Pub-dev: Add a download count besides the rating

[escamoteur]

Hi,

I know that this was discussed before and that a download count isn't a very accurate metric but:

1. Even if automated build systems my lead to multiple downloads of the same user it signals that the package is heavily used in some project
2. It's a real motivational factor for a package author to see how much his package is used which the rating cannot transport.
3. I see no reason why it would hurt to show this metric ;-)

Cheers
Thomas

[isoos]

Previous request: https://github.com/dart-lang/pub-dartlang-dart/issues/757

[escamoteur]

@isoos After discussion with @mit-mit this discussion is open again.

[mit-mit]

Jonas to look into what data we gather today for this, incl. if the current counts are segmented by time

[sortie]

The data is coming from the dartlang_pub_logs.external_rollup table. The popularity data is fetched using a very large database query in dartty_package_query/bin/_shared.dart, which groups the data by week and flavor. The actual table entries contains the package, the client IP, whether the package was used directly / by dev dependency / through flutter, and whether the client was in a known environment (travis, etc.).

@kevmoo Can you tell us more about the backing database for package requests? dart_package_query is a google internal package right now, are there any risks in making it public or e.g. giving @isoos access?

The popularity data itself is uploaded as "votes", maybe not quite presentable as "download counts". I would guess that the pub site itself has access to the database and could itself do a query like the popularity data script.

[mrmcq2u]

http://libraries.io allows you to see how many projects are dependent on your dart package. e.g https://libraries.io/pub/http , you can even drill down and see see usage by version e.g https://libraries.io/pub/http/usage

[escamoteur]

@mrmcq2u Yes but it doesn't give me a feeling on how popular my project is, how many users it has which is an important metric for the motivation of a maintainer.

[kevmoo]

Duplicate of https://github.com/dart-lang/pub-dartlang-dart/issues/757

[mrmcq2u]

@escamoteur I think the problem with download counts is explained fairly well in #757, I think if you want a more thorough idea of how many people are using your package the best bet is seeing how many packages depend on it. It's not perfect but I can't think of a better solution myself :(

[escamoteur]

@mrmcq2u Looking at the number of other packages that use your package does not help if you package is typically used be apps and not be public packages

[davidwparker]

@kevmoo - wonder why you closed this and marked as duplicate of an already closed one?

The answer provided by @isoos in the other thread is unacceptable (blaming CI).
Raw counts are used in Ruby, PHP, Rust, etc. Not sure what the harm is in providing the data.

[kevmoo]

@davidwparker that's the original issue + discussion + justification. We'd like to avoid covering the same topic many times.

[mit-mit]

We've reconsidered this, and are looking into options for supporting this. The current tracking issue is https://github.com/dart-lang/pub-dev/issues/2714.