Linking AppFollow as a source
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Contents
This source is currently in alpha. The interface and available tables may change.
AppFollow aggregates App Store and Google Play data for app analytics, review management, and app store optimization. This connector pulls your tracked apps, their reviews, their rating history, and their app store optimization data (category ranks, tracked keyword positions, release history, and review statistics) into the PostHog data warehouse, where you can join them with product analytics, build insights, and monitor review sentiment over time.
Prerequisites
You need an AppFollow account with API access. Only an Account Owner or Admin can generate an API token on the API management page in your AppFollow account.
AppFollow bills API usage against a credit balance – reviews and ratings requests cost more credits than the account and app-listing endpoints – and rate-limits to 1,000 requests/hour per token and 10,000 requests/hour per account. The reviews and ratings tables can therefore consume a meaningful amount of credits on their first (full history) sync.
Adding a data source
- In PostHog, go to the Sources tab of the data pipeline section.
- Click + New source and click Link next to this source.
- Enter your credentials (see Configuration below) and click Next.
- Select the tables you want to sync, choose a sync method and frequency, then click Import.
Once the syncs are complete, you can start querying this data in PostHog.
Paste the API token you generated on the AppFollow API management page. It authenticates every request through the X-AppFollow-API-Token header.
Sync modes
Each table can be synced in one of several modes, depending on what the source supports:
- Webhook (when available) – the source pushes changes to PostHog in real time. Fastest freshness, lowest ongoing cost, and the only mode that reliably captures updates and deletes.
- Incremental – only new or updated rows are synced on each run, using a cursor field (such as an
updated_attimestamp). Cheaper than a full refresh, but deletes aren't captured. - Append only – new rows are appended using a cursor field; existing rows are never updated. Ideal for immutable, append-only tables like event logs.
- Full refresh – the whole table is reloaded on every sync. Use it when a table has no reliable cursor or when you need deletions reflected.
See sync methods for a full explanation of how each mode works and how to choose between them.
The reviews table syncs incrementally, and ratings_history and reviews_stats sync incrementally by date, so after the first backfill only new rows are fetched. Every other table syncs as full refresh.
New sources use AppFollow API v3, where the reviews table syncs on each review's date. API v3 has no way to ask for recently changed reviews, so an edit to a review older than the last sync is not picked up. Sources connected on API v2 keep syncing reviews on each review's last-modified timestamp.
The rankings and keywords tables are the exception worth knowing about. AppFollow returns rank and keyword positions for a single day at a time, with no way to ask for a range, so each sync adds that day's snapshot. Their history builds up from the days you sync rather than being backfilled.
Configuration
| Option | Type | Required |
|---|---|---|
API token | password | Yes |
Supported tables
| Table | Description | Sync method | Incremental field | Primary key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
app_collections | Workspaces (collections) on your AppFollow account, each grouping a set of tracked apps. | Full refresh | — | collectionId |
app_lists | The apps tracked across every collection, including each app's store | Full refresh | — | collectionId, itemId |
users | Users on your AppFollow account. | Full refresh | — | id |
reviews | App Store and Google Play reviews for your tracked apps, incrementally synced on the review's last-modified timestamp (API v2) or its date (API v3). | Incremental, Full refresh | date | itemId, id |
ratings_history | Daily star-rating history per app and store, incrementally synced by date. | Incremental, Full refresh | date | ext_id, store, date |
rankings | A daily snapshot of each tracked app's category rank positions in the store charts. | Full refresh | — | ext_id, country, device, genre_id, date |
keywords | A daily snapshot of the search position your tracked apps hold for each keyword you track in AppFollow. | Full refresh | — | ext_id, country, device, date, keyword |
app_versions | Store release history for your tracked apps, including metadata changes. Resolves the app version recorded on each review. | Full refresh | — | ext_id, country, version |
reviews_stats | Aggregate review and reply counts per app and day, so review volume can be charted without syncing every raw review. | Incremental, Full refresh | date | ext_id, date |
Every table except app_collections, app_lists, and users is queried per app using the app's store ext_id, which is discovered by walking your collections (app_collections) and their apps (app_lists). Because those requests cost credits, only app_collections, app_lists, and reviews are on by default – enable the rest in the table picker if you want them.
app_versions needs a store country, which AppFollow does not always record on an app. We use the country your collection tracks, and fall back to us when your collection does not name one.
Troubleshooting
- Invalid API token – the token is wrong or was revoked. Generate a new one on the AppFollow API management page and reconnect.
- Out of API credits – your AppFollow account has exhausted its credit balance. Wait for the balance to reset or upgrade your plan, then retry the sync.
If your sync is failing or data looks wrong, see the Data warehouse troubleshooting guide. If that doesn't help, contact support – we're happy to help.