I was under the impression that when Apple rolled out universal apps, that a sharing mechanism was provided to sync files between the same app installed on more than one device. However I don't see much evidence of this. What am I missing?
(Note I would prefer to avoid iCloud, because of privacy concerns about Apple giving users' data to the govt since that is a legal gray area etc.)
You'll need to use a cloud service, such as iCloud to store your shared data. There is no sharing mechanism with a Universal App to share data between devices. The Universal App just lets the same App work on both iPad and iPhone. This is a nice bonus to the customer, because if they have both devices, they only pay for the App once.
The App will need to go get the data from the users storage. If you don't want to use iCloud, you can develop your own, by using storage services from Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Windows Azure, however, you are stuck with paying for the bandwidth and storage on those services. You're also getting yourself into more work as you'll have to come up with the server side support, and web services yourself. Plus, on the mobile device, you'll need to concern yourself with handling losing a network connection, caching the data on the device, and then sending it when connectivity is regained.
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I have made an Ionic Framework 4 app and have tested on my laptop and own phone using localhost but now want to get a few users to test it on their devices. I don't want to put it on any app stores as it's for my uni final project so isn't good enough for that. From what I have read there is no way to test on iOS devices without uploading to the App Store, but I have read testing on Android is easier.
Please could you advise me on how to go about deploying the app for users to test?
Thanks!
I can see some discussion in the comments above about just sideloading this.
That's a good, simple option, but it does require your testers to reduce their security settings to allow loading of apps from non-Google sources.
This depends on your users if this is a responsible thing to ask them. If you are dealing with technically minded people this is ok, but if it's for casual users you need to be sure that you revert this setting afterwards, otherwise they could fall prey to a phishing scam in the future because of what you have asked them to do.
If you do choose to do it via the Google Play app store then you have options for distributing to a select group of people without ever putting it live in the public app store.
Its a $25 lifetime fee to join the app store. Then you can release on the internal testing track for up to 100 users. You just invite them via email, they enroll in your testing channel, and then they can install it safely via the app store.
I just started creating custom client application for IOS, Which i have already developed for PC and Android clients. Idea of these apps is to use SQLite database file, which is created in PC admin app and is actualized by Internet. Development of this application is payed from one company and shoud be distributed to selected group of people.
What i want to ask is how to distribute this IOS application to certain audience of people (who has right to use it)? Should I put it on app store as free app without database file which should be downloaded to iphone from secret site?
The best way to do it is via the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.
As for the data, you could link it to a web API if the data is growing or changing regularly. But for static data, you could distribute it by including it in the application itself. See CoreData and other tools for more information.
You can also release it for free on App Store and provide a custom login. However, this is not recommended as this application is useless for the rest of the world. The only reason you would want to do this is if your custom clients can register on your website or some place else and you want to allow them to access the app. This is generally done for subscription based applications. But I presume yours is not such a case.
There is also Ad Hoc distribution, but with that you are limited to 100 devices.
You can read more about distribution.
Note: this may not be the bust way but here is my solution for it
I established a server and set user credentials on the server before, i share credentials with the client and he/she logs in with them.. Later they can edit their credentials, my app is on the store for any body but someone who doesnt have those credentials can't log in..
What you're trying to do is this:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
An ad-hoc distribution is your solution.
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/distribute.html
If you're planning to distribute the app to more than 100 people, go for their Enterprise program:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
Is there a way could i delete my application from some users iPhone by sending a push notification?. The reason can be a security concern.
This can't be done for any iOS device, but it can be done for devices enrolled in Mobile Device Management (MDM). Apple has documented all of the available operations, including removing applications remotely.
An MDM server can manage third-party apps from the App Store, as well as enterprise in-house applications. The server can remove managed apps and their associated
data on demand or specify whether the apps are removed when the MDM profile is removed.
No. You can't execute any code in response to a push notification, unless your app is already running in the foreground. And you definitely can't programmatically delete your app in any situation.
Your best bet would be to have your app phone home when it starts, and not function unless it's supposed to.
You cant delete your application programmaticaly. But you can block some functionalities using client server communication. For example, Write in your code to send a request if security risks identified, and based on response you can control the program flow.
My company bosses want to create a native version of a currently web-based app that will be available to their existing customers (currently a few thousand).
They say it is imperative that the application be available for downloading from the app store.
However the app would only be of any use to customer who already have an account (and would be useless to anybody else who downloaded the app).
Is this actually possible to submit such a thing to the app store?
There are dozens of Apps in the App Store that where they are only usable if you are an existing customer. Look at all the banking related ones for example.
AFAIK, you cannot restrict the intended users when distributing through the AppStore.
What you can do is apply for an iOS Developer Enterprise Program, though you'd be installing the app directly to the devices (requires physical presence of the devices).
You could also use a service like TestFlight, though their terms probably just allow deployment for testing purposes.
What I'd go for is getting the app to the AppStore anyway, as long as your app doesn't include confidential content. You could advise in the description not to install the app unless they're your company's clients.
I am seeing a lot companies popping up that are offering services that let you build apps using your own RSS feeds, photo feeds, etc. Some even say that you can instantly have the app run on your iPhone.
How are they doing this? Even if they somehow created a script that could automate the Apple Provisioning Process, aren't they limited to 100 device IDs, and don't their apps still need to be approved?
Are they not being transparent with their customers, or am I missing something big?
http://swebapps.com/
http://www.kanchoo.com/
http://www.appbreeder.com/
And there are a ton more out there
My guess is that they are controling the client on the appStore. You provide content with the constraint of their client.
Looking at swebapps, it looks like they are actually submitting a native app, on your behalf, to Apple. Remains the mystery on how they can update functionality without resubmitting to Apple.
All apps built through the SwebApps
platform rely upon media and data
stored on cloud servers. Hosting on
cloud servers allows our apps to be
updated in real time, without
re-submitting updates to Apple and
requiring users to download an update