I want to implement a download manager in iPhone. Now it appears that it iPhone SDK esp NSURLConnection does not support Pause/Resume functionality if the server does not support the Range headers.
I don't want to use external libraries like ASHTTPRequest.
Is there any way I could support resuming of an application from where it was stopped
Why build something from scratch that has been build before? ASIHTTPRequest can handle this sort of thing perfectly, there is no need for you to reinvent the wheel. If you do enjoy such a thing, perhaps take a peek at how they do it (it's open source you know).
If the server doesn't support the range headers, it won't be able to send partial data and so you won't be able to resume from where it was stopped.
Related
I need to implement a communication between a central app that runs always and other apps that may request services from that app. There should also be a way to communicate back to those requests even if they have been closed (i.e. loading them to get the responds). What is the best way to implement that on iPhone? (on Android a solution could be done using StartActivity)
Thanks
On the same device? Impossible with official APIs.
If jailbreaking is an option, try the CPDistributedMessagingCenter class. It has a very good documentation on the iPhone Dev Wiki (just google it). You may also want to look at how I used it one of my tweaks: see the daemon's implementation on GitHub.
I am writing an iPhone app, and I have a remote server that will deliver content. I would like to have my app poll the server once per day to see if there is new content, even if it's not running or in the background. I would also like to do this without setting up an APNS. Any advice?
You can't do that, either when your 'not' running or if you are running in the background. The best you could do is to download once per day when your app is first run / pushed to the foreground.
You could use remote notifications to "prompt" the user to bring the app to the foreground so that it could download something?
With the current apple IOS guidelines, that is about the best you can do.
I read that you are trying to avoid using APNS, but I am wondering if you are trying to avoid it for the right reasons, especially when it is designed to efficiently solve the scenario you are describing. I've seen many developers seek alternative solutions to APNS simply because the technology appeared to be complex to use after looking at Apple's documentation. The online documentation does go into a lot of details, right down to the binary protocol level.
But just to be sure you know, there are open-source libraries whose only purpose is to shield you from all these technical details. Some libraries are more complex than others, but some are remarkably user-friendly. If you have not done so already, you might like to take a look at JavaPNS and other similar projects.
Is there any good advice on uploading files to the device? I've seen many apps create a http server on 80 or 8080 to upload files. Does that mean I have to implement a server too?
Are there any 3rd-party libraries? (Preferably open-source and non-GPL)
EDIT: I am going to upgrade files in the app for specific devices in a corporate environment, so the ipad pulling files from a central server is also an alternative. But I would have to send messages to these ipads to tell them to fetch those files.
But I would have to send messages to
these ipads to tell them to fetch
those files.
Push Notification Programming Guide
Or mail with custom URL scheme for launching your application.
iOS Application Programming Guide - Implementing Custom URL Schemes
I assume what you want is a kind of automatic update. An app do something by order from server without user's manual operation.
I don't know enterprise-license specific feature of iOS. But I believe there's no such enterprise-specific APIs. And as I know, automatic update is almost impossible. Because,
There is no system-level support for automatic update. (yet?)
So messaging and fetching feature should be implemented in app.
But no app is guaranteed to run in background for long time.
And also user can turn off any app at any time.
There is no way to send message to an app which is not running.
Even you can send, there is no way to address each client form the server.
If your app is running, sending message or commanding them to fetch or do anything is just a simple work. The problem is there is no regular way to force them always keep alive. Even under situations like OS reboot or abnormal termination.
However there is an alternative. Just registering app as VOIP app like Skype. OS does not keep the app running too, but will monitor specific socket port, and will wake your app when the socket receives some message. For more details, see here: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH5-SW15
In AppStore, an app using VOIP for other purpose like automatic update will not be passed, but you have no need to concern about it.
And other way to send message to device without running app is push notification. This is a feature supported in system-level. But this is not designed to commanding app. This is designed to send textual message. So If your app is not running, the message will be displayed to user. However, you can guide the user to start the app by sending push notification.
As a final option, you can request some feature to Apple for enterprise environment. If your company is big enough to get an enterprise license, Apple will consider your feature request seriously.
If you decided to use VOIP method, I'm sorry I can't help you any more. I have no experience of implementing this kind of app. But it should not so hard.
However hard part is server. It definitely require custom server program which keeps TCP/IP connection. Regular HTTP server cannot be used. Because HTTP itself is designed as not to keep TCP/IP connection. You have to build this kind of server yourself from scratch. You'll have to handle lower level TCP/IP transmissions.
There are a few solutions(both of free/commercial) for this kind of server, but none of are popular because this kind of server regularly needs full customization. So there's nothing to re-use or share.
