I want to be able in my app to upload files from my computer(windows,mac...) to the iPhone,so i an looking for a source code in objective-c that open server on iPhone,
but my question is, how i implement an upload from my computer to the device?
Edit
I want to upload the file from a computer that is on the same Network like the device,
something like :
the user will open browser and select a file and it will be upload to the device.
i found CocoaHTTPServer but i really didn't understand how to upload a file to the iPhone with this.
you probably want to upload the file to FTP-server, that shouldn't be a problem.
set up a webservice or json on your server to know what changed, or should be downloaded (depends heavily on your business logic of your app) - it could also be a static textfile
now the problem is how the app knows that there is are new files.
option 1: poll server if user presses a button or on every app start, etc.
option 2: send push notification to your iPhone app, if there are new file.
polling the server would be very easy to implement, compared to sending push notification.
EDIT:
alright i read your edited post. hosting a local webserver on an iphone sounds still weird to me.
another possible solution, that could work for you - if you only want to transfer only a few and rather small files:
enable Document Interaction in your app.
this would allow the user to send the file by mail to your iphone and open the document with your app with the "open in..." dialog .
I'm pretty sure that due to the Application Sandbox, none of this is possible, but...
I am working on an application that operates on text that the user inputs. Aside from forcing the user to copy and paste from another application or type in text, what other options exist for getting text? To be more specific:
Is there any way to get the user to "pass" an email to my app? I can imagine a hacky solution where I have the user mail it to a server on the Net, and then I expose the mail from a server-side application, but I'd like something a bit more direct.
Is there any way to get to the user's mail inbox without asking them to put in their credentials?
Is there any way to plug-in to Safari, so that I can send web pages "over" to the app? I don't mean a full plugin, which I know is impossible.
I'm trying to think of creative ways to solve this problem of how to get text into my app, so any ideas would help.
From the Iphone SDK Forum: "Apps can't read each others files - but you could use a URL scheme to launch one app from another. Any parameters in the URL would be passed."
It's what my gut was telling me, but i wanted to go verify before saying..officially, no. The Sandbox isolates each program..
You can pass via URL text strings, but that's about it. I haven't seen any app which hacks around this limitation, but that just may be none of them surviving the app submission process.
http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/iphone-sdk-development/21099-sharing-data-between-applications.html
i have implemening image sharing functionality in my application.
I have implemented email sharing functionality but i dont know MMS functionality.Please advice me how to implement MMS functionality.
It's impossible with current API.
I've seen a workaround in SMS-box application: it copies text and image to clipboard and then asks user to paste it in standard sms app.
You can see it in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gY5w1QUnY (from 2:15)
In the desktop Mac world, if I were to click on a link in a web page which linked to a VCF file, this file would be opened in the Address Book application. In the iPhone world, however, doing that results in the message "Download failed. Safari cannot download this file" being displayed. So, my question is, is it actually possible to add a contact to your iPhone's Address Book from a web page?
I have both the original VCF file and an hCard microformatted version of the data available to me, so the solution does not have to be tied to downloading the original file - I'm able to reprocess the data if necessary. The only requirement is to add the contact to the iPhone's Address Book from a webpage being viewed from within Mobile Safari.
So, any ideas?
[UPDATED - Sep 2013 - iOS7 now supports direct download of VCARDs from we page and import into native contact application so you only need the solution below whilst iOS6 and below still do not support it - that may change in future now that Apple have accepted the feature ]
[UPDATED JAN 2013 - now have added the user agent sniffing and combined into a single download.php file which detects iOS, Mobile Safari, UiWebView scenarios to prevent "Farme Load Interrupted" errors and serves the .vcf file to all bnut Apple devices which get the .vcf embedded in the .ics.]
See the updated complete solution
What follows is a full description of an alternative method for downloading contacts from a web page to an iPhone via Mobile Safari. The basic idea is to attach the required contact information as a file in a calendar event which IS handled by mobile safari. The contact file itself is base64 encoded in the calendar file on the fly using a simple PHP script. So read on...
Just want the source code? Download it here [iphone-contact-download-demo] for a fully working HTML5 Web App that you are free to copy and reproduce or go to http://iphone.mobicontact.info for a working demo. The demo uses the HTML5 cache manifest which downloads the content to your iphone or HTML5 supporting browser for use when offline. Please google for more details about "offline web apps" if you want to know more.
