Question re project organization

[Kay C Lan]

Bill,

I'm no expert, and certainly less so with regard to what is OK by Apple for
iOS, all I know is the Splash Stack solution is not viable if you plan to
go down the iOS route. Someone who's had experience with 'In App' purchases
might be able to answer if that might be an avenue to look into.

I can understand why you're tired of rewrites. I'm not saying you can do
what you want to in iOS, but if you figure it out, whatever the approach
is, it should work for desktop as well.

There is no problem with iOS connecting to remote DBs, as long as the data
is downloaded into the appropriate sandbox and it's static data, not code
to be run. Your challenge would be to accurately separate what is really
code from what is just a resource.

>From my perspective I wonder really how much difference there is between
the code for your basic app compared to the fully enhanced version? Videos,
images, explanations, these are not code, just resources so there is no
restriction on downloading them and adding/removing them to the users
Documents folder. They can be changed and updated frequently, no problem.
Lets say your Enhanced Stack can play Videos but the Basic Stack can not.
In this case the user hasn't downloaded videos, your code would check that
there are no videos and so there would be no button or option to play
videos via your substack video player. When a User eventually downloads
videos, then the Play Video option would be available or become visible and
so your substack video player is now accessible. i.e you create a fully
enhanced stack + substacks with all the code in them (which Apple gives the
OK to) but the code has the ability to ignore bits and pieces based on the
resources downloaded.

If you create a new podcast every week that you want your stack to play, or
an instructional video on youTube which you want the link added to a links
page in your app; these are just resources and would be easy to access via
your original code that would need no modification.

Of course if you are talking about enhancements that you haven't thought of
yet, and adding these as they present themselves; unfortunately iOS will
require new code, a new submission, and the opportunity to advertise you
have a new bigger and better version ;-)



On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 1:46 PM, William Prothero <prothero at earthednet.org>
wrote:

> Kay:
> Thanks for offering your expertise. What I’m thinking is to have a main
> application stack. then the user will be able to add stacks to enhance the
> software. I’m thinking of a mySQL database that is queried, that lists
> available enhancements and their location. The user would get a menu of
> enhancements and choosing one or more would download and connect them into
> the main application. I’m thinking the main app will be the “engine” that
> supports peripheral activities. It’s an educational app, so various
> activities, writing exercises, challenges, explanations and videos, etc
> would be added. The way the program develops will depend on feedback from
> teachers and what they will actually use.
>
> Is this practical in the iOS style of app? I’m really tired of rewriting
> my software for new authoring systems and would like to get this right.
> From what I understand, Apple will not let you write apps that download
> code that they haven’t approved of. Is there a way I could accomplish what
> I want, within the current iOS rules, which will probably eventually be
> applied to the desktop too? In fact, will Apple allow the app to connect to
> my mySQL database for configurations and content downloads? I guess I
> should spend some time going over Apple’s documentation on this.
>
> Best,
> Bill
>
>
> > On Feb 6, 2015, at 3:57 PM, Kay C Lan <lan.kc.macmail at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 3:40 AM, William Prothero <
> prothero at earthednet.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I expect the splash app model is the way to go.
> >>
> >
> > Only if you never ever plan on deploying to iOS or you don't believe that
> > OS X's iOSification will get to the point that the same restrictions that
> > prevent splash stacks from being approved by Apple for iOS will be
> applied
> > to desktop. The latter obviously assuming that you are working within the
> > Mac App Store not an unknown developer.
> >
> > If on the other hand an iOS version is a possibility then you may as well
> > cross the bridge now and find a non-splash stack solution - as you
> already
> > seem to be working with a server side db a local sqlite db might be a
> > possibility; stored in specialFolderPath("documents") for iOS and
> > specialFolderPath("support") for OS X and Win (not sure for Linux).
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