I want to add free subscriptions to a newsstand app i've been working on, the only problem I can find out how to do this is from this guide. However as helpful as that is you have to use urban airship, where it cost $0.10 per subscribe, so for a free app, it'd be costing me, which i couldn't afford to do every month.
Are there any other ways;
How would i set up a server my self?
Would it be the same for any IAP stuff?
Thank you in advance.
Apple requires that Newsstand apps offer its contens using iTunes managed subscriptions. This means you have to run a server that hosts the Newsstand content, which won't be free.
Your only alternative is to release your app as a non-Newsstand app, build the content into your app, and release an App Store update when it's time for a new issue. This isn't ideal as only Newsstand apps have background downloading.
So... get some funding, or find someone else with a Newsstand app who will host your content for free :)
I'm in the same boat. Right now I'm considering using the JavaPNS API to send push notifications. (Local notifications wont work since they don't wake up the app when its not active).
As far as hosting goes... for some unknown reason Google AppEngine does not support JavaPNS.
I'm thinking about writing a JavaPNS program and running it on my own laptop daily to send out push notifications.
The only thing I have yet to figure out is how to get a list of users who have subscribed to my app. If the user must register the device token with my server then that means my server will have to be running all the time, which I cant do. Man I hope I don't have to use urban airship.
There should be a free way to do this. Hopefully we can figure this out...
Related
i am building a website which needs to send reminder messages to iOS (and Android) devices at certain times/dates. So not to a specific app on an iPhone, but to the iPhone itself.
like in the way the reminders app on the iPhone works: even when the app isn't active, reminders pop up.
For the last two days i've been googling on-and-off and reading about apns and firebase etc., but every script and tutorial understandably mentions tokens and id's that you need to receive from Apple and/or Android to get it to work.
One thing i can't find on google is: do i need to have an developer ID or something for this? I'm no xcode or swift programmer, i mainly work with php and query etc. and hopefully can avoid paying yearly for a developer license with Apple or Google.
Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction?
And surely any pointers to a good service or script to use is also very helpful. In the mean time i'll keep digging.
Thanks in advance for any help!
If you want to be able to run your app on an actual device you need to be registered developer, to be able to create certificates and provisioning profiles to sign your app with. You also need to be able to create certificates to be able to send push notifications.
You write that you want to send notifications directly to the phone. This isn't possible. All push notifications must be sent to an app. It doesn't matter if the app is running or not. Which makes sense. Otherwise you would be able to send push notifications to any iOS device out there...
We run a SAAS Web app and are going to be launching our app in Apple’s app store (up to now we’ve had a mobile Web app).
We want to offer the ability to purchase a subscription in app due to the ease of use for our customers. No problem, we know how to do that.
The question we have is whether there is an easy way to keep our web app's db updated with the user’s current subscription status so if they access our Web app we know whether their subscription is valid.
Ideally it would be great if Apple offered a web hook option where they would post an update to a url on our server. From what I've read this isn't an option.
We can always post the data to our server from the iPhone app when the user logs in, but if the user doesn’t log in on the iPhone for a while the subscription status recorded on our server will be out of date.
How are other people handling this? Are we missing something?
Update:
The closest I've found is this thread: https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/70707#70707
The app gets a receipt the first time it buys a subscription or
restores a subscription. The app can send that original receipt to
anyone's server. Anyone's server can then use that orignal receipt to
verify the current subscrition anytime it wants. You can't do that
with a non-renewing subscription but with a non-renewing subscription
the user must purchase the extension from the iOS device each time
period.
Followed up with this:
https://hetzel.net/2011-04-01/server-side-auto-renewable-subscription-receipt-verification/
And from Apple it sounds like they definitely do not make any provisions on their end for synchronization:
Cross-Platform Considerations
Product identifiers are associated with a single app. Apps that have
both an iOS and OS X version have separate products with separate
product identifiers on each platform. You could let users who have a
subscription in an iOS app access the content from an OS X app (or
vice versa), but implementing that functionality is your
responsibility. You would need some system for identifying users and
keeping track of what content they’ve subscribed to, similar to what
you would implement for an app that uses non-renewable subscriptions.
