Our client wants us to make a container app, but I am not exactly sure what he means by this. I have to extend the functionality of his existing app but he does not wish to share his code with me.. so he says I should make a container app... I know it something similar to making in app purchases but can any one elaborate ?
Note: you should definitely clarify this with your client instead of this community.
I guess your client wants to have an App-in-App structure that you find in various iOS applications in the AppStore. E.g. the three20 framework offers a launcher that is similar to the Springboard of the iPhone/iPad/iPod where you can put multiple apps (which aren't necessarily independent apps).
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I am asking this question mainly to know if what I want to do is possible. I don't think there is an app that does it and I've been meaning to learn objective C, but it may not be possible.
I want an app that serves as the ONLY way (at least, the only easy way) to launch another app. So in an ideal world, you have MyApp, which lists app A, B, and C. A B and C are not visible on the normal browser, but can be launched from within my app.
Possible? Not?
Not possible. And its most likely that such a functionality will never make it into the official SDK.
What you're trying to do isn't really possible. It isn't possible (with the official development kit) to create iOS applications that don't appear on the home screen.
It is possible to launch other applications, though -- one common approach is to set them as URL handlers for private URL schemes. This can be used to pass information between applications. (However, trying to use this as access control won't work, because Apple will likely reject an application which can only be opened "correctly" by another app.)
Depends on your definition of App.
You can just have a master app which creates the illusion of being an app launcher by "opening" subroutines. Imagine like the old facebook iphone app for example
NO
Well... This has been done for years on the Cydia store with some custom menus but we wont get into that here...
Using the official SDK I think there are protocols to allow you to open an another application but pressing the home button for example will always go back to the default screen. I think ever if you were able to get it working, there is no chance it would be accepted into the App Store on grounds of it not doing anything the phone already does.
By all means look up jailbreaking and using the custom tool chain but you won't be able to sell this through Apple unfortunatley.
Is it possible to incorporate one iPhone app into another in order to redistribute it?
We're going to publish few apps owned by other developers and need to create some pre-rolls with our branding and some other similar features. The original developer could build the app for us, but won't provide us with a source code.
Sorry if the question sounds stupid, we haven't very big experience in the field, just need to clarify some things
Thank you!
No you can't. You are only allowed to execute your own app, you can't embed an other app in your bundle.
It is not possible to embed an app into another app, or better, you could do that, but Apple would reject it and anyway you would not be able to launch it on a non jailbroken device.
More to the point of your specific case, if you have only the binaries you could try and modify the resource files (i.e., .nib and .strings files) to modify the UI to some extent. Of course, you would then need to regenerate the signature for the app (and hope that everything works ok).
It's just a thought, but maybe you could include the other developers apps as static libraries. The advantages would be that the other devs wouldn't have to surrender their sources, you wouldn't face any code signing and bundle id related issues and including static libraries is perfectly safe.
The only disadvantage would be that the devs would still need to deliver the content seperately and they need to learn how to build a static library. An entry point for each app / each library to call it would also be needed, maybe even a small interface to allow the container app to learn about the individual apps status, to cancel them etc.
As I said, this is just an idea, there may be issues with that approach that I do fail to see right now. But maybe others can comment on this...
You might want to check out this link to learn a bit about building static objective c libraries.
Check apples Custom URL scheme, it might find useful for you. Just help=> http://iosdevelopertips.com/cocoa/launching-your-own-application-via-a-custom-url-scheme.html
This just saves time.
Since I already have a web applciation.
I can just stick it inside a webview.
The question is: Does it turn off many users? How many users will be disgusted that the entire iPhone app is written in WebView?
I think it's pretty safe to say that most iPhone users are expecting apps to use the power of the iPhone, not just be a portal to a mobile website.
Think about facebook mobile compared to iPhone facebook app. If you're an iPhone user, I'm assuming you'd much rather use the app than a mobile version of the site (or mobile version of the site contained in a WebView in a an app).
That being said, depending on your app, if the mobile version of your app is highly usable, it could be okay...
Just my thoughts...
John Gruber on Daring Fireball just wrote about this today.
From a usability perspective, native apps usually feel better. They may also be more responsive and handle large amounts of data more gracefully. I have a few so-called "apps" on my devices which are just glorified Web apps, and they don't necessarily scream quality.
If you've already done your app, then just ship it. But keep your mind open to feedback from your users.
The answer is almost certainly "no". People care far more about the usability and experience of interacting with your application than what API-supplied widget you use to render it.
I read Apple has begun removing apps that are like this. Well technically, they remove apps they think could be easily implemented as a webapp instead. Yours obviously qualifies ;)
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/07/apple-cookie-cutter-apps/
EDIT: Apple seems to not mind, according to the Human Interface Guidelines:
If you have a webpage or web application, you might choose to use a web view to implement a simple iPhone application that provides a wrapper for it.
Of course, Apple has a tendency to contradict themselves. ;)
Apple human interface guidelines says this isn't even allowed. I forget where it comes from, but somewhere in the guideline it says apps that are only web views are not allowed. I'm about 95% sure I've seen this. Can anyone confirm?
I'm not all that familiar with Apple's iPhone development system, but I'm trying to figure out if theres a way for developers who create custom iPhone apps to update their apps on a mass scale. For example, would a company who publishes hundreds of apps have to resubmit every app they've made manually if they find a minor bug that affects all their apps (assuming they have used a template)? Or is it possible to somehow use or build a custom program that can make this process easier, by automatically generating or updating apps? I don't believe Apple has an API or anything, but it just seems like it would be a nightmare for these developers to fix bugs, and thought maybe I was missing something.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Apple provides no way to automate this. In theory you could write a program to simulate a browser to login and upload new binaries for you, but I'm not sure Apple would like that very much, and it would be a lot of work.
In addition, one might argue that if the apps are similar enough to warrant this automation, it should probably be one app instead of many. But that may be an over generalization without knowing your use case.
There's the Application Loader
http://itunesconnect.apple.com/apploader/ApplicationLoader_1.2.dmg
(requires login)
It doesn't do bulk uploads, but it does provide a maybe more accessible interface.
Isn't there that separate application that you can use to talk to iTunesConnect? (Though I still don't think it's possible to do mass updates.)
I want to create a community for my venture and also an iphone application for the same. I am thinking of using Buddypress for the community.
But is it possible to use buddypress with an iPhone app? I'd like that when user posts a message via the iPhone app, it is also posted on buddypress? Or do I have to write custom scripts for editing the buddypress db according to user actions in the iPhone app?
Thanks.
I remember reading about a plugin for BuddyPress, called BPDEV XMLRPC that allows you to communicate with BuddyPress via XMLRPC. I'm not sure if it's out of the development trunk yet, but it seems like you could use that to post messages to BuddyPress from an iPhone app. bp-dev.org seems to be down at the moment, but I read about it there.
It's entirely possible to do -- but will require some heavy development work. Would have to modify heavily a child theme and do lots of stuff to make it work. Let me know if you find anything that works.