I'm trying to implement in app purchase for first time. So I'm starting with a demo and my question is that if my purchase items are free and even app is free ,will it cost me anything because i don't have apple id of my own and i am using someone else's for generating certificates etc. As when i try to enable in app purchase in Xcode, its asks for apple id and password with whom the credit card is registered. The thing is that its not my account and i don't want to loose money only for demo.
As long as you are working in the sandbox, ie, not released, it will not cost you anything. You sign out of your personal (non-test) apple id in the Settings app and use a testing apple id you setup in iTunesConnect. If you are doing things correctly, you should not get asked for your credit card info. You will have to use a developer-registered apple id in Xcode, but this is for developer authorization, not payment.
Related
Apple rejected my app with an :
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We have started the review of your app, but we are not able to continue because we need an expired demo account to fully assess the subscription feature.
Next Steps
To help us proceed with the review of your app, please provide us with a link to a demo account in the App Review Information section of App Store Connect and reply to this message in Resolution Center.
I really don’t understand what kind of demo account they want from me. There are no any login screens in the application. Active subscription needed to access pdf share function.
Should I give them a test sandbox account with which we tested the subscriptions or something else?
TL;DR
You have your premium feature (features that can be accessed only with your subscription) available for non subscripted users, so they are asking you for expired account to check what happens if they don't have subscription.
Long story
We had subscription which was giving access to training videos for our users inside app. Someday we realized that we want to make this feature free and did it through our backend without releasing the app. So, the next review we've got the same reject:
Guideline 2.1 - Information Needed
We have started the review of your app, but we are not able to
continue because we need an expired demo account to fully assess the
subscription feature.
Next Steps
To help us proceed with the review of your app, please provide us with
a link to a demo account in the App Review Information section of App
Store Connect and reply to this message in Resolution Center.
After struggling around we've revealed that the problem is that Apple App Review team couldn't test the case where a user DOESN'T have subscription and CAN'T access our premium online training videos. I guess they get confused and asked as to share with them an expired demo account, so they can test this case.
At the end of the day, we've removed our subscription properly from App Store Connect and got our app passed through review. Therefore, I think you have your premium feature (features that can be accessed only with your subscription) available for non subscripted users, so they are asking you for an expired account to check what happens if they don't have subscription.
My iOS app got rejected because we charge users with Stripe's payment service, and Apple requires us to use IAPs for payments.
We deleted the Stripe reload balance module from the app. Now the only way to recharge it is for the user to go to the website and make the payment. Does this solution work or does the app still have to use IAPs?
Apple has explicitly requested any submission to go through their iAP for any payment. Your rejection is expected and normal. You have two choices, asking a user to pay through iAP or accept the payment on your website. Both works, but you can't and can't explicitly ask your user to pay you directly.
Let's take Dropbox as an example. You can upgrade Dropbox account on their website. It works. But Dropbox isn't allowed to encourage you to do the upgrade in the app itself (unless the payment goes through Apple). That is, you can't do something like a button in the app that takes you to the payment form on your website. If a user knows how and where to do it on the Dropbox website without being told to do in the app, good, Apple doesn't take that 30% commission.
Unless your service is popular, most users wouldn't be bothered to goto your website and give you their credit card number for a purchase. You should consider just giving the 30% commission to Apple, you'll get more sales.
You are required by Apple to use IAP, and can only use IAP, if you are using the purchase to unlock code in the app. You may use other payment systems only if you are selling real world goods and services or, in certain circumstances, files that are being downloaded from your servers. If you use other payment systems they must be used outside of the app. This is explained in the app review guidelines, section 11.
Note that requiring the use of IAP for sales of code distributed by Apple may not be an issue under anti-trust laws. But in any event, if the "market" is smartphones then Apple is not a monopoly player since their market share is limited.
I am looking to start selling an app on the Apple app store however currently the app uses our own servers to generate a license to the customer once they have purchased it. How can our existing licensing system which uses our own servers be implemented if a customer purchases the app from the App Store instead?
The application license will be a yearly renewable one. Therefore, so far, from what I have read, the app on the App Store could just come with an auto-renewal option (opt-out of course) so that would take care of the subscription cycle but how can our own server issue the customer the one year license which they could then renew from iTunes using the auto-renew function of the App Store?
I am sorry if this is not clear but it would go like this:
Customer downloads application from app store with a one year auto
renewal subscription.
Customer pays.
The app store verifies the
payment.
Once payment is verified it contacts our server to create a
license for that purchase and for one year.
That license is sent back
from our server to the purchased app to unlock the subscription.
