I have not had much time to read through all the documentation for the 1500 more features included in iOS4, so right now I have 2 questions:
If the app is just a usual utility application, what to do to make it "qualified on iOS 4"?
If the app uses a timer to refresh all the items on the screen every one minute (requires redrawing of the sub views), what are the changes that have to be done? ( I notice that even though when I quit the application, open it again in a 3GS iPhone, the timer is still generating events).
Update
What I want is the technical part of the story, not the description on the appstore, etc...
E.s. Those applications above have to do something with applicationWillResignActive, applicationDidEnterBackground, applicationWillEnterForeground, applicationDidBecomeActive, etc...
This is something that Apple do when testing your app after you submit it via iTunes Connect.
They will test your app on iOS4 and if they decide it works sufficiently, they'll mark it as tested on iOS4.
If, for whatever reason, it doesn't work well on iOS4, they'll reject the app and let you know what was wrong.
It's a label given automatically by Apple after they test it on iOS4. You may not actually need to do anything extra to get it.
Related
I coded my app with several ViewControllers including an initial WelcomeVC. My app works well and I have no delay when launching it. I have seen that LaunchScreen.storyboard is used for first screen when app is launched but I don't need it in my app. I want to use it and submit it this way to the App Store without LaunchScreen. Do you know if this is possible?
Nevertheless I tried to add a simple LaunchScreen but I see no utility as on my Iphone when the App starts it goes so quick that I don't see the LaunchScreen.
Can I post an app without LaunchScreen?
Can I post an app without LaunchScreen?
No. Well, you can post it, but it will be rejected.
The launch screen does more than just provide an interim screen during launch. It also acts as a signal so that the device knows your app can adapt to it. Therefore Apple now requires (or soon will require) that an app submitted to the app store have a launch screen.
I have a simple iPhone app, mostly table views, map views and other standard stuff. When I change the project settings to make it universal, everything works fine after a few small tweaks. So the iPad version looks just as a big iPhone app.
Definitely, the app will look better if I use some split views, pop-ups and generally rework the UI to look better on the iPad. But I wonder - will Apple review team accept a universal app that is basically just an enlarged version of the iPhone app?
As long as you explain what's changed when you do an update submission (e.g. "now with an iPad-friendly User Interface!"), Apple should accept your update no problem.
What are you afraid of? That Apple would give you a reason for rejection? Just do it, and if you get feedback make the necessary changes. Even if Apple is control freak #1 and a humbling power monster megacorp, I'd be much more worried about it being published and USERS not approving it. :)
iPad users can download and run your iPhone app just the way it is and get the same results either way. From any non-marketing point of view, what would be the advantage to calling it 'Universal' with no changes?
Btw, I've submitted the app without any changes, and it was accepted without any problems.
It's hard to describe my iPhone's situation..
I launched an App and used it. for example, a Twitter app.
After that I closed it with Home Button.
Then I launched a few apps which were enough to take most memory.
And, when I launch the Twitter app again, a screenshot(snapshot), which was taken exactly when I closed the app at first, was shown about 0.5~1 sec.
I know this is a way of animation effect, but mine is somewhat wrong,
because that screenshot should be 'loading image (ex: Default.png)' if the app launched long time ago is about to start from the beginning (the 'twitter' app must be closed because of out of memory).
It makes stressful situation when I use kind of 'personal memo app'.
Before I upgrade to iOS 4.3.3, whenever I launch this app, it requires password without showing any old screenshot.
But now, everyone can see my memo because of that automatic snapshot which pops up about a second.
Help needed. Thanks!
Before your app goes into background you need to hide/remove all the views you don't want to appear when you open the app again.
You should do this in the applicationDidEnterBackground: UIApplicationDelegate method.
See the Remove sensitive information from views before moving to the background bullet point in this section of the Apple Developer Docs.
The only way I know to prevent that is to set "Application does not run in background" in your plist file.
I have released an app in the appstore months ago.
It was first made only for iPhone (because I wanted to do so), now I would like to release it also for the iPod Touch.
What I have to do to make the iphone app available to ipod touch too?
When I update the app (new version tested on the ipod) I cannot change the value of the dropdown labeled "Device Requirements"
I don't want to make another app with the same content and same code just to change that value!
Many thanks
I would contact Apple Developer Support and tell them you would like the change. In many cases, they can override things like this.
This is weird. Anyway, besides contacting the support, bear in mind that you also need to modify your -info.plist file adding the "Required device capabilities" (UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities) key.
Basically, you define here what kind of hardware your application uses, such as wifi, core location, compass, accelerometer etc. This is then used to automatically distinguish a device capable of running your app from another which is not.
This is not yet mandatory, but Apple will warn you if you submit an application targeting the iPhone and iPod Touch 2nd generation without a properly configured plist file.
I've come to a solution releasing an update of the app.
Curious what practices people have learned before making their final build and submitting to the App Store? Aside from switching from Debug to Release & commenting out calls to NSLog what other basic and/or not so basic things should we be watching out for?
This is a good question and I'd like to restate some of the answers and add a few of my own. I've made this answer Community Wiki, feel free to add to it.
