databases on iPhone

[sylvanr]

Thanks--- I tried it again.. and it looks like it is now working! Boy, I feel like I have come a looooooooooong way!

Now, I am actually thinking about upgrading to a commercial license from a personal license and seeing if I can get something into the Apple store! There is NO WAY, I could have got this far without your help, Bernd!!! Thanks, thanks, thanks.

... but don't go away! I may still have other questions as I translate some of my other old Hypercard stacks over to LiveCode iPhone apps.

[sylvanr]

After a couple of months of working with LiveCode, initially with the trial version and then with the personal version and now with the commercial version, I am thinking that I am pretty satisfied with my app and starting to look at the process for getting it into the Apple Store. I suppose that I could have others "test" it but the app isn't really very complicated and the process of getting the iPhone i.d. numbers from friends for "provisioning" seems like more trouble than it might be worth?? I did get an i.d. from someone and did enter it on the "devices" screen of the provisioning portal but then got lost. When I go back to Development Provisioning Profiles, there is still only one device listed. I guess I will eventually figure all that out, but for this app, I'm not sure if it really needs "testing" and I am eager to move on and see if I can get it into the Apple Store. It works fine on my iPhone 3G. The other person's iPhone was a 4G. That is really my only question- whether it would look much different or have any problems on a 4G if it worked fine on a 3G? I don't remember seeing anything about the screen sizes being different? I think the 4G has higher resolution? I think that there was some suggestion for uploading a higher resolution splash screen for the 4G?

My little app loads in portrait and does not change to landscape when the iPhone is turned on it's side. This is fine for the purposes of this app but I wonder if Apple insists that it change from portrait to landscape??

Also, pinching the screen doesn't make the app screen smaller and you can't make the app bigger, but again, that doesn't really affect the functionality of the app. Wondering if Apple insists on these features??

I think I am just trying to decide if I should just move forward, and start the process for uploading to the Apple Store? It looks fine on my 3g. I don't plan on recouping my investment of time or money on this little app. It has just served the purpose of learning LiveCode and the Apple process. Once I see that I can get it into the Apple Store, then I can always go back and play with it some more and will then move on to other apps.

[bn]

Hi Sylvan,

I am glad that Santa Claus finally arrived at your home....

Just some thoughts on deployment as an app.

You should think about how to upgrade your app. Suppose you find a bug after your app was accepted and the users have used your app and consequently modified their database stack. How are you going to fix the bug or add new features without wiping the user's data? You better test this before you try to deploy.

My little app loads in portrait and does not change to landscape when the iPhone is turned on it's side.

some of Apple's apps dont adapt either to the orientation. Preferences for example.

Also, pinching the screen doesn't make the app screen smaller and you can't make the app bigger

Pinching an app size is not standard behavior. You only pinch objects like images and you have to program that.

It seems that acceptance in the store is dependent on how well you follow the Interface Guidelines for the iOS. Does it look like an iOS app or like a port from a mouse/click interface. How do you navigate, do you use gestures or is it all buttons. Do you animate transitions. etc.
A touch device has a different interface than a mouse driven device. These things seem to be important from what I read. I did not even attempt to get an app to the store. Just learning.

What I would do is to give your app to a couple of people that are savy iPhone/iPod users. Ask them specifically how easy it was for them to use your app. Navigation, doing specific things your app is for etc. Those comment will help to find out where your interface is lacking. If the user does not feel at home in your app you probably will have to tweak the interface. But of course it all depends on the specific things your app does. Apparently Apple lets people get away with interfaces that far from the standard interfaces as long as it makes sense within the scope of the app. Think games.

Maybe I will post a new version of the Splash/database approach to an iApp in a new thread. This one is getting very long and is tedious for people to follow.

Good luck with your app

Kind regards

Bernd

[bn]

Hi Sylvan,

I started a new thread with a new example Splash and Data stack over here:

http://forums.runrev.com/phpBB2/viewtop ... =49&t=6834

Kind regards

Bernd