PackageManager

There are two methods to retrieve the installed application information, asynchronous and synchronous. We suggest the async method as it shouldn’t affect the ui as much as the synchronous method may do, depending on the device and the number of applications installed.

Which ever method you use, the end result is an Array of PackageInfo objects. These objects contain:

• packageName: The java package name of the application
• label: The name of the application
• versionName: The version name of this package, as specified by the manifest tag’s versionName attribute
• versionCode: The version code for the application

along with other information detailed in the asdocs.

Asynchronous retrieval

In order to retrieve a list of applications that are installed on the device call the getInstalledApplicationsAsync() function.

You can use either a callback passed to the function or listen for the PackageManagerEvent.GET_INSTALLED_APPLICATIONS event (or both)

Listening for the event involves adding a listener for PackageManagerEvent.GET_INSTALLED_APPLICATIONS and then processing the result in the handler:

PackageManager.service.addEventListener( 
    PackageManagerEvent.GET_INSTALLED_APPLICATIONS, 
    getInstalledApplicationsHandler 
);

PackageManager.service.getInstalledApplicationsAsync();


function getInstalledApplicationsHandler( event:PackageManagerEvent ):void
{
    var installedPackages:Array = event.data;
    if (installedPackages != null)
    {
        for each (var packageInfo:PackageInfo in installedPackages)
        {
            trace( packageInfo.packageName );
        }
    }
}

Alternatively you can do the similar thing with a callback:

PackageManager.service.getInstalledApplicationsAsync(
        function( installedPackages:Array ):void
        {
            if (installedPackages != null)
            {
                for each (var packageInfo:PackageInfo in installedPackages)
                {
                    trace( packageInfo.packageName );
                }
            }
        }
);

Synchronous retrieval

You can also call getInstalledApplications() to directly retrieve an array of the application package information however be aware that this call may take some time.

var installedPackages:Array = PackageManager.service.getInstalledApplications();
if (installedPackages != null)
{
    for each (var packageInfo:PackageInfo in installedPackages)
    {
        trace( packageInfo.packageName );
    }
}