Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps?
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The document presents a study on how developers manage updates to third-party libraries in mobile applications, highlighting the importance of updates for stability and user experience. It finds that while a significant proportion of libraries are utilized, most remain unupdated throughout the application's lifecycle. The study also categorizes the types of libraries that are more frequently updated and discusses developer behaviors related to library version changes.
![May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps?
ICPC 2018
Upgrade vs downgrade
Downgrades
25.95%
May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps?
ICPC 2018
Anyone, any idea why the build
fails […] does maven need to be
updated too?!
18](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/presentation-v2-180530092736/85/Do-Developers-Update-Third-Party-Libraries-in-Mobile-Apps-18-320.jpg)
Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps?
- 1. ICPC 2018 International Conference on Program Comprehension UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI SALERNO Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? May 28th, 2018 Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? Pasquale Salza1, Fabio Palomba2, Dario Di Nucci3, Cosmo D’Uva4, Andrea De Lucia4, Filomena Ferrucci4 1USI Università della Svizzera italiana, 2University of Zurich, 3Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 4University of Salerno 1
- 2. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Third-party libraries Crucial for the development of software Save the effort related to the implementation of complex functions Very popular for mobile apps 2
- 3. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Libraries are software as well Need to evolve The updates aim at making them more stable and reliable 3
- 4. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Why is updating important? Apps have an intense and continuous release cycle The user experience is fundamental Users are the very testers and decide the success of an app 4 Bavota et al., The impact of API Change- and Fault-Proness on the User Rating of Android Apps. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2015
- 5. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Is it always worth updating? The public API may change and require development effort before being updated Stability and reliability are not truly guaranteed 5
- 6. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Goals How much is common to update a library? Which category of libraries are updated the most? Is there any common behaviour that developers have in updating libraries? Can a library update be related to the success of an app? 6
- 7. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Large Empirical Study 291 Android open source apps 40,000 reviews 300,000 commits 275 unique libraries 7
- 8. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Mining Process F-Droid Git Cloner Release Miner Gradle Parser Local Git Repository commit 1 commit n commit 2 build.gradle build.gradle build.gradle Remote Git Repository Remote Dependencies Repositories Use Dependencies Release Dependencies May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 8
- 9. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 F-Droid Git Cloner Releas G Remote Git Repository May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 F-Droid parsing 9
- 10. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Git Cloner Local Git Repository commit 1 commit n commit 2 build.gradl build.gradl build.gradl Remote Git Repository May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Source code repository cloning 10 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date
- 11. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Gradle Parser ry commit 1 commit n commit 2 build.gradle build.gradle build.gradle Use Dependencies May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Gradle libraries parsing 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date 21.0.3 22.0.0 22.1.0 22.1.1 22.2.0 22.2.1 23.0.0 23.0.1 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Use 11
- 12. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Git Cloner Release Miner Local Git Repository commit 1 commit n commit 2 build.gradle build.gradle build.gradle Remote Dependencies Repositories Use Dependencies Release Dependencies May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Dependencies mining 21.0.3 22.0.0 22.1.0 22.1.1 22.2.0 22.2.1 23.0.0 23.0.1 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Use 21.0.3 22.0.0 22.1.0 22.1.1 22.2.0 22.2.1 23.0.0 23.0.1 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Release Use 12
- 13. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 21.0.3 22.0.0 22.1.0 22.1.1 22.2.0 22.2.1 23.0.0 23.0.1 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Release Use 13
- 14. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Libraries popularity The apps relies from 1 use of third-party library to a maximum of 35 The mean is about 4 libraries per app 14
- 15. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 RQ1 To what extent mobile developers update the version of the used third- party libraries? 15
- 16. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 To update, or not to update 67% of libraries were used but never updated during the app development life Only 2% of commits refers to a version change 16
- 17. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Upgrade vs downgrade Downgrades 25.95% Upgrades 74.05% May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 17
- 18. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Upgrade vs downgrade Downgrades 25.95% May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Anyone, any idea why the build fails […] does maven need to be updated too?! 18
- 19. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 RQ2 Which types of third-party libraries are more and less prone to be updated in apps? 19
- 20. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Changed categories Category Changes Upgrades Downgrades Graphical User Interface 52.67% 75.12% 24.88% Utilities 31.16% 73.43% 26.57% HTTP 3.91% 63.33% 36.67% Page Navigation 2.74% 57.14% 42.86% JSON 1.96% 60.00% 40.00% . . . . . . . . . . . . Protocol Buffers 0.07% 100.00% 0.00% Network 0.07% 100.00% 0.00% Bug Fix 0.07% 100.00% 0.00% Defect Detection 0.07% 100.00% 0.00% Update com.android.recyclerview−v7 to get new fancy icons. Update android.support to have an environment equivalent to the android platform. 20 My 2 cents. This is an extreme case, and it doesn't justify the upgrade of the library.
