Launchpad PPA Download Statistics … almost 6 million and counting

One of the more hidden parts of using Launchpad to host your PPA is actually knowing how popular – if at all – your hard work is benefiting the wider ‘buntu and derivates.

It is so hidden in-fact, that you need to use the Launchpad API to find out.

… and there is a brilliant PPA so solve that!

From the wonderful Jean-Philippe Orsini is an easy to use command line tool that gives you the raw statistics.  Even better, you can output the results in HTML format and this allows you to drill down to individual packages.

One of my favourite PPA’s I maintain is the Rhythmbox Plugins – from the stats I can easily see that since mid-2012 there has been almost 6 million downloads.  All I can say is wow!  Three cheers for all the support – I’m just astounded how popular the PPA has really been.

How to install

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jfi/ppastats
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ppastats

The OP doesnt backport the latest stuff – so its best to use the latest distro available – 13.10 Saucy at the time of writing this.

How to use

Create a folder and change to it – for example

mkdir stats
cd stats

Run the following to create the statistics for your PPA – lets assume your username is myname and the ppa is called myppa

ppastats -o . myname myppa

Wait until it has completed and then point firefox at the index.html file that was created

firefox index.html

N.B. if you see 503 errors in the terminal – that is Launchpad not playing ball.  Just rerun ppastats and few times and examine if you get the same or similar results.

How to calculate totals

On the left-hand side copy packages and their totals.

Open Libreoffice Calc.  Paste the text copied.  This will prompt you with an import dialog – just use the other delimiter and choose “:” as the delimiter to split the package name with the download statistic.

Raw Stats for rhythmbox-plugins

rhythmbox-plugin-coverart-browser	352382
rhythmbox-plugin-coverart-search	294666
rhythmbox-plugin-llyrics	285711
rhythmbox-plugin-equalizer	240169
rhythmbox-plugin-radio-browser	233333
rhythmbox-plugin-rhythmweb	233074
rhythmbox-plugin-opencontainingfolder	229156
rhythmbox-plugin-countdown-playlist	208035
rhythmbox-plugin-randomalbumplayer	199757
rhythmbox-plugin-complete	199183
rhythmbox-plugin-suspend	196925
rhythmbox-plugin-remembertherhythm	188952
rhythmbox-plugin-send-first	183734
rhythmbox-plugin-smallwindow	176064
rhythmbox-plugin-hide	174170
rhythmbox-plugin-desktopart	172961
rhythmbox-plugin-fullscreen	170756
rhythmbox-plugin-artdisplay	150943
rhythmbox-plugin-wikipedia	148492
rhythmbox-plugin-android-remote	144504
rhythmbox-plugin-screensaver	139713
rhythmbox-plugin-jumptowindow	125488
rhythmbox-plugin-microblogger	123194
rhythmbox-plugin-lastfm-queue	119197
rhythmbox-plugin-lastfm-extension	118629
rhythmbox-plugin-albumartsearch	114165
rhythmbox-plugin-tray-icon	110132
rhythmbox-plugin-rhythmremote	109492
rhythmbox-plugin-jumptoplaying	109252
rhythmbox-plugin-webmenu	108188
rhythmbox-plugin-repeat-one-song	108159
rhythmbox-plugin-tabguitar	108066
rhythmbox-plugin-stopafter	108035
rhythmbox-plugin-fileorganizer	101529
rhythmbox-plugin-rating-filters	96941
rhythmbox-plugin-seek	39360
python-pylastfp	36089
rhythmbox-plugin-looper	20625
python3-mutagenx	666
rhythmbox-plugin-playlist-import-export	24
	5979911