Programmatically tap on HTML href in order to update app - iphone

Question

I'm planning updates for an enterprise app with ad-hoc distribution.
For updates, Apple recommends having the user visit an HTML page and tap on a link:
href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://example.com/
manifest.plist"
See http://help.apple.com/iosdeployment-apps/#app43ad871e
I don't want to do this. I want the app to programmatically check for updates on launch and alert the user with a UIAlertView that an update is available.
Here's what I have so far in application didFinishLaunching. The complicated plist parsing comes from the structure of an example plist found here: http://help.apple.com/iosdeployment-apps/#app43ad78b3
NSLog(#"checking for update");
NSData *plistData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://example.com/MyApp.plist"]];
if (plistData) {
NSLog(#"finished checking for update");
NSError *error;
NSPropertyListFormat format;
NSDictionary *plist = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListWithData:plistData options:NSPropertyListImmutable format:&format error:&error];
if (plist) {
NSArray *items = [plist valueForKey:#"items"];
NSDictionary *dictionary;
if ([items count] > 0) {
dictionary = [items objectAtIndex:0];
}
NSDictionary *metaData = [dictionary objectForKey:#"metadata"];
float currentVersion = [[[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:#"CFBundleVersion"] floatValue];
float newVersion = [[metaData objectForKey:#"bundle-version"] floatValue];
NSLog(#"newVersion: %f, currentVersion: %f", newVersion, currentVersion);
if (newVersion > currentVersion) {
NSLog(#"A new update is available");
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Update available" message:#"A new update is available." delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:#"Cancel" otherButtonTitles:#"UPDATE", nil];
[alert show];
}
}
}
Then I have my UIAlertView delegate method:
- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
if (buttonIndex == 1) {
NSLog(#"downloading full update");
UIWebView *webView = [[UIWebView alloc] init];
[webView loadRequest:[[NSURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://example.com/MyApp.plist"] cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:10.0]];
}
}
A few things:
I know [alert show] shouldn't be called in application didFinish, but I'll change it later.
I don't know how quickly plistData will be downloaded and how this download affects the app.
More importantly, my alert view delegate method doesn't work, and the update doesn't download. Even when I introduce webView with #property (nonatomic, strong) UIWebView *webView, the method doesn't do anything.
I think Dropbox has the MIME configured properly because I can download the .ipa through google Chrome.
So what I really need is a way using NSURLConnection (NSURLRequest etc.) to replicate the act of a user tapping on an HTML href. After that I think the full update will occur.

Answer 1

You can open a URL automatically using
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:...];
I don't know if it works for itms-services: urls, but it works for other bespoke URL schemes like tel:, fb: etc. so it should do unless Apple have specifically blocked it.