I have to establish bidirectional communication between my iOS apps. The data that have to be exchanged were text and json. Is it possible with the file sharing feature of app extension? If so, is there a sample that is available to guide through the steps? What are the pre-requisites to create the group id for app group?
You won't be able to speak to another bundle, this is more of an Android behaviour.
Your only way is to use an intermediate server, and that could be a complete book.
What I suggest, is having your files/data stored online, and build both your apps to be able to read and write on that server.
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I am wondering what is considered the most secure way of two apps exchanging data within Cocoa Touch env.
I am very much new in iOS development and swift development and I am just looking to explore another part of the OS capabilities.
I read about App Groups sharing a location (directory) where files can be exchanged but also about URL schemas between apps to share data.
Are there any other ways of inter-app data exchange? And which is considered the most secure one?
It depends on what you consider secure, but the iOS Keychain may fit your needs. The iOS Keychain is password protected and can be accessed by other applications that you authorize.
Take a look at the official Keychain Services Programming Guide and this article explain how it works.
I have gone through a lot of articles on internet and most say that IOS applications allow IPC using protocol handlers (URL Schemes). But, Can't we achieve IPC using sockets, if one application opens a port and the other tries to connect to it ?
iOS8 introduced IPC support by exposing mach ports for so called "application groups". Check out this great tutorial:
http://ddeville.me/2015/02/interprocess-communication-on-ios-with-mach-messages/
It requires a bit of setup (to define application groups in dev portal, generate proper entitlements, etc..) but is not really so difficult and Xcode 6 does most of the job automatically (just enable "App groups" in general capacities section).
I can confirm, it works (I was able to create 2 apps sending messages to each other).
On iO7 there is no official support for IPS, but If you do not plan to upload your app to AppStore, you could try to exploit inter-app audio communication to achieve this.
Check out Apple's code sample, which demonstrated inter-app sound data stream between 3 apps:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/samplecode/InterAppAudioSuite/Introduction/Intro.html
Associated WWDS video:
https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/videos/#602
I haven't try to exploit it for non-audio usage but can't see the reason why shouldn't it work. Data rate is great, and sound data are just bytes and do not have to be redirected to the speaker, but interpreted however you like.
Of course, it will be rejected in AppStore review, but it is still fine for enterprise or own usage.
No, it is not for several reasons. 1) Apple does not allow this internally and has security layers to prevent this. 2) Applications fire applicationDiD/WillEnterBackground after a short delay, at which point the way you can interact with it plummets.
If you really want to send data between applications, set up a server with certs to match your app so you can use APN (apple push notifications) to send data in silent pushes to applications. Then, set up endpoints on the server that trigger those sends, and have apps consume the API that the server exposes.
If I want to have my iOS device act as a "server" and broadcast its bluetooth services to other iOS devices, how would I use the core-bluetooth framework (or any other iOS framework) to implement this? So far, all I've seen from the corebluetooth framework is how to write the client-side of things. (Scanning, connecting to existing bluetooth services)
You can make use of the OSX sample project called DNSSDObjects. The core classes (three of them) work just fine under iOS. The code requires a few small changes to work with Bluetooth (as-is they only work with WiFi). See my answer to another question for the required code changes.
Basically you use whatever code you need to setup your server and begin accepting socket connections. You then use the DNSSDRegistration class to advertise your server via Bonjour.
The other two classes, DNSSDBrowser and DNSSDService can be used by iOS client code to find the server, or any app or program that can find Bonjour services will also be able to find your server.
There are two great WWDC video that show how to act as either the client or the server using an appropriate iOS device. They can be found here, you're looking for sessions 703 and 705.
Downloads of the source that they use can be found here. You'll need a developer account (free works) to login and view/download.
I develop an enterprise application for iOS and the user should be able to add files from the desktop to the application.
I implemented this using filesharing, which works great.
