we have a ios app that provides the platform for many similar games. When you install this app. This app already contains binaries of x number of games.
Now we are having size issue. So just wanted to know is it possible to create a ios app that can get installed and after that as per user selection can download the games binaries separately and then run. Like a app that can download games as plugins or extensions.
I work on game side part so i dont know anything about ios apps. but so far my understanding is -> when you create the ios executable then while compiling you should have all the code present (app + all the games it will run).
It is not possible to download a native executable and run it -- that is not a capability provided by app extensions.
One loophole you might consider: it is perfectly permissible to download and run javascript, or anything else that runs in a UIWebView or WKWebView, which are both sandboxed from your iOS App's process, and have access to OpenGLES 2.0 in the form of WebGL. There are also apps which have been accepted in the App Store which can run code in interpreted languages like Python.
Related
I already uploaded my android app (written in Java) on Playstore, and now I want to upload it on Appstore as well. In order to save time, I decided to use a cross-platform, but I realized that I should have began to develop with Flutter since the beginning.
Is possible to start developing my app on Flutter even though it is already on Playstore? Or do I have to use another cross-platform like Kotlin multiplatform?
yeah sure you can start with flutter, you need to clarify these things :
package name should be the same as on Play Store.
you have to choose your old key alias and passwords.
For cross-platform you have to build a new app for the app store
You have java code that does not directly compile in flutter but you can use your logic and architecture which you build earlier you have to build new app for app store
But make sure you have to use your older package name and key store so you can override your java app(Live on play store) into a flutter app.
You can rewrite your app in Flutter and upload it to the Play Store to replace the current one. It’s just a matter of making sure to sign the built applications with the same key as it proves to Play Store that you are in control of both, and you’re making the switch willingly. Also, your new app will have to have a version greater than the one already available in the Play Store, as downgrades are not allowed.
Goal
I'm building an iOS app using flutter for frontend, and C/C++ as backend. They must interoperate through FFI, which is a language binding scheme through C dynamic libraries. I intend to submit it to iOS App Store.
Problems
The Dart FFI sample on accessing C-struct works on macOS through dynamic liking and binding. Now dynamic linking is technically possible on iOS according to Xcode 9 - No option to create dylib project iOS, however, it's unclear to me how to ship the app to AppStore, because dynamic linking is not allowed according to Apple Guidelines Section 2.5.2.
2.5.2 Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they
download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes
features or functionality of the app, including other apps.
Educational apps designed to teach, develop, or allow students to test
executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided
that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the
source code provided by the Application completely viewable and
editable by the user.
Quite a few SO questions confirm this problem, such as:
can I use dynamic library(shared object) in my iphone app?
Will Appstore reviewers allow us to use dynamic library in iOS8?
Then official flutter documentation says
Dynamically linked libraries are automatically loaded by the dynamic
linker when the app starts. Their constituent symbols can be resolved
using DynamicLibrary.process. You can also get a handle to the library
with DynamicLibrary.open to restrict the scope of symbol resolution,
but it’s unclear how Apple’s review process handles this.
Questions
As of the date when I post this (2020), does this say that I could never ship an app using this architecture to App Store?
Is it possible that I static link my C/C++ code into a single binary of a flutter app? Take Unity as an example, their iOS plugin system recompiles the plugin into native app. If flutter has a similar mechanism, how?
The answers saying you can't use dynamic libraries on iOS date to before iOS 8, when support for user-provided dynamic libraries was added.
Nothing in 2.5.2 days you can't use dynamic libraires as long as they are shipped as part of your app. So:
As of the date when I post this (2020), does this say that I could never ship an app using this architecture to App Store?
No it doesn't, as long as "this architecture" refers to using a dynamic library that you link to at build time and bundle into your application.
Adding inputs from Reddit's FlutterDev channel
#escamoteur
As I understand it you are not allowed to load any library from
outside your installation folder. Especially not downloading something
at a later point of time. Could you make this a Stackoverflow question
and tag it with Flutter?
#airflow_matt
Since iOS 8 there can be shared libraries in the bundle, when properly
codesigned I don't see why dlopen wouldn't work. Or you can link the
library with main executable itself (just like flutter does) and
dlopen self (DynamicLibrary.process()). I think it's worth a shot.
I want to reduce the size of the app to its minimum level. So what all resources i can load from remote after installation? I know I can download images from remote. But can I download libraries or pods from remote after installation? I know we need those files to generate ipa files. Is there any way to setup app with minimum required code, and "load" rest of the code from remote, and is it even possible?
On a different note, I think there should be a framework which checks for existing libraries (like AF Networking) on device, and if it is not there, then downloads it, and all the apps which need it use it. This will help reduce the size of apps considerably.
For assets (images, movies, sounds, etc...) absolutely.
For executable code (libraries, frameworks and pods) absolutely not.
That would directly contradict one of the rules that Apple has in place on apps on the App Store.
Any executable code has to be bundled and submitted to the App Store for approval.
Apple's iOS developer guidelines state:
3.3.2 — An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s).
I've developed a game, it's total file-size with all assets is about 220Mb.
The game is developed in Haxe language with a framework called openFL - that allows to compile iOS and Android versions from a single source.
Because Android's Google Play doesn't allow apps larger than 50Mb in one go, I've separated the graphics assets and sounds from the code, leaving the app at about 1.5 Mb. I don't want to make a separate branch for iOS, so I'd like to use the same logic for App Store as well.
My question is - is it allowed to download the external assets for iOS similar to how Google play does it? Will App Store host these files for me?
I have a native (Obj-C, standard Xcode project) application and I'd like to integrate a partners iOS application (or specifically, it's functionality) into it as just another view in my application. The problem is that their application is a Flex/Air app. I really don't understand the Adobe compilation process on how it gets from a bunch of flex code down to an IPA. I don't see intermediate projects, shared objects, etc on the disk to produce that IPA. It looks like it doesn't rely on the Apple tool chain... as I understand it, you can produce the IPA on Windows as well.
Is there any way to build that Flex app in such a way that I can import it into Xcode so I can link against it and use it as a library from within my application?
While I specifically used iOS as an example since that is the most important platform, we'll want to apply this solution to our respective Android and Blackberry 6 apps as well.
No, you cannot embed an application within another application. This is true for all applications. Only thing you could do is get the swf of your partner's code and embed that into an Air application, but since you're not using Actionscript/Flex, it won't be possible.
Only other way would be to have an app link to the other application.