Does tvOS provide a standard alert for force-updating app? - swift

Sometimes users have to update app to be compatible with server API, so I need to show a must-update-now alert. Is there some build-in message in all supported languages in tvOS or I have to provide such message myself for all languages?
And how do I go to App Store page for my app in tvOS?
Update: I see that there is Harpy/Siren library for ObjC/Swift so it looks like I will have to translate it myself.

Related

How to display webpages in tvos using webkit

I was trying to submit my web based app to apple app store for tvOS, and they basically say that you should use webkit/webkitjs for web content. however, when I try to run a sample app; webkit doesn't load on apple tv. Now, I think I also read somewhere that apple tv doesn't support webkit. So, does tvOS support webkit? And id so, then why can I not find any help on displaying webpages in tvOS? The only help available is from many years ago which is also not applicable right now.

iOS Share Dialog?

I'm curious, is the standard "Share" dialog you see throughout a lot of iOS apps a standard SDK dialog or is everyone just mimicking the ones that Apple created for their apps like Safari? Or perhaps everyone is using ShareKit?
For instance, on iPhone you get a nice 3/4 modal dialog which does a vertical cover appearance, containing a bunch of shiny buttons:
While on iPad you see a "speech bubble" type dialog appear:
This seems too standard across apps to just be coincidence/people ripping off the look and feel.
The situation you presented in this specific case is caused by the fact that on iPad, the UIActionSheet is always presented within a popover controller, and on the iPhone it displays as in your example, withouth a Popover Controller (which is only available on the iPad)
I've written my own code for sharing using Facebook's SDK and the iOS5 Twitter integration so I've never used it but I believe there is a library you can use called ShareKit that will create the action sheets and sharing capability that you'd like. The "up-to-date"/"2.0" (I believe the original is no longer maintained) version is available here:
https://github.com/ShareKit/ShareKit
Apple provides the tools to make UI objects. The one you are looking at is "UIActionSheet".
Developers can bind methods to the tap events of the actionsheet.
Apple encourages developers to keep a consistent UI in order to make the overall use easier on the user.
Check out the Apple Human Interface Guidelines.
link

Import possibility from iPhone App to native Calendar

So I have this iPhone app, working a lot with my webserver (PHP) and getting data from there, mostly HTML content. In this app you can see a list of events (with date, hour etc). Now my users asked me if they could include it to their native iPhone calendar.
Is that possible, and if yes, how?
Do I need to update my application for that or is it possible to generate a file at the server side which the users simply can download? I kinda hoped I could do it that way.
Try using the EventKit framework: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/EventKit/Reference/EventKitFrameworkRef/_index.htmlLike explained here: Programmatically add custom event in the iPhone Calendar

Is it possible to create a widget for iOS?

I'm a little bit confused now. There is a weather and stock widget on the iPhone. Is it possible to create such a widget yourself? I don't want to talk about new features in iOS 5 here. I only want to know it in general (iOS < 5).
Here I found the introduction guide with the help of Dashcode.
Wikipedia also states that this is not possible. I always thought it would be.
So are there only web apps and native apps possible?
PS: What is a widget exactly? A combination of native app and HTML, CSS, Javascript? Only HTML, CSS, Javascript? A cocoa application?
No, iOS does not currently allow the creation of widgets. The weather and stock widgets you're talking about were created by Apple. There are no APIs to write your own.
As of iOS8, its possible. 3rd party apps will be able to create widgets for the notification center.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/06/02Apple-Releases-iOS-8-SDK-With-Over-4-000-New-APIs.html
This isn't a Guide for iOS Widgets, it's Guide for Mac Dashboard Widgets.
You can't
create iOS Widgets
change how the iOS Notifications Appear
With Dashcode you can create Web Applications for both iOS and Mac. It's a combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Those Web Applications are only available on the Web (e.g. Safari). If you wan't to create a native App you have two possibilities:
Create a real native Application in ObjC
Create a Web Application (e.g. with Dashcode) and load it into a UIWebView, this requires also ObjC.
Advantages
Web-only Application (Browser-App)
You don't need a Apple Developer Account
Easy to port to Mac and other Smartphones
Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)
Easy to port to other Smartphones
It feels like a real native app
Your app is on the App Store
Native Application (Real iOS-App)
You have full access to the iPhone Frameworks (e.g. Contacts.app)
Your app is on the App Store
Disadvantages
Web-only Application (Browser-App)
The user needs to know your URL
You're not in the App Store
Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)
You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
It could feel like it's not a native app
You have not the full access to the iPhone Frameworks except you use something like PhoneGap or ObjC
Native Application (Real iOS-App)
You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
You can't port your app easy to other Smartphone
You need to learn ObjC
No, currently thats not possible. But you can, and should, file a feature request at bugreport.apple.com so that this issue gets some attention.
There is no reason you can't create a widget like component using javascript and display it in a uiwebview. This works equally well in android and iOS
A few years ago when I was involved with java server pages development I put together a tutorial of using dashcode to wrap java or javascript components.
http://www.jsfcentral.com/listings/A21034;jsessionid=A15086803ABF96A63DB1AB5405C9A329?link

How to initiate/send SMS from a HTML5 webpage using devices native functions?

I am wondering how can I open the send SMS application by using a web control of a HTML5 page on Android and iPhone. I want to use the device native SMS sending app, with a prepopulated value from the web.
Further to other answers I can confirm that smsto:555:bodytext does not work on an iPhone running iOS5.
What does work (and I've tested it) on Android is the format:
sms:444?body=hello
Example:
Tap to say hello!
On iPhone the ?body=hello will prevent it working at all, and you should use just sms:555 instead.
sms:555
Example
Tap to text us!
I have tested the below and it works:
Using HTML Anchor tag:
Subscribe
Using JavaScript:
window.open('sms:111?body=SUBSCRIBE', '_self');
With Android 3.0 SDK Google has started exposing API in HTML5 for device access. An example is listed here. It may not be enough for what you seek to do.
I dont know enough about iphone to advise either way.