If a user was using my app on iOS 8 and my latest release supports iOS 9 only. The user update OS to iOS9.
Does he get al alert to update app when he opens my app?
Can the user still use my app without updating it?
What happens for the deprecated code? Will the app crash while trying to access such APIs?
No alerts. If user will not update iOS your application will not be updated. Your project should be updated that now it requires iOS 9, see deployment target in your project settings. If you don't change this setting than it will get updated and you can have a crash if new API is used on old iOS.
If you didn't change server side in such way that it breaks compatibility than old version should still work.
This should be investigated by you. It depends on many factors. If you have setup project "deployment target" properly than update will not be performed on older iOS versions. This may be tricky if your application should support older versions of iOS. Not updated application will continue to work on new iOS even if deprecated API is used. Apple will simply reject updates witch are using deprecated API but still maintains that API. Once I had a problem since UIAlertView was deprecated and old application had new bug where UIAlertView was not respecting application orientation. I had to do a tricky code which detected if UIAlertController (I prefer this approach instead detecting iOS version) is available than use it and if not than fallback to UIAlertView was used.
During application update the biggest problem you can create is setting compatibility or database comp compatibility. So you should be careful with that.
Related
Is it possible to maintain 2 application versions of the same application at the same time?
When a device gets too old and won't receive any updates from apple, you will stay stuck on the last version supported by your device. When downloading apps from the app store that require a higher version of iOS, it will automatically download the last compatible version from the app store. this is default behavior as stated: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/160089/how-does-ios-appstore-handle-multiple-version-targeting-different-version-of-ios/336985#336985
While we will mostly update our latest version, can we still update the 'legacy' versions of the app for older devices? can we still add features to the old versions (eg iOS <11) while adding the same features in our new app?
You can maintain two apps simply by giving them two different bundle ids.
But you probably cannot update the "old" app without recompiling it against the current iOS or prevent a modern user from seeing and downloading the "old" app.
To give an example, if your old app was 32 bit only, a 64 bit user cannot download it. But if you update it, you have to make it 64 bit.
What exactly happens if you release a version of your app that removes support of an older version of iOS? (e.g. removing iOS 7 support)
Will users that already bought the app still be able to download the old version?
Will users on that iOS version still be able to discover and install the old version of my app?
I just managed to discover the answer to the question myself. I used an old iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1.1 and found an app that used to support iOS 7 but no longer does.
Yes, users that bought/installed the app in the past will be able to restore it by using the "Purchased" section from within the "Updates" tab of the "App Store" app.
No, users will be able to find the app, but actually won't be able to install it:
The app still appears when searching on the app store.
The app states "requires iOS 8 or newer".
The "Get" button is clickable, but they won't actually be able to install the app. Instead (after they've entered their password) they will be presented with an alert view explaining to them that they'll have to upgrade to iOS 8 (even though this is not actually possible on an iPhone 7)
I have an application whose minimum version has been set to iOS 7.0. This application also uses NSUserDefaults dictionary. This application is using UIAlertView and UIActionSheet extensively (not sure how much Apple non-disclosure covers). Now, with iOS 8.0, these two views have been deprecated and have been replaced by controller UIAlertController. Now, there are two ways that I can see which can help me in updating the app for iOS 8.
Raise the minimum version to iOS 8.0 for the update. This way, the users running iOS 7.0 won't be able to see the update. However, it leads to the following situation :-
However, there is one problematic case, and that comes from upgrades
performed from within iTunes or on a device with a higher version
number that is then synced to iTunes. When the user syncs the older
device with iTunes, iTunes will actually delete the application from
the device because it cannot run the new version currently within
iTunes. I had a couple of users with original iPod touches report this
when I upgraded one of my applications to only support 4.0.
The above comment is present under the accepted answer at the following url :-
Raising minimum iOS Deployment Target Version for App Update
Since, the application is using NSUserDefaults dictionary, the relevant entries in the dictionary would get erased when the application is deleted.
The other option is for me to detect in the code which version is being used and code accordingly using if-else statements. This would enable me to keep the iOS 7.0 as the minimum version and might also help me in deploying the update for iOS 8.0. However, this seems like a lot of work which can potentially lead to bugs.
So, I was wondering which option is better between the above 2 ways ? (This application would only be using Objective-C for now due to some constraints).
The best thing to do from the user's perspective is probably to code using UIAlertView and UIActionSheet even though they're deprecated. Keep your iOS 7 target the same as it's been. Xcode shouldn't give you warnings since you're using the older version as your base target. You won't need to change anything about your code and it should still work well enough.
Once you're ready to switch (perhaps when iOS 9 comes out), I would switch your base target to iOS 8 and update your code to use UIAlertController everywhere. To me, it doesn't make sense to spend time trying to support two different versions if it's just an API deprecation that still allows your code to work how you've written it for years. Saves resources and energy to just update it later.
But it's really up to you and how much you want to support iOS 7. I think it doesn't make sense to drop support until the next version comes out. I always try to support the current and last versions so there are no annoyed customers, but it depends on your own needs.
If you have analytics integrated, check out percentage of iOS 8 adoption once it's been released for the public. If not, it's a great opportunity to add it to find out how up to date your customers are!
I'm in the design stage of an iPad app. If I use standard UI elements in my design (e.g. a standard iOS button design) and then get the dev's to implement the standard UI elements without any customization, will they update automatically when iOS 7 update comes out?
If not, what do I need to do when the update comes out? What changes need to be made in the app in order to use the new iOS7 styling?
Short answer : No
Descriptive answer: No they won't get updated automatically. You have to recompile your apps using XCode 5 to make sure that your app looks as per new UI controls of iOS 7. If you won't compile them then you will not be able to see even a single UI component and other than this you might get some crashes too.
It is always recommended to recompile your App and test it according to new iOS version to make sure that your apps looks according to newer UI and doesn't crashes on new OS because of changed/ deprecated APIs
I just updated my iPhone to iOS 7 and all my apps still use the old UI elements, (such as NavBar, TabBar, etc). Not sure yet how to update them to use the new ones, (I haven't updated to XCode 5 for example), but the quick answer is: no, your apps still look the same.
I want to create a map based app but apple will no longer user google maps in ios 6.I dont want to upgrade to the developer beta yet as I am waiting for the final release. But I also want to get started as soon as possible. If I start my project now will it change or the code will differ when the ios 6 is available? In other words if I make a successful built in ios 5 will it be unsuccessful when i upgrade to ios6? Will I have to rewrite the entire thing or everything will be compatible resulting to an also successful built? thank you in advance..
Your code will work fine.
Almost nothing changes with iOS 6 and MKMapKit in terms of code.
The only thing which works different in iOS 6 is the way you call the native Map App from inside you app. (if you are using this functionality)
You don't need to wait to use beta versions of XCode, you place them in different locations on your hard drive and leave the current XCode in place.
Then you can test in the iOS 6 simulator just to make sure it works as well as on iOS 5.