quick question...is there a way to make update to an iphone app (news and stuff) without the need of updating the whole app (aka making the user update the app)?
Thanks for any responses!
If your app pulls in an RSS / XML feed, then the app itself shouldn't need updating through Apple. Considering your app has a solid foundation and does not bug out.
Also, you can use a UIWebView to load a remote html (or php or whatever) file which you can obviously update remotely.
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i was wondering, i have a little experience making iPhone apps but no coding background in anything and was wondering.... Is there a way to update your iPhone app with new text, pictures, colors, links, etc. without manually doing it from Xcode then having to get the new version approved by apple.
I was hoping to be able to update it from possibly from my website. Any easy way to do this? Preferably the easiest solution. Thanks in advance
There is, but you have to design the application to do it from the start. Instead of reading from the app itself, the app reads from a content management system (CMS) or even just a text file stored on your website. Many apps work this way, but you will need to design the app with this in mind.
For the amount of things you need updated, I would create a iPhone optimized version of your website and in your app, all you would need is a web view that takes the user to your website. So to change content, you could just change your website and the user will think that the app is getting updated. One thing to keep in mind though, if the user doesn't have internet connection or if there internet is slow, the site my not show up at all or be very slow to respond and load. Hope this helps.
I'm finishing up an iPhone app. I'm using an external server to inform users of when an update is available for my app and allowing them to click from within the app to go straight to the update on the app store. Problem is, I can't seem to figure out the link format to go directly to the update. I've found an old method of using viewsoftwareUpdate (mentioned in another post here) but it's all related to outdated phobos links and I can't seem to get it working for me. I'm currently using the simple format to link directly to the app: itms-apps://itunes.com/apps/"appname", and I assume there is a way to alter this format to get to the app update instead of the main app page?
This seems like a pretty basic functionality so I'm surprised I can't find anything on it.
Also, does anybody know how to link directly to the users own update tab in the app store? Not specific to one app, but the update tab that shows all the updates they have available for download.
Turns out the phobos links do still work and you can link directly to the update page using this URL format:
itms-apps://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareUpdate?id=[APPID]&mt=8
Of course replacing the [APPID] with your own app id, not including the brackets. This will link directly to the latest update for the app, instead of the main app page.
[Note: the solution was posted in with the question, I just moved it here --progrmr]
Just link to your app in the app store, that link will never change.
The page will show the updates right above the screenshots.
Your best bet is to strip the update information from your apps page using JSON, or some XML parser.
As for the list of all updates, again, Apple compares versions of the installed apps and lists them accordingly, stripping out only the update information.
The phobos link did not work for me so I used the following link and it works great:
itms-apps://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareUpdate?id=[APPID]&mt=8
I am writing an app for iphone to go along site my website which tracks the location of the user. Can anyone give me any pointers on where to begin. I am very good with mysql and php etc but I am a novice with iphone apps.
The coordinates from the app need to be able to upload to my api which I have set up.
Thanks
What you probably want to do is create a simple app that can run in the background.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html
During background execution you cannot do anything really too much with the network so I suggest logging it using CoreData and then on resume/startup to send an HTTP post to a PHP page that logs it into your DB?
You might want to check out the HTML5 geolocation API. Also reading "Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript" is recommended. I read the same book for Android and was very pleased. Building your app in HTML5/CSS/JS will also mean that it will probably work on other platforms.
I saw in this article you can run some javascript in a UIWebView:
http://iphoneincubator.com/blog/windows-views/how-to-inject-javascript-functions-into-a-uiwebview
It would be great if I could inject some business logic into my app based on a few parameters I have or be able to customize it on the fly via the web by downloading updated code that would become part of the app.
has anyone done this or is this even a possibility?
I would advise you to avoid doing it. Any app that downloads code will get rejected on the App Store.
From the App Store Review Guidelines:
2.7 Apps that download code in any way or form will be rejected
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.