歩上を進んでいる。
Originally geared as a business intelligence service (think Nielsen for apps), SourceDNA has moved beyond telling companies about app trends to helping developers figure out what’s wrong with their apps.
Lawson and his team have spent more than three years working on SourceDNA and seem to have found success with its BI unit. Today, it’s also targeting developers as a new audience, so now the company is addressing both sides of the ecosystem.
Although backed by Y Combinator, SourceDNA is largely bootstrapped thanks to profits gleaned from its BI work.
Lawson氏らは3年以上かけ、SourceDNAを運営しBI部門で成功を収めたことだろう。今日、新しい聴衆として開発者たちもターゲットにし、そのため今や同社はエコシステムの両サイドに位置していると言えよう。
Y Combinatorの支援を受けつつも、SourceDNAはBIツールにより得た収益により、自前で大きく成長している。
Lawson氏と彼のチームは3年以上SourceDNAに取り組んだことでビジネスインテリジェンス分野における成功を手にしたようだ。今日、同社は開発者も新たな対象ユーザーとして視野に入れることで双方のエコシステムに取り組んでいる。
Y Combinatorの後ろ盾もあって、 SourceDNAの大部分は独立できている。ビジネスインテリジェンスから得た利益に感謝。
1行目、開発者ツールの後に「Searchlight」と追加をお願いします。申し訳ございません。