Long story short, we're building interactive content in Flash that we'd like to package and make available through an iOS app (either via in-app purchasing or subscription, or both).
Flash obviously can output standalone iOS apps, and in our tests for our purposes this packaged output works well. So rather than completely re-writing our content in HTML5 (so it could be loaded via WebkitView) we're curious if there's a way to serve a fully packaged app as in-app content?
If not, any other ideas how we could do this without completely rebuilding our interactive content? And if we do have to do that, is HTML5 the only option? Anything else that will make the port from Flash to ready-for-iOS less painful? (The Flash -> HTML5 porting tools are dreadful).
Thanks!
No there is not. This goes against the security policy iOS enforces of apps.
In terms of what you can do otherwise, it's really difficult to make any suggestions when you're not providing any details. The best I can suggest is include this functionality in your app, but disabled. In-app purchase will just download some sort of unlock code which can be used to make it available in your app.
Afaik something like this can not be accomplished by creating several apps. You would have to pack everything in just one app, and then make some parts of that app available as in-app purchases. As this is realized through specific SDK functionality, if your tool for compiling the flash to iOS-ready code doesn't support it, you are pretty much stuck there.
In case the tool produces human-readable code from your flash, you can add the in-app purchase manually.
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I don't have an Apple computer, I just have an iPhone and some knowledge about language development. I want to create my own app for my own use, just for fun! I don't want to pay Apple for a developer account. I just want to develop my app and put it on my iPhone. I can either develop on Linux or Windows. How can I do that?
If you want to develop on an actual iPhone, you'll need a developer licence. To developer apps natively you will need a Mac running XCode.
There's lots of HTML5 libraries for making apps using javascript though. Maybe try out Phonegap or GameSalad
At the minimum you'll need to have OSX (Mac Operating system) to run Xcode/iphone emulator, you wont be able to do this without OSX.
EDIT:
You may be able to develop it using phone gap: http://phonegap.com/
You'll have to do testing on an adriod emulator, but I believe phonegap builds the app in the cloud. Good luck.
You can develop an app using adobe AIR or adobe Flash. Check out FlashDevelop for a free solution for making flash and air apps for everything from windows to android to iOS.
For a somewhat detailed tutorial on how to actually export an AIR project from FlashDevelop so you can install it on an iOS device, see:
http://www.codeandvisual.com/2011/exporting-for-iphone-using-air-27-and-flashdevelop-part-one-installation/
and FYI, this is not JUST for jailbroken iOS devices! :D
Native iOS applications can only be built in Xcode (which can only run on a Mac), and you need a developer membership to deploy those on an actual device (which costs about $100 a year). So, that’s the caveat: You can’t make native apps.
However, native apps aren’t the only option! There are two other approaches.
One way is to make a web app. These days, web apps can do almost everything that a native app can do (even access the camera). Unless you’re building something specialized (like a video editor, for example, or a game that needs to work with Bluetooth game controllers), you can probably make something as a web app. Years ago, I wasn’t happy with the flashcard apps on the market and wanted something custom but super simple to help me study JLPT vocabulary. At the time, I also didn’t have the money for a developer membership. I made it as a web app, and it worked great!
If you’re making a web app, you’ll need someplace to host it. There are lots of options. For example, the free tier on Firebase is plenty for a personal-use web app. You also might want to consider building the app using client-side scripting (like Javascript) so that you can host it statically, which will allow you to tell iOS to cache it so you can utilize it offline (Google “HTML offline manifest” for details).
The other way, if you have a friend with a developer account, is to build your app using a cross-platform framework like Flutter, where you don’t need a Mac to develop and test it, then ask your friend to make it for you. You’ll need to rebuild periodically (I think once a year) because your provisioning profile will expire.
If you use a framework like Flutter that can build both native AND web apps, that gives you the ability to run natively (if you have access to a Mac) or host it statically on someplace like Firebase Hosting (if you don’t).
I wrote an app for iOS on iPhone and iPad. I would like to make the app (a children's game) I wrote available on my website through Flash. I don't know if this is possible...
Would I just have to write the application in another language? I can't find any tools that would help me make it available.
If you wrote your app in HTML5, then you can make it available to your website, but if written with obj C, I highly doubt there is any easy way out solution beside re-write the app in another language.
There are no tools to make an iOS application run through Flash Player.
Probably your best bet on writing an application that will run as a native app and within the web is to pursue writing a web application optimized for smartphones. This way you could use a UIWebView to run it within a native application (and thus still have it in the App Store) but also make it available via the web. You could even consider leveraging tools like Phonegap to help with this. But of course this means re-writing your application.
EDIT:
See my answer
I saw some interesting frameworks to build applications for mobile platforms like Android and iPhone with HTML and Javascript so you can use your current web-development skills without learning a new platform language. That's very interesting because you can write just ONE application for many platforms. Very easy to maintain.