Now this company wants to get rid of iTunes from their machines (which is quite understandable, iTunes is a very invasive process).
The question is, is it still possible to somehow use filesharing without iTunes? maybe with another application?
Or what other way is there to send files to the app (preferrably without the need of an internet connection)
//edit: must work on windows 7 and must not require to install iTunes (there are some other tools that allow access to the iPad filesystem, but they go through drivers installed by iTunes)
You could exchange data via the local wireless network (a connection to the internet is not required, just the iOS device and the Windows computer need to be on the same network).
One option:
You can then create a simple TCP/IP connection over sockets between an iOS app and a Windows application and exchange the data you want.
However you probably need to implement a suitable simple Windows application to do this.
An other, maybe simpler, solution:
You could start a webserver in your iOS-App and show it's IP on the screen. By entering this IP in a browser on the desktop computer you can access websites on the iOS device, which can make documents available for download or receive uploads.
For how to do this, have a look at this question.
There are a number of ways to achieve this, ranging from trivial to sophisticated.
Your question says that you would prefer to avoid an internet connection. Simple solutions may require it - if you want to abstract the difficult parts, you're going to have to let somebody do the dirty work, and that's probably going to be someone(thing) on the internet. Midrange solutions may require a network but not internet connection. A sophisticated solution could probably be whatever you want - but one thing I would say, is that trying to tap into the USB connector is either going to result in a hacktastic or very complicated solution to implement.
One method would be to integrate a third party framework that basically does what your looking for. Look at the Dropbox development kit, for example - allowing Windows (or any platform) users to drop files on their desktops into a shared dropbox, and this can then be read by an iOS application which includes the iOS drobox API.
Another method would be to setup a simple WebDAV server in your office. Host it on a windows box, or a cheap linux box. Give users desktop's access to the share via whatever protocol you want (eg, Windows File Sharing). Then you'd implement a WebDAV client in your app (eg, WTClient) to pull files.
Finally, you could build your own transmission system. A sophisticated example might involve Bonjour and TCP/IP, a simpler-but-custom solution may involve a simple JSON web service running off a local (or remote) server.
I have suggestion but that will require the Internet. I would suggest you to use the DropBox API in the windows and iPhone both. It's awesome to use and very simple for file sharing.
Now a days everybody have dropbox account and have files in it to share. So that shouldn't cost anything other than a bit of implementation (this learning can also be used in other file sharing applications).
Here are some guidance:
iOS
REST API
You can add apps and documents to USB-connected devices with the Apple Configurator
You may use a simple Ftp server installed on PC, so you can connect to server from Ios and upload/download files from iOS to PC....
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Networking/Conceptual/CFNetwork/CFFTPTasks/CFFTPTasks.html
All work is done by Pc and your app will use IP (Intranet or Internet) of PC to share all files.
From Ios you can read all files in FTP server and work with them.
I use the FileBrowser app to get access to network shares over WiFi and will allow you to load supported files to the device. The company responsible is creating an API to allow you to do this within your own app: https://twitter.com/#!/Stratospherix/status/193114857271336960
I am investigating the possibilities of making an app that can handle iWork's apps documents (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). I have made the app and have registered the Document types, but this only gets me as far as supporting Open In from other apps that implements the UIDocumentInteractionController.
As far as I have been able to gather - The only possibility available currently is to implement a WebDAV service, and using it to sync the documents.
Filesharing from pages
Another possibility is to transfer using iTunes
Sharing using iTunes
My conclusion: no direct transfer.
None of these options appeal to me, but the most reasonable is to implement a WebDAV service, like DropBox.
So, my question is - Does anyone have experience with enabling document transfers, in a direct manner - If so, how. If not, am I correct in saying that the WebDAV path is feasible?
Thanks.
Direct app-to-app transfer will not work if the other app(s) do not cooperate with you. You would have to get Apple to offer an "Open In…" command in their iWork apps that uses UIDocumentInteractionController to make it work.