I have an app that is currently live on the app store. I am trying to find a possibility if there could be a force update done for iOS app users without the apps versioning system.
Issue: In the Current app which iOS users use has a bug in the custom force update screen which we built, where the go to app store button doesn't work.
Is it possible to trigger force update for an iOS app any other means which could possibly direct the users to app store if the latest version is not installed?
We have built a versioning system in our which had a bug due to which iOS users where not able to redirect to app store correctly.
Looking for possible other ways of forcing update for iOS users who have the old versions of the app.
Related
Some new users may not know how to use the app store for updating apps. Is there a way from within the app I can provide a button that triggers updating the app ?
No, there is no built in way to do this.
If you have a way of detecting when a newer version is out (e.g. your server reports the version number of the latest version), then you could just direct users to your app's App Store page when they have an old version — just use -[UIApplication openURL:] to open your app's App Store URL, and it'll transfer them to the App Store app.
But as Losiowaty's comment mentions, this is not a thing you should worry about. Most people have automatic app updates turned on. This really is a non-issue.
I have observed this a few times, if there is some offer or new ride option available, it reflects in the Uber iOS App directly. How they are able to make changes to the app directly, without pushing update to App Store?
They are using webviews and honestly you can set your code up on the backend to have "flags" to create UI changes on the front end without you updating the app.
I'm building an in-house app that is distributed via the AirWatch app catalog. The app always runs with Guided Access enabled and all devices running it are managed by AirWatch. My questions are regarding auto-update:
Is there a way that AirWatch can force the update immediately or as soon as the device comes back online, without asking for the user's input? If so, how does the app being open affect this behavior? How does guided access being enabled affect this behavior?
Is there a link from AirWatch, perhaps an itms-services:// link, that the app can call to install the new version if a web service had indicated that it's no longer the latest version? If so, how does Guided Access being enabled affect this behavior?
Is there any other good model for remotely updating the app that will spread the update as quickly as possible and under the above conditions? The solution can be using MDM or a custom web service or both combined.
Thanks a lot for your help!!
If your devices are running iOS7 and you have your app Deployment settings set to "Auto" (as opposed to "On-Demand") the device will automatically take the update once it processes the APNs notification to do so. If the device is locked/offline it will typically check for outstanding APNs messages within a minute or so of being unlocked or coming back online.
What I don't know is since your app is in guided access mode if you're receiving a pop-up to install the new version. I've seen previously where if the app that requires an update is open iOS will prompt. What we have done to battle this is embed a check in the app that phones home to see if the app is current. If the app is NOT current the user can't do anything until they update their app.
Regarding a direct-link to the App Catalog to update the app that might get tricky with guided access enabled. Before you even try to tackle that issue understand that the app catalog webclip URL contains the UDID of the device as of AW7.1 (I think). Since the UDID is no longer programmatically accessible code-side AirWatch allows you to push the UDID upon app installation in the Deployment/Application Configuration section. You can embed {DeviceUid} into the key share on the device which will make it accessible for that applciation, hence allowing you to create the appropriate App Store URL within your app.
Good luck
honestly I didn't work with AirWatch. But I don't think that Apple provides a way for automatic update of ad-hoc or enterprise apps.
Well, I can describe a solution for an enterprise app I developed last year. Hope it will help you somehow.
First of all, I made it as a part of our secure website. (a little test flight)
Here's how app update works
When the app launches it sends special request to a server asking if
it is outdated and a new app version is available. (+ servers sends
url for new version installation (with itms-services://))
Then
if update is required, app fires alert with description of new
version, if user taps update, the app opens Safari where the user
is able to install a new version.
We made to different kinds of alert, optional (minor version change) and compulsory(major version change). With later variant user is unable to get rid of alert view, so he has to update the app.
You can update your internal app through the AirWatch Console and applications versioning.
I never used it but I imagine that at the end of the new version process, there is a way to push the updated app to the related devices. If the Push Mode is set to Auto, the user won't have to do anything and the app should be updated. If it is On Demand, the use will have to initiate the process from the App Catalog. From for the latest option, you have the solution to send a notification to the user.
It is also possible to retire or inactivate older versions to only keep the newest one.
If you have access to AirWatch Online Documentation, I recommend you the page Using Add Version for Applications. If you don't, contact your administrator and ask for all the pages located in Mobile Application Management -> Internal Applications and the page Using Add Version for Applications.
You should try it with a single device though ;)
Trivial question I know, but I need to figure out this before I actually try it on iTunes Connect.
I have an application on the App Store, I would like that next version of the app is only available to users of iOS7 or greater.
I wonder if simply updating my app info.plist to support > iOS7 is enough to leave existing users running iOS6 with the latest version I released (1.9) before changing info.plist, and instead have iOS7 users prompted (or automatically updated) to the new 2.0 iOS7-only version?
Or maybe there is something else I have to specify under iTunes Connect?
I can't see anything actually there...
Yes, this is how it works. If you update your app's Deployment Target to iOS 7 then existing iOS 6 users will not be told of an update (and won't be able to update). iOS 7 users will be able to update.
What I am trying to do is when you open the app, app will query the app store to check if your current version is lower than the one in app store. If yes, the app will direct user to app store to upgrade it.
The current version of the app on app store is 1.5.4. What I am doing is to go to xcode and change the version of the app to 1.5.3 in xcode5 and then try to run the app again. Now I can detect a new version of the app like below :
Like I said, user will be direct to app store to update the app. However, on the app store, the page shows Free not Update one.
How can we direct user to update the app if there is a newer version from app store.
The url I am trying is
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id
and I also try this
itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?type=Purple+Software&id=,
but app store displays a blank page.