- 21. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 RQ3 What types of update patterns developers follow when updating third-party libraries? 21
- 22. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Open coding process We distributed a total of 1126 library histories to 4 of the authors (282 each) 22
- 23. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 5.0.1 5.1.0 5.1.1 5.1.2 6.0.0 6.1.0 7.0.0 7.0.1 8.0.0 2014-04-01 2014-05-01 2014-06-01 2014-07-01 2014-08-01 2014-09-01 2014-10-01 2014-11-01 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 2015-10-01 2015-11-01 2015-12-01 2016-01-01 2016-02-01 2016-03-01 2016-04-01 2016-05-01 Date Version Type Release UseDiligent May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 13% 23
- 24. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Diligent May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 ! ! ! 13% 24
- 25. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 4.48 5.0 2013-11-01 2013-12-01 2014-01-01 2014-02-01 2014-03-01 2014-04-01 2014-05-01 2014-06-01 2014-07-01 2014-08-01 2014-09-01 2014-10-01 2014-11-01 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 2015-10-01 2015-11-01 2015-12-01 2016-01-01 2016-02-01 2016-03-01 2016-04-01 2016-05-01 2016-06-01 2016-07-01 2016-08-01 2016-09-01 Date Version Type Release UseIntroduced Once May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 9% 25
- 26. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Introduced Once ☠ May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 9% 26
- 27. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 2.7.1 2.7.2 2.7.3 2.7.4 2.7.5 2.8.0 2.9.0 2.9.1 2.10.0 2.10.1 2.10.2 2.10.3 2.10.4 2.10.5 2.10.6 2.10.7 2.10.8 2.10.9 2.10.10 2.11.0 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Release UseJump Up May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 13% 27
- 28. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Jump Up May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 🕴 13% 28
- 29. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 19.0.0 19.0.1 19.1.0 20.0.0 21.0.0-rc1 21.0.0 21.0.2 21.0.3 22.0.0 22.1.0 22.1.1 22.2.0 22.2.1 23.0.0 2013-10-01 2013-11-01 2013-12-01 2014-01-01 2014-02-01 2014-03-01 2014-04-01 2014-05-01 2014-06-01 2014-07-01 2014-08-01 2014-09-01 2014-10-01 2014-11-01 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Release UseJump Down May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 <1% 29
- 30. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Jump Down May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 🕺 ☂ <1% 30
- 31. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 21.0.3 22.0.0 22.1.0 22.1.1 22.2.0 22.2.1 23.0.0 23.0.1 2014-12-01 2015-01-01 2015-02-01 2015-03-01 2015-04-01 2015-05-01 2015-06-01 2015-07-01 2015-08-01 2015-09-01 Date Version Type Release UseBack and Forth May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 2% 31
- 32. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Back and Forth May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 🏃 🏃 🏃 🏃 2% 32
- 33. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 RQ4 Are the update patterns of high-rated and low- rated apps different? 33
- 34. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 High and low rated apps We classified the apps in two groups based on ratings High rated: ≥ 3.5 ⭐ Low rated: < 3.5 ⭐ 34 Khalid et al., What Do Mobile App Users Complain About? IEEE Software, 2015
- 35. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 High and low rated apps Introduced Once Diligent Jump Up Jump Down Back and Forth 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 21% 34% 78% 89% 30% 79% 66% 22% 11% 70% Low High 35
- 36. May 28th, 2018Do Developers Update Third-Party Libraries in Mobile Apps? ICPC 2018 Future directions Extend the study to closed source apps Automatic upgrade suggestions to avoid useless changes Effort estimation in updating libraries 36