For various reasons I need my iPhone app to include a way to tell the user that a new update for the app is available and prompt them to go update in the App Store.
It looks like there used to be an undocumented way to give an HTML link that would lead the iPhone to open the Upgrade page for app, or something?
How can i make a link to update my iPhone application?
https://devforums.apple.com/message/139548#139548
Unfortunately it appears that iTunes links have changed format from these old "Phobos"-type links (which used "WebObjects") to something new? I'm not very familiar with the old system or the new one...
Can I create a link that will take my users directly to the "upgrade apps" screen on the App Store? Or even better, one that will initiate the upgrade for my app immediately?
Apple provides an iTunes Link Maker tool which you can use: http://itunes.apple.com/linkmaker
Just put the "Media Type" as apps and type in the app name. Apple recommends using an NSURLConnection for opening the link within your app since it will cut out all of the re-directing that goes on and open straight into the AppStore app.
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I have my MAUI app submitted to the Apple app store, but they are requiring me to provide a way for Apple users to purchase a subscription to the service that our app uses (that we manage through our web site). In the Apple docs, it talks about configuring the app in Xcode to add the capability for in app purchases. I haven't seen the specific plist changes (info and or entitlements) that it is supposed to make to support this, so wondering if there is a method that we can use in Visual Studio to enable the in app purchases?
The documentation for doing it in Xcode is here: https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/dev88ff319e7. There's not a lot to describe - it basically walks you through the Xcode UI, you press the plus sign button, select In App Purchases from the list of capabilities and click OK - that's pretty much it. I have not been able to find a plist file though to try and figure out what it did.
So, my app is approved and now I'd like to check what does listing look like in App Store. Is there way to do it without iPhone?
You can go to iTunes (Both Mac and Windows PC has supported) application and find your app.
There you can check how your app looks like in iPhone.
One more possibility: "https://itunes.apple.com/app/id[Your_APP_ID]"
Ex: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id424562537
First of all, it can take up to 48 hrs for your app to appear in all stores world-wide.
In iTunes Connect, you will find the direct link to your app. Depending on the browser (Safari vs. Chrome/Firefox/IE), first the iTunes Web Preview should show your app's store listing. From there you can view it directly in iTunes (if it's installed on your machine.)
To check if your app is available in all territories, go to "Pricing and Availability" and check for the right settings there. (Available in all territories)
I have two versions of my iOS App - FooBarApp for iPAD and FooBarApp for iPhone each with its own Bundle ID (com.foobar.fooBariPad for the iPAD app and com.foobar.fooBar for the Phone App) Both have the same functionality - searching and buying the same products.
I have created a new version of the iPhone FooBarApp which is now a Universal App and can run on both iPhone and iPAD. However I already have a large user base of users who alreadey have the iPAD apps.
I'd like to retire com.foobar.fooBariPad iPAD App, and ask the users to now download the new Universal App version com.foobar.fooBar. To do this I created a new version of com.foobar.fooBariPad, which is a forced update, and which on startup, prompts users to update to the new version of the app. When they accept the hand-coded update button, it redirects them to the appstore to update the App.
Kludgy I know, but I did this because there is no direct way to update the old iPAD app to the new Universal app (as they have different bundle ids)
Unfortunately Apple Rejected this with the message:
"Design Preamble Your app includes an update button or alerts the user to update the app. To avoid user confusion, app version updates
must utilize the iOS built-in update mechanism. ... Next Steps Please remove the update
feature from your app. "
In other words they want this to be a forced upgrade.
We are thinking of just removing the previous iPAD App from the Appstore, but it may cause confusion. Would appreciate any smart solution to this problem, which will prompt users to switch from the old iPAD app to the new Universal App with the least friction. Perhaps push notification is the answer? (but if so then how)?
FOLLOWING onnoweb 's answer below, I got this from a friend who saw the way Dunkin Donut's had implemented this. Just in the messaging (not a tech fix)
Maybe it's a matter of terminology in the foobariPad app?
I've done something similar (EOL-ing one app and asking users to switch to the new one) without any complaint from Apple. We did it by showing an alert to the user saying something like "We are ending support for this app. Please use this new app with the same and better functionality." and then a button that took them to the AppStore if they didn't have the new app installed, or if they did then we did an openURL() to the new app after tapping the button.
Maybe it's not clear to Apple that you're redirecting users to a new and different app rather than a newer version of the app the user is in?
This link shows a video where an app upgrade is "forced" from within the app itself:
http://buzzworks.de/blog/update-ios-beta-apps-from-within-the-app
The App Store is not called in and it's said to work only for AdHoc
apps.
Anyone knows how is this possible?
edit: please give a look to the video before answering. AdHoc apps are signed by the developer and they do not come from the App Store. This sort of forced update is useful when doing beta testing and in enterprise applications.
I've found that it's all explained here:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/featuredarticles/FA_Wireless_Enterprise_App_Distribution/Introduction/Introduction.html
The developer should create an .ipa with the app and a manifest in plist format with the URL to the .ipa and a few other things.
The app can optionally implement its own way to find if an update is available and open
the URL to the manifest.
I didn't it's really possible because the app has to somehow sign itself. The best I can think of right now is that the app is not signed?
You can always force people to go to the app store when a new version is out. Simply make the app connect to a webservice first. Other solutions are not accepted by Apple, or will quite simply not work because of other issues (signing is one of many).
You could also design your app in such a way that forced updates are never a requirement. You can load your user interfaces from the web (Apple has presented some valuable information about that during the previous WWDC), your data can come from the web, and if there is any other correction to do just ensure your app is backwards compatible.
That's how the app store works. And it never requires a 'forced update' ... Well, almost never ;-)
Did anyone try scripting/Automating an Appstore app submission?
It will be amazing if we can save all the necessary info in a plist or a server, Click on one button to generate and Upload the App to iTunes connect.
This will be very useful if we have to develop template based Apps.
Any expert opinions/comments/samples?
I don't know if I'm allowed to say the specifics (as it is under NDA right now), but if you're a registered developer the latest xcode kinda has this sort of thing (as I said, no more detail than that).