Delete the app from your device, turn off WiFi, off cellular data, now install and test app. Does it work properly (as much as it can without Internet)? Does it at least tell the user that a network connection is required (if it is) or does it crash?
If you use CLLocationManager: Delete the app, fresh install and run, but do not allow app to have Location Data. Does the app behave well or does it crash? Does it at least tell the user that it can't run without location data (if that is a requirement)? Does it work on an iPod Touch that does all geo location using WiFi only?
Run the app in the simulator and for each view controller do the following steps: (a) From the iPhone Simulator menu select "Hardware" --> "Simulate Memory Warning", (b) now navigate around your app to other view controllers and see if everything is working, (c) repeat test for another view controller.
If you support older firmware (ie: iOS 3.1.3), install your app on a device running 3.1.3 and test it there (if you don't have one, use the 3.2 simulator).
Start your app while on a phone call or when Personal Hotspot is active. Are all the screen layouts correct (the status bar is 40px high instead of 20)? Did the bottom 20px of the view get pushed off the screen or did it resize correctly?
Accept a phone call while in your app, does it resign active and resume properly? Do sounds from your app stop playing while in the phone call?
Start your app while playing music, does the music continue to play? Do your sounds mix properly or fade the music appropriately?
Test performance on a slower devices with limited RAM such as: iPhone 3G (128MB RAM, 412Mhz CPU) or iPod Touch (1st or 2nd gen).
Run the Clang static analyzer and fix (or at least understand) every warning.
Make sure NSZombiesEnabled is NO in the environment variables (caution: not sure if this is still a problem)
A few things:
I actually recommend not creating a build configuration called "Distribution" as Apple specifies, because I often am creating ad hoc builds for beta testers. I create two build configurations, one called Ad Hoc and one called AppStore, so I'm not confused. The only difference between the two is the presence of the Entitlements.plist file for the Ad Hoc build. This way I can test as closely as possible what I will be submitting to Apple.
Most developers are optimists. That's why we are working weekends to create an app that we just know is going to make us a millionaire. Before submitting though, be a pessimist. Imagine everything that can possibly go wrong, and double check it.
Don't assume anything. Don't assume that that tiny little change you made to the app won't affect anything else. Murphy's Law says that that tiny change will cause your app to crash on all iPod Touches or something. Test, test, test thoroughly between the final code edit and Appstore submission. If you have to make a tiny change, then repeat until it's perfect.
Remember that if the app doesn't crash for 99.9% of your users, then 1 out of every 1,000 downloads will result in a 1-star scathing review.
I use Clang static analyzer, Leaks and Object Allocations during development, but I do an extra run of these tools before submission just in case.
If you don't have an older device, get one, because the 3GS performance is significantly better and you may miss some important performance issues.
Test your app with the following configurations when network or location are applicable:
iPod Touch
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS
iPhone in Airplane mode
iPhone with Wi-Fi
iPhone with EDGE
Call the phone while using your app
Instead of switching to Release, I switch to "Distribution". It's a copy of Release, but that's is how I got taught by some Apple doc and iPhoneDeveloperTips.
Important points:
After the final build, but before you rush off to zip up your app, open the bundle using the Finder's Show Package Contents. Due to some bug in the MacOS, which bit me in versions prior to Snow Leopard (and it might still be there), if you zip up too fast (using the Finder's Compress or Archive menu item), some of the resources have yet to be flushed out into the file. When you do a Show Package Contents, the contents get updated. The way you would notice this problem is that the size of your compressed app would be between a fifth to a tenth or less of the expected size. You might think to yourself, "hey, that zip utility really does a great job of compressing", but that's not the case. This problem would occur at this point instead of during testing mainly because you are doing a "clean all" build and all the resources and contents of the app bundle are starting out empty and then being filled by Xcode. And for some reason, even after Xcode is done creating the file, the contents are still not actually there, if you compress, but would be there if you looked at them (sort of a reverse Heisenberg). Beware.
Another area I spend a lot of time on is to make a nice backup of the sources, after I have committed all the latest changes to SVN, made a new branch, and tagged the file. I also like to have my version number match my SVN build/commit number so I always know which SVN version matches my release. I have those two version numbers in my info.plist and can be pulled up by the app user when they hit i for info. For example, a current info.pist includes:
<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>2.0a1</string>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>346</string>
There are different thoughts on how to use the CFBundleVersion. This is my way. Also useful is the command line utility, agvtool.
Once the app is built, after compressing so you're not actually making any changes to the compressed version, go check the app file and make sure it is signed with the right distribution cert and not your adhoc one. Learning to use the command line utility, codesign, is helpful for this kind of checking and debugging. By making the compressed copy first, you ensure that you're not in any way going to change the final copy that Xcode has handed you and that you will upload to itunesconnect, if all looks well.
Other things to remember are the app icon, the various other icons and graphics you need for the iTunes store, the info.plist, and the fact that when the uploading of the app fails with a cryptic error message, it usually has to do with one of these pieces being missing from the compressed file you are building (those pieces that belong in the app bundle).
Look into this check list document # Github
https://github.com/bapu/AppReleaseCheckList