Embedded VCARD in VCALENDAR for iPhone download
You may have read that it is not possible to download contact files (VCARD format data as .vcf file) direct to your iPhone from a web page using Mobile Safari. The browser just does not recognise the .vcf extension and mime type (text/x-vcard) as something it should handle. As an aside, Android and most other mobile devices should be able to handle VCARD files easily enough - the standard itself is as old as the hills!
You may also have read that it IS possible to achieve something workable by requesting the users email address and then email them the contact file OR creating a link to a Google Map entry and extract the contact information from that (Google Map entry requires weeks to attain in the UK).
Whilst these are both viable solutions, they are not what I would call user friendly and I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a client of mine to accept either one of them for their contact download on a mobile web app.
Now at this point I should also mention that you CAN download some third party apps that add support for VCARD (.vcf) files - such as QRAFTER and VCARD GETTER both from Kerem Erkan's excellent QR reader and his blog on the subject and iPad solution, and HIPSCAN vcard importer. But assuming your readers have these apps installed is one step too far in my opinion so I searched for an alternative solution to email, google maps and third party apps.
Before I continue, there are many links describing the problem in more detail:
Stack overflow has several threads on the subject
Forcing vCard download (thesheep.co.uk)
The EMAIL solution and associated blog from the Code Train here vCard options for download
There is also a possible solution using Google Maps here. And this is also covered by this article from Dataplex.
Jonas Schmid talks about serving the file types correctly.
MacRumours thread
Then I got thinking, iPhone DOES support vcalendar files downloaded from a webpage as of IOS5. The VCALENDAR files usually have a .ics extension and are handled by mobile safari bringing up a window where the file can be opened and saved to the calendar. I find it unbelievable that Apple and Mobile Safari support VCAL files but not VCARD files but that is just how it is. So what IF I could attach a VCARD file to a VCALENDAR file?
First obstacle is getting an attachment on a calendar event...
Initially I tried adding an attachment to an Outlook calendar appointment in Windows which whilst possible did not download correctly when linked from a webpage and certainly didn't yield the result I was after. So, I decided to try using Apple software as, after all, we are trying to download onto an iPhone. Using Apple's default calendar application "iCal" presents one fundamental problem - you can't add attachments to an event/calendar appointment! So I googled "adding attachments to calendar events in OSX" or similar and found this excellent article which pointed me in the right direction.
Adding attachments to calendar appointments in OSX.
So a few minutes later and with a copy of BusyCal installed, I was able to create an event and attach a VCARD file to it (previously saved/exported from my contacts in OSX). This step is only necessary to understand the format of the file created when an attachment is added to a calendar item - you DO NOT need to install BusyCal to implement the solution described below but I include it for reference so that you can see how the VCARD is embedded in the VCALENDAR/VEVENT (.ics) file.
The steps I used were on an Apple iMac running OSX Lion:
Export a contact from your Contacts/Address Book to create a VCARD file (.vcf) - you can edit this file with a text editor to strip out all the extra stuff such as UID and PROD-ID if you like.BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Contact;iPhone;;;
FN:iPhone Contact
EMAIL;type=INTERNET;type=WORK;type=pref:iphone#mobicontact.info
TEL;type=CELL;type=VOICE;type=pref:012-345-6789
END:VCARD
Create a new calendar - call it what you like, I used "vcal"- in the "On my Mac" area so that when you export this calendar to generate the .ics file, all you get is the single event with the attached card rather than all the events you might have if you use an existing calendar.
Create a new event - call it anything you like - and give it an arbitrary time and date.
Attach the VCARD file from (1) to this new event - see screenshot.
Save the event to the calendar.
From the main menu of BusyCal, export the calendar to an .ics file on your local disk - download the zip file here --> Apple calendar event with attached contact file.
You can now use your favourite text editor to examine how Apple store attachments in calendar events and the result is using:ATTACH;VALUE=BINARY;ENCODING=BASE64;FMTTYPE=text/directory;
X-APPLE-FILENAME=iPhone Contact.vcf:
QkVHSU46VkNBUkQNClZFUlNJT046M...etc... [base64 encoded VCARD]
So I then stripped out all the extra stuff I didn't need (trial and error here) until I had the absolute minimum that was still recognised by the iPhone as a valid calendar event with attachment. The reason for doing this is to make the PHP file that creates the calendar event on the final webpage as easy as possible - here is the vcal-minimal of what I reduced it to.
So all of the above, as I said, is not necessary to implement the contact download solution - I just wanted to show you how I got to understanding how Apple attach files using the X-APPLE-FILENAME contact line. And of course, how they encode the VCARD data using base64 encoding. So now we have all the info we need to create VEVENTs on the fly and attach VCARDs to them that can be downloaded direct to an iPhone via Mobile Safari.