Please correct me if my understanding on how this works is wrong but if anyone can point me in the right direction or give examples of how an application on the app store can successfully issue licenses from their own server then I would be very grateful.
As an example, look at "Aviation Exam". They let you buy subscriptions on-device as in-app purchases, or on their own website. In each case the details are synced to a user's account on their own server, so the same exam can be used from any device.
Look at the Apple documentation for how in-app purchase subscriptions work on iOS. Then your app can send details of a purchase to your servers, and download further information.
Edit; after discussion in comments:
If you want payment to go via Apple then it has to be via App Purchase or In-App Purchase. In-App Purchase specifically supports the idea of buying a subscription for a limited time. This is explained at the second link above.
If you want the user to create an account on your server you can either have a page in the app for them to input their details, or you can bring up a web page served from your website. Either way, the info can go to your server and it can create an account.
The key thing is, if payment went via Apple then inside the app is the only place you know this. The app can send this info to your server. You need some common identifier (i.e. a user-name) that is known to your server and to your user, then the user keys it in to your app and it can all be matched up.
There is nothing complicated here, to a decent software developer. All they need is an existence proof such as I gave at the top, and they can figure out how to link the info together.
Edit 2
Some tutorials for in-app purchase listed at: In-App purchase server model
Lots of low-level detail at: Verify receipt for in App purchase
If you prefer to handle payment yourself, not via Apple, then the situation is very different. Now, your own systems have to keep track of what has been bought, when subscriptions run out, etc. To begin with, the app won't know this at all. However, once you identify the user by having them enter credentials (username/password), you can fetch all the details from your back-end system to the app and proceed as above. Again, this is all visible in the example I gave at the beginning, which supports both Apple and non-Apple payments.
One thing to note: if you handle payment yourself then Apple isn't getting its 30% cut, which is the usual App Store commission, so they may not like this. The guidelines say:
11.1 Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
11.13 Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the App, such as a "buy" button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected
That's pretty clear-cut, but since there are apps that rely on subscriptions or content purchased elsewhere, they don't seem to follow these rules in every case. Even the Amazon Kindle app was allowed back, once they took the 'buy' button off.
I want to test IAP, however it seems this isn't going to be possible without going through multiple hoops on iTunes Connect and entering bank information etc.
Reasons for SKProductsRequest returning 0 products?
Can anybody confirm if this is the case or not? If so then is there any reason why I can't just create a dummy test app entry in iTunes connect, enter garbage for the bank info, then after finishing testing delete the app entry from iTunes connect?
Yes, you definitely do have to enter banking and US tax info before you can do in-app purchases. I was getting "invalid product ID", but it started working as soon as my banking/tax info was set up. This doesn't seem to be documented anywhere.
Did not work for me. If it works out for you, let me know.
I tested in-app payment this late December 2013 / early January.
Yes you can test IAP without entering bank info. what you need to do is
Create a test user in itunesconnect
Run your app on an actual device
Launch AppStore App on your iphone/ipad
logout and login with your test user id
Go to your app and try to make an in-app purchase
You should get a prompt saying something like "Charge $0.99 to Sandbox"
You won't be charged to your actual account.
This is all documented by Apple HERE
Expand tab that says To perform testing for In-App Purchase products
I want to create an app that will be displayed as FREE on the App Store, but upon opening it, users are required to do and in-app purchase to be able to access any of the content. I am reading the App Store Review Guidelines, but I am not sure if Apple allows this since the users will not be able to see anything on the app unless they subscribe to it.
The reason I need this is because my client wants the app to be sold at $0.99/year and I don't think this can be done by setting only via Price Tier.
Create a membership only app.
You must sign in to use the app (you can give apple a test account)
then you can manage the membership on your own servers. Or allow them to sign up with the in app purchase.
(enable both the user login and the in app purchase to get a user login, then you can give apple a "test" account that requires no purchase)
They will test your in app purchases anyhow so make sure you follow all the rules on Re-Activating in app purchases, this way if the user comes back and reloads their purchase and they have 2 months left you are sure the app will still allow them.
As long as you dont try to accept credit cards from the app, and use their in app purchase system you should be fine.
If you want to enable users to purchase their account from your server, you cannot allow the purchase from the app. The login however can enable the app without the purchase (and the test account should) but in app purchase should allow them to attach their purchase to the account they use.
I think im rambling now so I hope thats enough clarification.
What you can do is present a demo of the app as a feature before the user buying in-app purchase.just a screen extra. So that Apple does not reject it.
The other option is:
If you have a login/password app, you can tell apple that your app requires login before any feature can be given, only if your in-app thing is login related.