But, you cannot sell it in the App stores, so I’m wondering if it is possible to use an embedded webbrowser in the application that loads an external/included html file.
I have seen that it is possible to create Android and iPhone apps with flash, that's is easy, so i want to create a simple 'host' application that only loads content and I can use it over and over again to distribute a new app.
So the question is, is it possible to create a simple app with flash that embeds a webbrowser to load a html file?
When it is possible, next question is, it possible to communicate with the embedded webbrowser? Also a question is, will Apple allow such application in it app store?
I hope my question is understandable.
In a very strict sense, yes, you can make an app that is just a simple WebView wrapper pointing to your web-hosted app.
This is usually frowned upon though in the android market community, and i'm fairly positive such an app won't make it through Apple's closed-doors decision committee.
On the iPhone, if your app only consist of a UIWebView it is very likely that you app is going to be rejected. What you could do is ask your users to bookmark your webapp adding an icon to the home screen. Think Basecamp for iPhone.
After all this time i got the answer.
Phonegap uses a WebView to display the HTML content. It is a compiled native App with embedded WebView.
Apple accepts phonegap generated applications but it still not sure if it made it to the AppStore, it depends on what you doing with it. I think simple apps will made it. See also: http://www.phonegap.com/faq
EDIT/UPDATE:
I tried allot of tools/solutions to create crossplatform apps but all of these seem to do the same thing: It's a executable for the specific platform with an embedded browser. None of them compiles HTML to native code.
Flash (Builder) is something different, it requires AIR (can be compiled into the executable). When you using a WebView (only) with Flash, it is overkill because in fact you do not need AIR to display the HTML in a WebView. I think it is better to use phonegap to 'compile' the executable.
I'm currently developing an iPhone version of existing Android application.
Customer wants to provide his web services via mobile apps. On Android this is made in a modular way: user installs main app, and then he can download additional modules to it if needed. That way he can install only modules that he needs.
Is there a way to achieve same functionality on iPhone? I read about In-App Purchasing, but I don't know if it will work because additional functionality will not be built-in and unlocked - it needs to be downloaded and added to my app as a new module - so user's space would not be wasted with unneeded modules.
Thank you!
2.7 Apps that download code in any way or form will be rejected
From App Store Review Guidelines
Judging by the question, this is not a world-facing app - it has a specific customer. With Terente's answer in mind, do consider side-loading, AKA in-house distribution. That is - bypass the app store. The prohibition on the downloadable code is an App Store policy, not a limitation of the platform.
The enterprise contract with Apple is $300/year instead of regular $100/year. But you get to install your app on as many devices as you wish, completely bypassing the App Store. Either over the air (by browsing from the phone) or via iTunes.
Under this model, your app can download, store and run custom code all you want. The specifics of the plug-in model are up for you and your customer.
EDIT: so app store is a must. How about this: have a WebView in the project, have it download HTML pages with JavaScript in them, have code hooks for JavaScript to call. To the best of my knowledge, AppStore does not reject apps that display Web pages from the Net, and if the Web page happens to have a script, there's no prohibition on executing that script.
This violates the spirit of the rule while relying on letter and precedent. Technically speaking, JavaScript IS code. And again, technically speaking, WebView is capable of downloading and running it. And App Store is choke full of apps with WebView in them.
How will this fly with your customers, who knows.
Im looking into writing a fairly simple iPhone app and need some advice on the choice of platform. I have the following constraints:
App Requirements:
The app should be able to receive strings via a wifi network, process these and then display either a message, or show a preset photo from the library, or change the background color (or any combination of these).
Once started the app will be running continuously on the device, and be a display only client (ie no user interaction on the device itself) - just processing instructions as received over wifi.
Speed: once the strings are sent to the device, the app has to respond quickly (either display image, change color or show preset text as soon as possible.)
My Current Situation:
No previous iOS development experience.
I need to do this within the next 2 months.
I am very comfortable with: HTML, JS, CSS, Python & PHP.
I am familiar with other languages e.g. C++ but have not touched these in a long while.
Question: Choice of Platform:
I know that the best choice would be to use the native iPhone SDK, but given my time constraints and knowledge of existing tech, could tools such as Appcelerator Titanium or PhoneGap be proficient for this kind of application?
Note: At this stage I do not foresee the app being listed on the app store, its meant for personal use only, although this may change in the future.
If it would be an option to load the images from a remote server instead of the local photo library and you being already familiar with HTML/JS/CSS/PHP, why not just make an Web-App that is running full-screen?
You can use your existing knowledge and you're saving money (no $99 license fee)
You might want to try TapLynx - it's possible to create a native app without any code.
I think you can do everything you want to do with Titanium. It even supports Sockets should you need to go to that raw of a level. Native iOS development is painful and hideous.
Appcelerator is glorious and fun :]