Just to give some context, there is an iOS app I'm building (in Xamarin) that requires the ability to fetch files (in an automatic way without having the user to navigate to the files and select them manually) that are stored on External Storage Devices (USB Sticks), and are connected (paired) to an iPhone/iPad.
Users connect a lighting cable to the iOS Devices, and plug their USB Sticks into this lighting cable. Here is an example of the cable that end users use to pair the USB Sticks with their iPhone/iPad, and the app then auto fetches these files from the USB Storage Devices.
The app then performs 2 functions:
It listens to notifications, for when a usb stick is paired with the iOS Device.
When it receives this notification, it then proceeds with querying the files on the USB Stick, and reads and processes the files. The app reads these files automatically and the user does not need to manually select these files
I've tried using External Accessory Framework, however that's only suitable for devices that you register with the MFi program.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/externalaccessory
Notifications Center never seems to work (the Notifications that handle when a Device gets Connected and Disconnected, the delegates never get called), and I've tried using the Microsoft Helpers.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/externalaccessory.eaaccessorymanager.notifications.observedidconnect?view=xamarin-ios-sdk-12
I've also tried some 3rd party libraries, but haven't found anything useful.
It doesn't look Apple has any Api Available to auto query and read the files, without having to use a DocumentPickerController. I know this is because of the App Sandbox, and I cannot directly access the Removable Storage Devices.
Now for my questions:
Are there any 3rd party libraries anybody can recommend, that can help achieve most of the heavy lifting for this task? I'd prefer a library that's compatible with Xamarin, however if it's a native library (Swift or Objective-C Library, Cocoapods) I'm sure there is a binding I can use on nuget.
Does anybody have any snippets, or documentation, or can point me in the right direction here (Please feel free to post Swift, or Objective-c solutions here if you like)? Where should I look, which Apple Framework (iOS SDK) is most suitable to deal with this situation. And to summarise, is what I'm asking for at all possible on iOS, without having to jailbreak, or get around the App Sandbox?
Update
So I've tried the solution that #Saamer suggested:
Detect if USB is connected to iPhone device
Here is an example I wrote just to verify if the callback gets invoked, and the app can detect if a usb is plugged in.
CFNotificationCenter.Darwin.AddObserver("com.apple.mobile.lockdown.host_attached", null, (e, s) =>
{
MainThread.BeginInvokeOnMainThread(async () =>
{
var picker = await Xamarin.Essentials.FilePicker.PickAsync();
});
}, CFNotificationSuspensionBehavior.DeliverImmediately);
A file picker should immediately get invoked, and open up, once I plug the USB in, however this doesn't happen.
I'm happy for a solution right now which opens up a file picker, when the user plugs in a USB Device, and navigates to the root directory to start off with. So when the File Picker opens up the user should see this. Then they can select the files they want to transfer into the app.
I thought you needed to jailbreak but it seems unlikely, a solution is possible for <iOS 12
CFNotificationCenter's AddObserver seems to be usable for detecting when a device is connected using host attached and detached as shown here
Or if you don’t submit it to the App Store, you can use this
According to the Apple Docs
You can use the Files app and other supported apps to access files stored on external devices, such as USB drives and SD cards, connected to your iPhone.
Essentially you have to make your a "supported app". I have downloaded a free app called "Clockology" that I recommend downloading and playing with, which allows users to see data within the app as you can see below:
You generally use UIDocumentPickerViewController along with the right uttype to get the files from the Files apps or iCloud Drive, and you require activating the Key-value storage and iCloud Documents from iCloud entitlements capability. There's a lot of tutorials on UIDocumentPickerViewController usage, but you specifically want the capabilities that became available from iOS 13 onwards
This video from WWDC is the best example of getting to where you want. I also didn't find any 3rd party libraries that can help with this
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Edit: If the app does not need to be distributed through TestFlight or the App Store, you can use IOKit and distribute through AppCenter, as long as you have the UDIDs of all the devices you need the app installed on (up to 100?)
In my app I'm showing list of applications.Is it possible to find that the array of applications are installed or not in iPhone.
If any possibility is there anyone please provide related code in swift to check the array of applications is installed or not in iPhone.
In the old times you could have used canOpenURL with a library like iHasApp. This only works for apps that register custom deep link schemes, but it was capturing the majority of important apps.
But since iOS 9 there seems to be a limitation to this approach - see How to reset `canOpenURL` limit in iOS9?
In general your app is not allowed to know what else is installed in the system for privacy reasons.
From your sandboxed application
By default from an Application Layer, you are not allowed to use the private API's to check what other applications are installed on your device.
Workarounds
If the target third-party app supports URL schemes. You can check the url scheme they implement using [UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"someScheme://randomText"]] .
(Not recommended)Take a look at private frameworks like /System/Library/Frameworks/MobileCoreServices.framework/MobileCoreServices LSApplicationWorkspace . There is a method called allInstalledApplications in LSApplicationWorkspace which should work, check runtime headers for more info.
Off topic ~ For MDM devices
Using Mobile Device Management (MDM) protocol, you can use InstalledApplicationList command to get the array of installed applications on the target device. The following is the response for the said MDM command.
I'm developing an app in UWP. I need to send to my printer a RAW string (or file) and get that printed. I succed in using the old RawPrinterHelper from here.
I have some problems verifiyng the app using the Windows App Certification Kit.
I get errors like this one :
API ClosePrinter in winspool.drv is not supported for this application type. MyApp.dll calls this API.
I think that DllImport() in RawPrinterHelper is wrong.
Is there a way to use a diffent RawPrinterHelper or bypass the Windows App Certification Kit in some way?
P.S. I need to publish the app on the Microsoft Store.
If you have already run the WACK test with the release build, then as the error described there are APIs not supported for the windows store app. More details please reference Supported API test.
Is there a way to use a diffent RawPrinterHelper or bypass the Windows App Certification Kit in some way
For print relative features in windows store app, please follow this tutorial and the official sample. This provide alternatives to the windows print relative APIs. Details please reference Printing and documents section of Alternatives to Windows APIs in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps.
If you want the print feature with no print dialog you may reference this thread.
I have been working on a project wherein i made a framework where i automatically test the SDK my company is developing.
I have created my dummy sample application for all the platforms(iOS, Android, OSX, Windows) which makes use of this SDK and i thereby test this SDK, call the SDK API's do my work.
Now my question is for iOS i get permission alerts for Contacts, Camera and Microphone first time whenever i use the API's of my SDK which internally is invoking something in iOS framework. Is there a way i can automatically give this permission to my application ?? i know it's iOS own Security concern and it's correct. But how do i bypass it.
I see there is Apple's XCUITest framework but i don't want to open my application via it.
Right now i handle this alert manually but i need to implement Continuous Integration(using ios-deploy), i have done everything but i can't handle these alerts automatically.
Can someone please help me.. Thanks!!
i'm starting the implementation of a feature for transfer some files (lets say csv files) created in an ios app to the mac.
But i've made some reading about the subject without anything conclusive.
So, can anyone point me a direction to follow in order to achieve my goal ? I need, somehow to access the files created on my app throw the mac
ITunes file sharing.
iCloud.
Network transfer. (This third party library works with iOS and OSX)