Ios cross compilation frameworks: do they violate the Ios SDK license? - ios

Some cross compilation frameworks like Adobe Air, Marmalade sdk, Trigger.io and Embarcadero allow one to build test and debug applications from a windows machine. Do they violate the iOS SDK license agreement? This agrement forbids to distribute derivative work of the SDK which is the certainly the case with the above mentioned products. Is it safe to use this products for development or is there a concrete danger that Apple will retire any app developed with these solutions?

I can comment on the trigger.io side of things..
My understanding of things is that the forge build process is acting much like testflightapp, just without the download / install process.
You never actually download / use the apple SDK so its hard to say if you are violating something that you are not using directly.
Forge, just like all build services, has a build server. The build server contains the IOS SDK for packaging. As long as your certs and provisioning files are correct it will package it up just fine. The forge process simply installs it after the fact, again similar to testflightapp.
As for apple knowing you tested in a specific manor.. I don't know how they could even know because the end package is just an ipa file, you still have to submit via a mac.

Related

How to build NativeScript project for IOS on Windows?

Please dont tell me about the licence issue.
I just want to be able to test my code in both environements (Android/IOS) at the same time.
I am not interested in the Virtualisation of IOS because its very slow.
Nativescript-sidekick will do it for you on the cloud ... and for free.
With NativeScript Sidekick you can leave SDK management to us,
literally. You simply tell Sidekick to build your app in our cloud and
we will deliver you the IPA and/or APK app package back to you. Your
NativeScript assets are secure in their delivery to our cloud servers.
Develop iOS apps on Windows with nativescript-sidekick
As XCode can't be run on Windows and you don't want to virtualize, you have one option left, you can let someone else do the builds for you. For NativeScript, you can get a seamless experience with the Telerik Platform: http://www.telerik.com/platform#overview
There are of course many other mac cloud services (such as CloudBees, MacinCloud, MacBuildServer, Unity Cloud and many others). However, for NativeScript, I'd strongly suggest looking at the Telerik Platform as it's a tool made just for that.

Unity3D iOS Enterprise Update Options

We develop and sell enterprise apps distributed via Apple's Enterprise developer program: https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/
What this basically means is that we self-host and install iOS apps on our client's employee devices without going through any sort of app-store layer from Apple. (the enterprise license lets companies self-sign and distribute arbitrary apps on non-jailbroken devices with no intervention from Apple)
With this in mind, would it be possible for us to push Unity3D incremental code-updates to our iOS users via:
http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/scriptsinassetbundles.html
(or any other method?)
Or are we still restricted to only non-code assets in iOS because of the compiler technology itself?
That documentation seems to imply that it wont work:
"If you want to include code in your AssetBundles that can be executed in your application it needs to be pre-compiled into an assembly and loaded using the Mono Reflection class (Note: Reflection is not available on platforms that use AOT compilation, such as iOS)"
MDM can be used to distribute (and manage app updates) on enterprise apps, without having to manually copy .ipa files around:
https://www.apple.com/support/business-education/mdm/

Will I be able to submit iOS PhoneGap Build apps after February 1?

From February 1, apple is changing the rules for submitting apps to the app store. All apps will have to be build using iOS 7 SDK and will have to be compiled with xcode.
I am afraid that this might mean that all my projects built with Adobe Phonegap Build will be useless (ones that use Phonegap build plugins that are not locally available).
I am aware of THIS question.
However that question only talks about PhoneGap (cordova), and not PhoneGap Build specifically.
With Phonegap (cordova) I can build apps locally and an xcode project gets generated, so that will not prevent people from submitting apps as in the end you will still build it with xcode.
However, with Adobe PhoneGap build, the app binary is compiled on adobe's servers and not on my installation of xcode, and that service does not generate an xcode project.
So my question is, will these PhoneGap Build generated apps be accepted by apple or not? I am afraid that I am right by thinking that they will not be accepted, but just want to make sure, so if you know more about this please let me know.
I'm pretty sure that the statement from Apple only means that apps built with Xcode version < 5 and not optimised for iOS7 are not accepted any longer - not that you cannot submit apps built with different frameworks (if they are compliant to their new UI guidelines, of course).
I would not worry about this. Apple basically said they will no longer allow apps that are built using the iOS 6 SDK / Xcode 4. I don't expect other changes in their policies and didn't hear a big outcry on Twitter either :)

