I have asked this question long before.
I know it maybe impossible, but as far as I know, 'Find my friends' has this features and it works just so well, so I wonder if now there is a neat and legitimate way of doing that.
Just because Apple's Find My Friends app has a feature does not mean the API is publicly available. If this app is not an enterprise app, you can't use private APIs and have your app put on the app store. If it is an enterprise app, you may want to look into setting up a configuration profile for the device. In order to access the VPN for my employer, I had to install a configuration profile (visible in Settings) that requires a passcode to be entered every time I unlock my iPad. Without that, I cannot VPN into their intranet. TestFlight uses a similar approach with profiles to register a device to receive builds. I would check out this link from Apple on setting up these sorts of profiles for enterprise applications: http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/resources/
There's no way to detect this programmatically from within an iPhone SDK-based application. If you need to, you should file an enhancement request with Apple at http://bugreporter.apple.com
Related
My client needs to find a way to automatically push app updates to a number of iphone 3gs devices remotely. These devices will be in guided access mode so the users will only be able to access the app in question.
I believe we have two option for distribution:
B2B custom app via the Volume Purchase Program
In-house app released with the Apple Enterprise Program
Having researched our options I can see that over the air app updates can be achieved by either:
Building an in-app update functionality to check for new updates (Enterprise only I am guessing?) and automatically update and restart the app
Using an MDM such as http://www.air-watch.com/ (as I understand Apple Configurator must have devices plugged in via USB to work?)
I am wondering if anyone can tell me whether either of those options are possible with the devices being in guided access mode?
Or are there any other solutions, which I have missed, that can automatically manage the app remotely while the device is in guided access mode?
You can solve this with an Enterprise distributed app.
App only. Update check for an OTA-Update from your app when the app is coming to the foreground (or some other metric at your clients leisure, like added time delay, etc). Basically self explanatory; you implement a call to your clients/your API to check the version and inform the user of a new one. The update can either be optional or mandatory (preferably announced by the API and changed when needed); present the user with an alert about it. The user acts upon it and you OTA install via an ITMS link provided by your API call. And that's it.
MDM. Tbh, I'm a bit on shaky ground here. Theoretically this is all possible via MDM too, however I am not sure if it is the (varying) MDM solutions or some misconfigurations, but clients usually seem to lose control after some time.
Both. Yes, you can perfectly well live with both. MDM while everything is fine, and as a backup a well structured App+API mechanism to push the OTA updates out. This is especially useful if you have customers where some departments are under MDM and others are not. So, some may get it via MDM (and if all else fails via the App itself), the rest will get it via the App.
The tradeoffs are a matter of personal preference, if there is a fully working MDM solution in place the update will be pushed out and the user however 'malicious' can do nothing against it. But the same is true for the 'App only' solution, as you have the option to not let him use the app if he does not update (either by not providing a cancel button or, as you are in an enterprise environment and there it is allowed doing an exit(0)).
From experience I prefer any solution that has the 'App only' option as it is the last fallback if anything on client side fails. Whatever may be added on top is just sugar to the cake.
While not strictly relevant, the 'App only' solution always goes well with Push Notifications when an update came out.
We would like to allow our iPhone application users to access to our secure and protected Wi-Fi hotspots, without having to manually download a configuration profile themselves. From my experience today, users have to either open an email with a profile attached, click on a link or have the app programmatically open up safari in order to download a configuration profile. We’d like to avoid the users having to do anything at all.
To that end, does anyone know if it is possible to have a configuration profile installed automatically on a user’s iPhone, such as when the mobile application is downloaded from the app store? Or is there another mechanism through which we could allow our iPhone users to gain access to our secure Wi-Fi hotspots.
Also, I am curious does anyone know of any companies that have enabled such a solution?
(note there is an older thread on this topic from 2010, which implies that this is not possible. Given it has now been 3 years and that we're on ios 7, I would like to see if the capabilities of iOS has changed.)
There are four ways to deploy configuration profiles:
By physically connecting the device
In an email message
On a webpage
Using over-the air configuration
More on this Document.
