I would like to put on a webpage how many downloads of an iPhone app have happened.
I would like this to be automatic. By the way, I built the app.
Is this possible? Is there a JSON REST API I should know about?
Thanks!
This needs to be an enterprise application, hosted on your website. If the iPhone app is in the Itunes Store, this is not possible.
If it is on your website, then making a counter is pretty easy. See this Stackoverflow post.
You can of course find the number of downloads of your app in Itunes Connect for your personal app, but this would be of no use to an automatic counter.
There is also a way to roughly estimate the amount of downloads based on the application rank. See this paper (d_iPad=9,525*rank^(-0.903) d_iPhone=52,511*rank^(-0.944)), although the methods might change based on the number of apps in the App store.
Related
I got an offer to develop a simple iPhone app that would call a web service with user's credentials. An user would get the list of files that can be downloaded (.pdfs) and could then download the wanted file. Simple enough...
Now, I've had bad experience with publishing on AppStore. Basically, they refused one app because according to them our RSS reader for a online newspaper wasn't in accordance with their guidelines. They said that the application was a simple web aggregator which I won't argue now. Not now :)
So, back to the new app problem :)
I would like to know what are the options for distributing the new app. The client has a web page and wants to give it's visitor this app to get that data from their phones too.
Technically, the app doesn't have to be a native app. It can be a phoneGap solution too since it's quite simple regarding the functionality. Sincerely, I am afraid that there is no way that Apple will allow this app to be uploaded to their store being native, phoneGap...
P.S.
I would also like to know is there a way to distribute an "internal" (not publicly available) iPhone app? For example, a company needs an internal tool for their 500 employees, but can't afford to go through the process of conecting each device and compiling the app for each device individually...
If you want to sell customized apps to companies, you should consider the B2B program.
if you are in an enterprise that wants to deploy apps inside your company, the Enterprise Developer Program is a good choice.
For internal:
100 test devices.
alot of iphones with the distribution profile after the 100 devices
with the enterprise:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
I have an application using JQtouch and would like it to be on the App Store.
Will my application get rejected from the App Store if all the functionality is done remotely (loading in UIWebView) and I provide no offline functionality?
Thanks.
From the Apple App Approval Guidelines:
12.3: Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links, may be rejected.
Basically if your app does not add anything to the experience of viewing the website, then you may get rejected.
I have had apps approved in the app store that were just a web view pointed on a JQTouch application. However, I loaded the .html from a local file included in the app. I believe the no "web clippings" clause of section 12.3 in the App Approval guidelines is only meant for clippings of full web sites. Embedding a mobile web application in a local app will likely get accepted.
I don't think this should be a problem. Apple reviewers are probably the most fickle people on the planet, but I can think of several apps that are UIWebView based, and which provide little or no offline functionality.
I have a fairly simple website where users can fill out a form describing a flowering plant. They click on buttons and checkboxes to describe the leaves and flowers, and then the site returns a list of the possible plant families they are seeing. The site is built with jQuery and all of the data are in a javascript as a series of comma-separated numbers.
The problem, of course, is that the plant ID tool is on the web and it would be much more useful if it could be a stand-alone tool on a smartphone so it would work in a remote jungle somewhere.
I've been scared off of developing an app up til now because I've heard that it costs tens of thousands of dollars. But I keep reading that the new version of Dreamweaver can do the job for me. Can someone clue me in on this? Can I really build an iPhone app in Dreamweaver CS5.5 without knowing Objective C?
Yes. According to this link you can package a native iOS app with CS5.5:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/dreamweaver/cs/using/WSeffff8bffc80208478c8d43312e240fe0ad-8000.html
NOTE: You'll still need to register as an Apple iOS developer to upload apps to the app store.
You can also look into non-Objective-C tools like Corona SDK.
http://www.anscamobile.com/
To register as an iPhone developer you do not need tens of thousands of dollars, more like 100 dollars. Writing iPhone apps is not simple, and for someone to write an app for you might cost as much. BUT, since you have your website up-and running, i would recommend adjusting the website to smartphone screen sizes, and creating an iPhone app that is basically just a wrapper to a web-browser which will show your site pages. Basically that's what CS5.5 does for you as stated. Similar platforms are Corona (as stated), phoneGap, or titanium - all of which allow creating/using web pages that show inside a native app. The app is just a shell for the webpages. Please note that titanium and phoneGap claim to be able to publish from a single project BOTH iPhone AND android native apps.
I've made some iphone webapps before, using jQTouch and iUI but now i want to try out making a native Apps for iPhone. As i first step i thought of trying to port one of my webapps using Phonegap. So far it works well, but i'm a little concerned about some things in the Apple Review Guidelines and wanted to see if anyone have prior experience and could answer som questions.
2.5 Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected
2.6 Apps that read or write data outside its designated container area will be rejected
I'm not really sure what this means. I don't think they concern me but if anyone could give me som more info about it it would be nice.
2.7 Apps that download code in any way or form will be rejected
This one is more tricky. Do they consider HTML code? What my app does is to load content into DIV-tags using jQuery.load()-function, that means much of the work in the app is performed on my server. Will it be "safer" if i generate JSON or XML of the data and process it with JavaScript inside the app instead of loading the formated HTML-code?
2.12 Apps that are not very useful or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
This one together with the quote:
If your App looks like it was cobbled together in a few days, or you're trying to get your first practice App into the store to impress your friends, please brace yourself for rejection. We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour.
Made me wonder what they consider a useful app and what lasting entertainment means. This is my first app and i dont aim for a broad audience, this is mostly a way to get to know the XCode, iPhone-development and the App Store review process before. However, the App will be really useful for me and a bunch of my friends.
2.6 Don't specifically try to access files outside your app's Bundle or Documents directory and you should be fine.
2.7 Somewhere, it explicitly says you can download and use HTML/CSS/Javascript as long as you are running it inside an iOS UIWebView container. But don't try to download, say, Lua source code at runtime and interpret it.
2.12 Don't waste the App store reviewer's time if you are just trying to "get to know" the app development or store distribution process. Read about it instead. Submit something only if you think there are people (not just your Mom) who will really want to download your app and not delete it after trying it out. Maybe at least a dozen to hundred someones. If not, distribute some Ad Hoc deployments to your buddys instead.
I'm working on an eBook app for the iPhone. Given the time it takes for Apple to review and publish updates, I'm considering adding a feature to update the content via my own (Google App Engine-powered) web site.
This would allow me to update the content at will, rather than being at the mercy of the App Store review team. Is Apple likely to reject this kind of behavior in an app? I've asked in the Apple Developer forums, but received no response.
We have developed an application on the App Store that will go our web server and get new content when new content is available and store it on the iPhone. You should not have any problem as long as the content is not offensive. This could lead to your application being removed from the app Store. I've also heard that they may make your app 17+ because of getting content from the web.
You probably received no response because no one knows for sure. Apple has allowed apps that embed webkit before, but it has also rejected them as well.
iphone + web hybrid apps perfectly ok i think, not sure why apple would be concerned.