I've seen this which pulls the app from the internet and this which is what I'm looking for, but I'm not publishing to the app store.
So is there a way to do the following:
Go into app bundles on the device and extract the icons for those apps using official and/or unofficial APIs ?
As #Gavin specified: Jailbreaking is not an option for this particular case.
Apps are sandboxed on iOS, so even if you're not submitting to the app store, your app is still prevented from accessing files outside your sandbox, which includes the files of other apps on the device.
Now if you wanted to jailbreak your device, you could access files outside of the sandbox. But you didn't state that you were willing to do that, so I am assuming this is out of the question for you.
Related
Before create a new account for iOS, android to upload web app to Google play and apple store, I want to ask:
Are they allows developer to upload an application that use InAppBrowser of Ionic to view website through that uploaded app ?
We need this to keep our work up to the latest date of updates for all users without need so many versions for both iOS and android.
So, are there any positive, negative or past experiences related to this topic ?
If you take a look at the review guidelines from Apple, https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ it states that
4.2 Minimum Functionality
Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store.
I would make the case to package your app as an Ionic app, and use either Ionic Deploy, or Code Push to update the content of your app on the fly. Note: This type of deployment cannot update Cordova dependencies, but it does let you keep your html, css and js files up to date.
In general yes, they allow this, but they might get confused (specially Apple) and ask you to be careful about the links that you open inside your app.
For example, Apple has certain guidelines about apps that buy/sell cryptocurrency. If you put a link to a buy/sell cryptocurrency website and open it inside the inAppBrowser, the app reviewer might "think" your app is for buying/selling cryptocurrencty and you might get rejected as a result.
However, if you put links to normal website, for example CNN, they should be ok with it, as there are many apps that already do this.
I am trying to build an app that will allow users to see all pdf files that are on the device (in some kind of a list with a preview) [Regardless of which app it belongs to on the device, all should be shown]. Is there anyway to achieve this?
Sorry but this is not possible on an iOS device because of a feature called sandboxing. Apple does not allow an app to access the sandbox of another app. Each app sits inside a sandbox of its own. This is iOS's security feature. There is no way to go around this feature.
Reference - About App Sandbox
My understanding is that because of sandboxing, it isn't possible to view any text file (ie config file) associated with an iOS app using another app. Something quite simple with Android. Am I mistaken?
I am trying to implement a text config file with a Unity iOS app that gets loaded and parsed once when the application boots.
This config file would also be able to be edited and saved manually on that actual iOS device.
(addendum)
In Unity there is PersistentDataPath which resolves to /var/mobile/Container/Data/Application/foo/Documents
Is there an iOS supported file explorer app that will allow me view and edit files in this location (without jailbreaking)?
Use can check iOS App Groups. It allows multiple apps access to shared containers and allow interprocess communication. There is no so much documentation about this, but maybe that's what you're looking for. At least you can share NSUserDefaults between the apps.
NSUserDefaults it's a most simple way to save any (not big) configurations for your app. For manual editing: if your app on the device signed with developer certificate, you can connect through any iOS supported file explorer app and edit it. But after release, from App Store, your app installed in restricted/private path, so it's not possible, if only you don't have a jailbreak.
Initial configuration you can put into your app bundle, and at the first run just copy them to NSUserDefaults.
Short answer: There are utilities such as iExplorer - https://macroplant.com - that allow "file manager" type access. However...
Long answer: If your app requires users to buy (or get) other software to modify configuration files, the chances of Apple approving it are slim to none.
The appropriate thing to do is to provide a User Interface in your own app which allows the user to modify / update the settings.
Is there any way to check version number of other application which is installed from appstore ?
Note:
1. Not in jail broken devices
2. With out using third party library.
Not Possible. your control is upto the level of your App Sandbox.
What is Sandbox?
For security reasons, iOS places each app (including its preferences and data) in a sandbox at install time. A sandbox is a set of fine-grained controls that limit the app’s access to files, preferences, network resources, hardware, and so on. As part of the sandboxing process, the system installs each app in its own sandbox directory, which acts as the home for the app and its data.
It is not possible to check version of another application as in IOS, Applications work in SandBox environment which doesn't allow the application to access other application.
Two applications can communicate with the help of URL schemes,following is the link for URL Schemes of few Applications:
http://wiki.akosma.com/IPhone_URL_Schemes
http://handleopenurl.com/
using URL schemes we can access limited information(Exposed by the Developers of that application)
Although , there are few options,
1)If two application are using same/common web-services ,then this information can be shared
2)using ICloud this can be achieved If two application are using common/public space.
I would like read access to the files in the iPhones music directory:
~/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/F**/*.{M4A,MP3}
1) I can't seem to figure out from the docs whether iOS apps are sandboxed such that I would or would not have this permission.
2) Is it necessary to ask for read or write permissions to directories outside the iOS App sandbox ? Only write permissions ? How does one do this, or is it just up to the discretion of the team that reviews the App for app store release ?
3) I have found a lot of information in the apple docs on sandboxing of OS X apps but not of iOS apps. Is there a similar sandboxing/entitlements process for iOS as for OS X apps ? Any useful links I should read ?
Update: as accepted answer says below, 1,2, and 3 are impossible, however it is possible to obtain a copy of a file in the media library, which is in some sense equivalent to having read access to the original - because of course the digital information is identical. This question contains code that does that:
Application crashed while importing songs from Ipod library in Iphone for iOs 5.0
You will not have permission to read/write outside your application.
You will not have permission to read/write outside your application.
You will not have permission to read/write outside your application.
You can use the Media Player framework to access information about the user's library, but nothing using the filesystem.
Sandboxing on iOS is done for you, there is no need to set that up.
You can not write files outside your applications sandbox.
I have not attempted to access music stored by the iPod app, but there is access to media types. It functions much like access photos.
Here is the link to the Apple docs for MPMediaPickerController.