Late to the party, but I think this is a relevant reply to this question:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/47537279/543423
Hopefully this is helpful to someone :)
Yes,
This rule clearly states that any advertising or marketing activity by Push Notification could cost your a ban in App Store.
So how about Groupon and other special offer focused apps? Each day I receive notifications from Groupon with clear marketing content, and when I open it I'm redirected into the view with big "Buy" button (Btw. do you know any other live apps using push in similar way? I mean not exact Groupon-clone apps).
Ofcourse user need to have a choice if he wants to receive such notifications or not, and from who (like in Groupon you can choose subscribed cities), privacy policy need to clearly state what kind of notifications user will receive. Maybe the frequency of notifications does matter (1 per day for Groupon)?
Ok lets get back to the point of my question:
Whats the receipe for such app which explicitly bends the 5.6 rule to stays up and running in App Store?
Have you ever trying to submit similar application?
App reviews rules are not strict, since Groupon is just that, an advertisement platform, an app is expected to send these kind of push notification.
But if, for example, the Facebook app would be using push notification to tell there users to download some other app the rulle 5.6 will come in to play.
But just that some other app got approved does in no way mean that you app will, even if it has the same functionality. So the answer you are seeking for will not do you any good, since even if someone got there app approved will not mean you will get it approved.
We are using Amazon FPS payment gateway for purchasing goods through IOS app, now we need to upload it to apple review team and as this is production app, it is pointed to production/live Amazon FPS account so here I want to understand if apple really want to buy anything then they need some credentials by which they can test the purchases.
So first thing really apple tests the whole purchase flow? If yes then what credentials should I provide? or should I update the server for sandbox mode till apple approves the app?
You should submit your app and select "Hold for developer release".
Then you can provide Apple with credentials on your sandbox server to test with.
When Apple approved your app, you can switch your server to production, then release your app.
But, I have a feeling they are not going to approve your app because it provides a mechanism for folks to buy things that does not give Apple a cut of the action. This is not unlike the issue with magazines and newspapers (or anyone) selling subscriptions via non-Apple Store mechanisms: Apple doesn't like when they get cut out.
Apple would prefer you use In-App Purchase, so they get a cut.
Good luck!
EDIT:
Indeed, there is a distinction to be made for real versus virtual goods, which I guess I missed when I read your post. Sorry.
To your actual question: Will Apple test it? No one knows. :-) You should assume they will, and provide some test credentials for them to use.
I can tell you from experience with a (free) commercial app I built, before we launched the service, we had the app submitted, and Apple did register on our backend and test out the app.
We released a charitable "micro-giving" app on iOS that uses Amazon payments to externally process the donations. We submitted the app with our production payment system.
According to our server logs, during their review Apple never submitted a payment or even initiated one.
It took a couple of submissions to get approved, but their feedback largely was focused on making sure we were complying with Apple's guidelines (donations must be processed external to the app, i.e. via safari), and making it clear to the user what the exact donation process was.
I think it's unlikely that Apple would spend money to test your app, nor would they wait to see if you actually delivered the goods as promised either. However, I do think that they will make it clear to you in their feedback if they want to test without spending real money.
I need to develop a newsstand app for a client. I've seen the tutorials on newsstand. My question is, after you make the app for newsstand how do you deliver the content of each issue?
My client wants the same UI experience that GQ magazine offers, which is a interactive magazine (videos, buttons that expand text)
Thanks in advance for any help!
For Newsstand is best to provide issues via download from your server. Don't bundle them with app, because that would require app review every time you add an issue.
For paid magazines, you have to create non-consumable in-app purchase for every issue. Then you can host your content with Apple if you don't want to use some CDN.
Still you'll need some kind of web service to:
provide list of issues for iOS app
provide issue content
send push notification when new issues are available
provide Newsstand feed to automatically update issues visible in the App Store
validate receipts from the App Store
Simplified "algorithm" for a paid magazine iOS app would look like this:
Fetch current issues from server and synchronize with local copy
Fetch issue prices from App Store (create SKProductsRequest for every issue)
Present issues to the user
When user performs purchase, validate receipt and start downloading content
If user purchased subscription, allow access to all issues for free (but keep checking if subscription is still active)
If this is too much work, you may want to use some existing solutions (disclaimer: I cofounded Issue Stand and am moderating this list).