However I believe this is most suitable implementation for your app.
If you can satisfy automatic update only when the app is running, you can archive it by polling server status from the client periodically.
This is easy to implement because you can use regular HTTP servers for this. Client connect and download recent updates from central server periodically. If there is a new update, just fetch and do what you want. And the app is launched, just check the update at first. Prevent all operation until update applied.
This is regular way. Most of applications are built with this method. In this case, you have no need to implement server or hard thing.
However applying speed of update is depend on polling period.
(Edit)
I couldn't care about private APIs. Because your app is not for AppStore, so you can use private API's freely. (This is different thing with jail-breaking. There are so many hidden features by excluded from documentation) I don't know about private APIs, but it's possible there is some API which enable the support for keep-alive of the app.
However, this reverse engineering work is so painful unless you're born to hack.
You may try to use the following open-source in your project:
http://code.google.com/p/cocoahttpserver/
https://github.com/robin/cocoa-web-resource/wiki
Apple has some sample code on their website that details exactly what you're looking for:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/CocoaHTTPServer/CocoaHTTPServer.zip
So you have a couple options:
You could distribute your app wirelessly within your organization and push new content out as app updates. Apple provides this option to their Enterprise Developers.
Wireless App Distribution
iPhone enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers. In-house apps can be hosted on any web server accessible to users. Users simply tap on a URL to install apps wirelessly without needing to connect to their computers.
The alternative is you configure the app to fetch the updated data. You describe adding an HTTP server to the iOS device, but there's no way the server can receive data when the app isn't running. Given your needs, it would probably work better to embed a web client in your app instead.
If I was in your shoes (and option #1 didn't work), I'd use ASIHTTPRequest to check with a server at launch/daily. If there are new updates, the app could then either prompt the user that there are new data files to download, or it could just silently download them in a background thread.
UPDATED: Perhaps I should have been more explicit about how to do #2. You can configure the download so it isn't interrupted when the user quits the app (you don't need to do a Voip hack). Check out the Completing a Finite Length Task in the Background section in the iOS Programming Guide.
There are http server sample codes from Apple and open source community such as cocoahttpserver TouchHTTPD.
You can upload file to the http server on iphone.
Here's a blog and screen-shots about running cocoahttpserver and upload file to iphone.
The Python CGIHTTPServer allows you to create a server in 0 lines of code:
jcomeau#intrepid:~/rentacoder/bin2txt$ python -m CGIHTTPServer
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...
Actually implementing a script to parse the input and save the file would take a little more effort.
[later]
OK, so forget about that, Apple doesn't allow it. See Local server on iPad for the iPad at least.
I am working on an app for the iPad and would like to be able to include the option to use a separate iOS device to control it. I have seen examples of this with games (notably Chopper 2), but have no idea how it is done.
Can anyone point me in the direction of the iOS frameworks that back this feature? I have looked through the SDK but cannot find the relevant sections.
Thanks
Im sure they use Game Kit or you could use the lower level Bonjour discovery.
Read through the GameKit docs.
You can start there. I guess the controller is actually a separate feature of the app that just sends messages over the network, using sockets to send and receive the data.
Send over the network from the controller. Receive them on the ipad in a running thread or however the service you use handles it. process the received messages.
Agreed with #alJaree. I'm working on something similar, though I've found it much easier to implement through Unity. Prime31 has a number of sweet plugins that allow you to implement things like Bluetooth through gamekit in a single line of code. I'm on my ipad right now so I cant be sure of the exact URL, but I think it's just prime31.com, in their 'unity' section.
Hey everyone. I have a fair amount of experience developing iOS apps, but nothing much with web/server interacting apps. For a project at work, I am making an app that will let you login, and get pictures off from a server that will then be downloaded for display and review on the local device.
I need to get some pointers on the correct approach to take. Are there built-in classes that make doing something like this easy? Once the cogent is downloaded from the server, it will be viewed locally, so all I need is to get a point in the right direction for logging in and communicating with a server…from an iPhone.
Can anybody point me in the right direction?
Me, I'm using ASIHTTPRequest Librayry to communicate / download with Internet.
For example, for an news app I download latest news in JSON (with a PHP script on a web server) and store datas with SQLite. If you need a little explanation of JSON with iPhone, check here (in french, but source codes are in english ^^)
When I need to download an image, I use ASIHTTPRequest and a queue to avoid downloading to much files at the same time.
If you want more information about a step, just say it.
Good Luck !
NURLConnection is your friend, along with its delegate methods.
Don't be lured by the temptation to use the -sendSynchronous method (which, now that I think about it, if you require authentication, you probably can't use anyway).