Titanium Appcelerator: iPhone Development without a Mac (like PhoneGap)

I am about to embark on some mobile development projects but I'm doing a little homework first. My primary goal is to deploy to Android and iOS, but the latter is posing some problems because I do not have access to (nor do I have any interested in acquiring) a Mac.
Phonegap offers a cloud service where you can upload your mobile development project and they will do the building for you - no Mac required. From the Phonegap Build FAQ:
Simply upload your web assets - a ZIP file of HTML, CSS and
JavaScript, or a single index.html file - to PhoneGap Build, point us
to your Git or SVN repository, or let us set up a git remote endpoint
that you can push to. Then we’ll undertake the compilation and
packaging for you. In minutes, you’ll receive the download URLs for
all mobile platforms.
I am leaning toward the development and native UI capabilities of Appcelerator, but since I do not have a Mac, is there any hope for me using Titanium for iOS development using something akin to PhoneGap's Build service?
If you dont have a Mac you will not be able to develop, test, deploy, or put in the app store applications for iOS, with or without using Titanium.
Regardless, even if you were able to use a cloud build technology with Titanium (which does not exist) you wont be able to deploy your final application to the App Store because you have to have XCode for that, the same goes for PhoneGap. Check this here:
Note: Since PhoneGap Build uses Apple's standard development process to build applications, >you will need to sign up for their developer program to build iOS applications on PhoneGap >Build. You will also need a Mac to configure your certificate and provisioning profile.
Bottom line, unless you use a mac, your not legally deploying to the App Store.
Don't be forgetting the registration fees that come with signing up as Both a google play & iOS developer.
I fear that using a remote service is going to cost you dearly in time, as you'll be significantly increasing your test cycle.
The cost of a second hand Mac mini is hardly going to impact any development budget, even charity work. And as the previous poster note, you can't legally deploy your completed build without a mac. If you made macs, wouldn't you do the same?
There are services cropping up like Mobundler.com and Foundry22.com which let you do end to end development without a Mac.
Foundry22 is a service similar to PhoneGap build, for Titanium SDK. Similar to PhoneGap build, it requires p12 bundle for iOS signing and Java keystore for Android. You can use service like Mobundler to create those using just your browser. You still need to pay to become part of iOS developer program.
The answer here is outdated.
There is an Icenium platform which will allow you to build and put your app on App Store without using Mac at all.
http://docs.icenium.com/publishing-your-app/distribute-production/publish-ios

Is it possible to deploy an Adobe AIR desktop application to iOS?

I have an incredibly basic Adobe AIR 4.5 desktop project that I just want to use to test an iOS deployment. Is it at all possible to deploy this to an iOS device as it is? Or does it need to be turned into a Mobile project somehow?
The steps to creating an IPA file in the guide on Adobe's site (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/packaging-air-apps-ios.html) seem to assume the project is already a mobile project. I'm a total newb here, but it sounds like this sort of thing is possible? Is it really? I'm having trouble finding information.
It is possible to create a simple Flash project and export it without modification for iOS. Obviously depending on what the project is doing, some things might need to be tweaked.
I am currently building several apps using the same fla and as files, which are targetted for browser and iOS use.
But in order to place anything onto an iDevice, be it just for debugging, testing or adHoc distribution, you need to be signed up to the Apple Development program, have an Apple provisioning certificate in place and have relevant apple provisioning profiles created.
There is a great course on lynda.com about setting yourself up for iDevice app building.
http://www.lynda.com/iOS-SDK-4-tutorials/distributing-ios-applications-through-the-app-store/77853-2.html?srchtrk=index%3A7%0Alinktypeid%3A2%0Aq%3Aios%0Apage%3A1%0As%3Arelevance%0Asa%3Atrue%0Aproducttypeid%3A2

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