1)Upload the contact file (.vcf) you want to be downloaded - you'll need this file so that you can either download it direct to non-iphones or base64 encode it for the iPhone.
2)Create a link to a PHP file that will generate the calendar event on the fly such as:
Download Contact iPhone perhaps in a HTML5 mobile app like below:
3)Create or upload the vcal.php with the code here iphonecontact-source-code. This PHP file applies the correct header/content type for the calendar file to be downloaded then you have a choice of either getting the calendar file contents directly "iphonecontact.ics" as done in "vcal-from-file.php" or generating the calendar on the fly as shown in "vcal.php". The latter is my preferred method because you get a nice timestamped calendar event showing the time and date of the download.
4)That's it! You're all set - now browse to the web page on your iphone and click the link to execute "vcal.php". Your browser should now show the iphonecontact.ics file and ask you to open it in the phones Calendar application
5)Select "Open in..." and you will be presented with the calendar appointment and the attached contact file.
6)Notice how I set the title of the calendar event to something useful to tell the user what to do with the embedded contact file (you can see the line in vcal.php that sets the SUMMARY field for the event). So now click the attached contact file...
7)And then "Create New Contact" and you're nearly there...
Save the contact and curse under your breath at the hoops Apple made you jump through!
Now there are a couple of points I'd like to mention here based on my experiences using this technique on HTML5 web apps:
Using the cache manifest - I had some unexpected behaviour/problems serving the the calendar file (iphonecontact.ics) if it had been cached - I just couldn't get it to work so I exclude it from the manifest which means it is always downloaded - source code is included in this zip file iphonecontact-source-code.
I have added some user agent sniffing to detect in the "vcal.php" or whatever you call it (download.php in latest online example) PHP file whether to serve the VCALENDAR file to an iPhone and the VCARD file itself to all other browsers.
Also be careful, if viewed through a UiWebView application then I redirect the user to a page that says open with Mobile Safari (as suggested by someone on my blog) otherwise you get the dreaded "Frame Load Interrupted" error.
I think that's about it - so to summarise:
Mobile safari doesn't support VCARD (.vcf) files directly but does support VCALENDAR (.ics) files.
Current best solutions are to email the contact by requesting the users email address OR to embed the contact in a google map link OR download an app that handles VCARDS.
Apple does support attachments to calendar files but not easily so once we know how this is done we can do it in PHP.
Embed a VCARD into a VCALENDAR file to allow a user to save a contact to their address book with just an extra click or two.
I hope you like this solution - it is as good as I think we are going to get until Apple relent and allow Mobile Safari to accept VCARD files.
Until next time...
Whilst slightly outside of the scope of my original requirements, I have found a solution to the problem that I can work with.
As it turns out, if you receive an email with a vcard in it as an attachment, then you are able to open this attachment and add it to your address book. So, if instead of offering a vcard download link to iPhone users you provide them with a way to be sent the vcard via email instead then they are able to add the card to their address book.
A slightly roundabout solution, but about the best I'm able to come up with whilst Apple don't allow you to do it natively. Certainly it's a better solution than doing nothing at all.
I ended up writing a blog post about this: Adding a vCard to your iPhone Address Book from a web page
For Googlers, as of This post, in iOS 7 (beta 6) The file can be opened directly into the contacts app and saved.
I was able to get this working on a web app using the following resources:
vCards-JS - Simple API for creating a vCard. The example in the Readme shows how to create a vCard, assigned to variable vCard
Stack Overflow Post: "Download data url file" - Replace "helloWorld.txt" with vCard.getFormattedString(). the filename (i.e. name argument) should of course end in .vcf as well.
Confirmed working on Android, IOS and Outlook.
According to the reference library adding contact to the iPhone's Address Book is not possible..
The available schemes are: mail, phone, text, map, youtube and iTunes links.
Iphone URL Scheme Reference
Hai all,
In my iphone application i want to open a my custom application(available in the iphone) when the user tapes on a particular type file sent by email or MMS ,
for example, if i sent an music file (via email or MMS) with a custom extension (for eg: .muc) i want to open my application (lets say myMusicPlayer) to play that file,
is there any way to do that in iphone ?
thanks in advance
There is currently no way to do this exactly. The only way to open an application is using a URL scheme assigned to your app via the Info.plist file but you wouldn't be able to send the local file system location of your file to it.