I am creating an iPhone project for iOS 5. I need to know if i can run the program in iPhone 4.3.3 and higher ?
Are you using anything in your code that was introduced with iOS 5.0 & newer? (such as storyboards)
If your answer is yes, then you can't run it on 4.3.3.
If no, then you can set the minimum required version to 4.3.X (and here's a tutorial you can use).
Here is a related question (and another one) that may help you out a bit more.
IIRC, you can configure the simulator in xCode to emulate an earlier version of iOS so you can confirm whether or not it will work on 4.3.3. Have a look at the build settings for your project, you can change the target O/S. I'm not sure all versions are available by default though. You might need to download other versions to test.
You said you are using ARC. ARC will work with iOS 4.x, but not iOS 3.x. So ARC will not be a problem. Based on everything else you said about not using storyboards and everything being coded, you should be okay. If you click on a method in Xcode it should allow you to bring up the documentation, and in the documentation it will provide the iOS version that it was released for. Make sure that this it iOS 4.3.3 or lower.
Related
I have developed my app in Xcode 4.1 and iOS SDK version(Base SDK Version) is iOS 4.3 So, will this app run on iPhone with iOS 5 and/or iOS 6 or not?
I think the app can be run on a higher version of the OS than the Deployment Target. Is this right? I appreciate any help.
Yes, your app will run on anything that is iOS 4.3 or newer. That is, assuming you aren't using any depreciated methods that are removed from a future iOS release. You can check if things have been depreciated/removed through the documentation.
It doesn't matter with which Xcode you build your app, the base SDK signifies the lowest system your app is supporting.
You app can and will run on newer systems.
If you want to make an update to your app, you'll need to pay attention to depreciated methods for the newer systems or you will get rejected and won't be able to update in the App Store.
Yes, it will for sure run in higher versions than Deployment Target.
However, is always recommended to run also in newer versions as they are released, to check that every API used is still running fine (specially if they were deprecated).
I can change my deployment target from 3.0 to 4.3 and test that my application is compatible with all these versions but how can I test if my application is compatible with all versions including iOS 5.0? Any idea regarding the same? Also note that I have iPhone 3GS with iOS 4.0.2 and need to test in iOS 5.0. Hope to get a good help. Thanks.
Eventually, you'll need to get a device that has iOS 5 installed. Without that, you can only test this in the iOS 5 simulator.
Also note that changing the deployment target is not enough to test if your app is compatible with that OS version. Basically, this just means that you promise that it'll run from this version upwards, but it doesn't enforce that you don't use any APIs that might not be available there.
I you wanna do it properly, you will have to get every device there is, with every version you want to support ... that is, imho, overkill. I just test my Apps on the 4.3 and 5.0 Simulator in XCode and on my 5.0 iPhone 4. And have not had any problems with that 'til now.
BTW you should update your 3GS to 5.0.1.
To test in the simulator with iOS5, you can set the OS version with the Version submenu of the simulator's Hardware menu.
I am writing an iPhone app in which I want to support the largest user base possible at this point in time (with minimal pain), so I decided that targeting IOS 4.3+ would be a good subset of users for my audience.
I started working in XCode 4.2, but reverted back to XCode 4.1 when I realized that the project templates had changed and everything seemed very intertwined with storyboarding, ARC, etc.
I have built out my application to the point I actually want to test on my device, which has iOS5 installed. When I attempt to use it though, I get this message as soon as I click 'use for development' in Organizer/XCode:
The project's build settings look like this:
My Question Is This: How do I get this application, built in XCode 4.1, to run on both iOS 4.3 and iOS 5 phones?
Are iOS SDKs not backward compatible? I come from Android development in which a less than current SDK will generally work on a newer SDK - is this different in the iOS world? And if so, how is this handled typically?
Any direction on how I should proceed would be greatly appreciated.
You can go ahead and open your app in Xcode 4.2 and it should still work. I've been working on a particular app since Xcode 3.x days and I'm nearly done, chugging along in Xcode 4.2 right now. It shouldn't be a problem. If you want to work with Xcode 4.1 you will be fine, but you won't be ale to use new features introduced in iOS 5.
There are several aspects of "cross-version" development to note.
Testing: You can only test on version of iOS that are included with your SDK, or that are installed on physical devices that you may have. The SDK generally comes only with the latest iOS, sometimes the previous one is included as well, but since Xcode 4 was released, the older SDKs have been progressively deprecated with each release. This is not to say that your app which is linked against the iOS 5 SDK won't run on older versions of iOS. It just depends on how you implement new features.
Features: In order to support older versions of iOS properly, you want to make sure that you don't implement new features without properly checking for the existence of classes, methods, and properties that were introduced in the newer versions of the OS. Unlike Android, you don't have to worry about a million hardware configurations. ;-)
Weak Linking: To support a new feature and still be compatible with older versions of iOS, you need to weak link against frameworks that you are using to implement new features. You can read more about that in the Apple Documentation on Weak Linking.
Deployment Target: The setting that prevents the app from loading on older devices is called the "Deployment Target". If you set this to 3.1.3, then your app will run on iOS 3.1.3 and higher. Remember that if you don't code the the proper version checking, your app may break.
ARC: You can choose to enable or disable Automatic Reference Counting when you create the project. ARC scans your program at compile time only, not at runtime, it doesn't break the app on older versions of the OS.
You need the latest version of XCode and the iOS SDK to install your apps onto your iOS 5.0 phone. That doesn't mean the inverse is true -- you don't need the same version of iOS on your device that you have installed on your computer.
Hope this helps!
You can use the latest SDK and simply set the "IOS Deployment Target" version to 4.3 in the project build settings.
XCode 4.1 doesn't support iOS5 in the sense that Xcode package doesn't contain the iOS5 SDK. So you must return to Xcode 4.2 and target your project for iOS 4.3 (you can also target it for iOS 4.0 with this Xcode version, but you will not be able to simulate it; you can even download older iOS 4.x package versions from the Xcode preferences menu if you really need to simulate them in your device).
You can opt-out of ARC if you want, this choice is given to you when you create the project, so don't worry; but consider that ARC does its magic at compile time only, not at runtime, so your backward compatibility will be kept if you decide to use this technology. Finally if you don't want Storyboard just pick the Empty app template and it will simply put in your project only the basic files. From this template you can create any iOS app, this is the approach I normally follow.
I want my iOS simulator to stay at 4.2, but i do want to upgrade to XCode 4 also. Would i be able to upgrade to XCode 4 and stay at iOS4.2?
XCode 4 offers multiple versions of the simulator to test in. You can choose 4.1, 4.2, or 4.3 for the iPhone simulator, and 4.2 or 4.3 for the iPad.
I don't understand why you want your sim to stay at 4.2. It doesn't offer you anything. If you think you can use it for compatibility testing, you'd be sorely mistaken. Many things don't work right in the sim, and certainly behaviours are different in some cases. It is no suitable substitute for having a device with a particular firmware version on (the lowest you want to support at a minimum).
Short answer: No it will upgrade your sim. But no, that shouldn't ever be a problem.
I wrote a code on IOS SDK 4.0 and tried running on a device which contains IOS 4.2. I am seeing a empty navigation view. What changes in my code I should do to run it on the target version of SDK.
It's very hard to say without having more information on the project and what technologies within iOS it makes use of. Is there anything in the release notes that sheds light on your problem:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-4_2/
Might be worth checking 4.1 ones as well:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/General/RN-iPhoneSDK-4_1/