There are some question which are related to this,. but getting the exact answer:
Lock-down iPhone/iPod/iPad so it can only run one app
Recently iOS 6 is introduced with some business oriented features, two of theme are:
Guide Access
Supervised Access
These both deals with Accessibility Control features, Like allow user to restrict access to there device, only if they have full access to the device. In that way this is only useful to people, who owned the device like, a school use there device for exam, a restaurant for menus, for product display etc. All of them have access to the device to configure settings etc.
Now my question begins here, I am thinking of an App, which look down user to single app mode when user run the app and after signing out of the app the device start working as before in normal mode.
Through the time when app is active, user should not able to access any other function or button, this applies on all three device iPad, iPhone, iPod.
Also I found that this could be done by installing some Profiles etc, which looks wired and we can't ask user to do so.
So the simple idea is user will only install the App, as normally he does and we could lock him down to single app mode when he log into the app.
The SureLock iOS app does nothing but inform the user how to do it in your system preferences.
Doing it from the app itself is only possible, if you break the rules about private frameworks. And break it hard.
I am sorry to tell you that the way you present your idea, would never be approved for the AppStore.
The accepted answer to this question is no longer correct:
Starting with iOS 7, UIKit exposes the function UIAccessibilityRequestGuidedAccessSession as public API.
I don’t know, but can very well imagine that this function existed as private API dating back to iOS 6, where the guided access feature was introduced.
Note that for this method to have any effect, the device in question must be supervised using MDM, and the ID of the app you want to use this API must be included in the device management profile deployed to it.
Hi may be I am late but I have a good news for you.
Apple provide a new feature in IOS 7 and we can lock the user to single mode without user permission(Lock and unlock mode) here is the apple documentation link
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIKitFunctionReference/#//apple_ref/c/func/UIAccessibilityRequestGuidedAccessSession
the other way is to install the profile config profile like is
http://ipadhire.co.nz/lockdown.mobileconfig
it lock the home button of IPhone and enable single mode
For this you have to do following..
access apple's private api's
access apple's private framework
Apple don't encourage accessing there private api's specially when it comes for App Store, if you accessed the private api's at the time of application review on App Store they will reject the app giving you a message of "accessing a private api".
I am making an iPhone app for a company but I don't want it to be available for download to everybody (like apps in the app store) What is the best way to ensure only set users can download the app?
I was thinking maybe of having some website where users login and can click on a link to download and install the app, but I was told this is not possible. You can only download on the app store...
What you are looking for is called "iOS Enterprise Distribution". See http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
The only alternative to iPhone Enterprise distribution (which has its own set of rules and requirements) is to allow download from the app store but require a login in the app to use. Much like HBO-Go. You can't use HBO Go on the iPad unless you have an account with a certain cable provider which has an agreement with HBO. For example, I get HBO at home but can't use the HBO app because my cable company doesn't have an agreement in place for me to use the app so while I can download it I can't do anything with it.
Without knowing your reasons for blocking app downloads I'm not sure if this is a viable solution for you.
I'm talking with a client who is abroad and I'm wondering whether I will be able to send him versions of the iPad app for testing before it's on iTunes.
Is there a solution (e.g. Ad-Hoc?) I could rely that doesn't require jailbreak or anything?
If so, could you please provide me with a link to a guide?
Thank you !
Yes Ad-hoc is what you need, basically you will need to associate your client device identifier (UDID) to a certificate that you will use to sign application.
This is a standard procedure (no jailbreak required) that is fully documented on Apple provisioning portal in User Program Guide (you have to apply ($99) for the developer program and be logged to access this... and it is limited to 100 devices)
Another good thing is to use an "Ad-Hoc" updater such as HockeyKit to ease your client updates and installation procedure...
Yes, indeed, there is an ad-hoc distribution method:
here is its mention on the Apple Developer website. As far as details, I think you have to be in the developer program in order to get direct documentation for that, and sadly I allowed my developer account to lapse. A few key points can be found here
Essentially, you can distribute to up to 100 other iOS users who have your group's apple developer credentials installed on their phone, and the app will remain live for 90 days
Essentially, it's the same headache on the remote side with certs, keys, etc... that you have to do with XCode when developing on the device, but you can put the app on a website somewhere where the remote party can install it on their phone.
EDIT: I found this guide that is presented on a forum if you want to look through the steps.