Support for iOS 13.3

Getting into LiveCode for iOS? Ask your questions here.

Moderators: FourthWorld, heatherlaine, Klaus, kevinmiller, robinmiller

Post Reply
trags3
Posts: 418
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:58 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Support for iOS 13.3

Post by trags3 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:15 pm

HI,
Can anyone tell me when LC might support iOS 13.3?
I have been preventing my iPhone from updating for some time now. (7 weeks?)
I need to be able to test on the phone.
Thanks
Tom

LiveCode_Panos
Livecode Staff Member
Livecode Staff Member
Posts: 818
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:03 pm

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by LiveCode_Panos » Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:17 pm

Hello trags3,

I copy-paste my post from the LiveCode use-list:
Hello all,

Just a clarification, as this has been a source of confusion for a long time.

The current LC 9.x versions do support MacOS Catalina. Also, with the latest LiveCode versions (9.5.1 and 9.6 DP-2 - and possibly earlier versions too) you can still deploy apps for iOS 13.x - and these apps will continue to run even on iOS 14 and 15 in the future.

You do NOT need the latest Xcode for building apps, if you want your apps to run in the latest iOS version.

There are 2 different places where the iOS version comes to play:

(1) The iOS version of the device you want your app to run

(2) The iOS SDK version which is included in each Xcode

For (1) - you do not need the latest Xcode. Building apps with older Xcode versions will work just fine if your device runs the most recent iOS version. In fact, when a new LC version is released, and it includes support for building with the latest Xcode - it still includes support for building with older Xcode versions, if your Mac runs an older MacOS version.

So one might ask, why do we need to use the latest iOS SDK version (to build the app), so why is the LC team each time struggling to include support for the latest Xcode (which includes the latest iOS SDK version)?

The answer is we do NOT always need to use the latest iOS SDK version. But when do we *actually* might need it? Well, in the following cases:

(a) If you want to submit your app to the AppStore and Apple *requires* your app to have been built against a minimum iOS SDK version. When this is the case, we always release a LC version that supports the required Xcode/iOS_SDK version before the deadline posed by Apple

(b) If your app can support a specific new feature that will be available only when built against a specific iOS SDK (imagine iOS SDKs as libraries - a newer one can contain new functions/features, so if you want to use these new functions you have to use this specific iOS SDK to built the app). An example is the TouchID/FaceID support.

However, note that iOS SDKs with new features are released in the major Xcode versions, and the minor releases are usually just bugfixes in Xcode itself, for which you really do not care, as you do not actually use the Xcode IDE to built the iOS app.

So really in the vast majority of the cases we only need to support major Xcode releases, something which does happen, without major delays. So, since you can currently build apps against the iOS 13.1 SDK (i.e. using Xcode 11.1), there is really no need to add support for Xcode 11.2 or 11.3.

Similarly, when Xcode 12.x was released, we needed to add support for Xcode 12 (or 12.1), but not really for Xcode 12.2, 12.3 etc

The main reason we continue to add support for minor Xcode releases is that:

- we do not want to ask people keeping multiple (older) versions of Xcode in their machines.
- a lot of people have enabled auto-updates, so their Xcode version will be updated automatically
- someone downloading Xcode for the first time will probably download the latest version

So for these reasons we are trying - but not always successfully - to support the latest minor Xcode updates.

Hope this helps,
Panos
--
PS: LiveCode 9.6.0 DP-3 is now released, which does include support for building with Xcode 11.3, which includes the iOS 13.2 SDK. Note you should still be able to build apps for a device running iOS 13.3 or above

trags3
Posts: 418
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:58 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by trags3 » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:48 am

Hi Panos,
Thank you for the much-needed clarification. I have struggled with that issue every time I break out LC after a several month hiatus.
In this case the issue I had was totally unrelated to the various versions of macOS, LC and iOS. I was using a Production Profile when it should have been Development :oops: :oops: :oops:
Tom

Batninja
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 55
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:43 am

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by Batninja » Sat Mar 28, 2020 9:08 am

I find it easier to keep two copies of XCode on my Mac. The regular one that gets updated automatically by Apple and a 2nd kept in a separate folder that Is missed by the updates and locked to whichever is the version required by Livecode. When I return to Livecoding after a time away I typically have to update the 2nd copy of Xcode to whichever is the version the latest version of Livecode needs.

rcmills
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:27 pm

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by rcmills » Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:45 pm

Panos,

I have tried to upload an app I wrote in LC 9.6.1 (build 15552) for iOS 13.0 (or later) to my new iPhone 12 Pro (running iOS 14.1), using Xcode 12.1 After the initializing of my iPhone by Xcode, the upload failed without giving any error message. The dialog box simply says "Unable to install "myApp".

This app has uploaded and worked fine on my old iPhone, though of course in a prior iOS.

I have searched the forums and have found no answers. Can you help me, please?

LiveCode_Panos
Livecode Staff Member
Livecode Staff Member
Posts: 818
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:03 pm

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by LiveCode_Panos » Tue Oct 27, 2020 3:08 pm

Hello rcmills,

A rough guess is that the UUID of your new iPhone is not included in the list of the registered devices for the provisioning profile you used to sign the app.

Could it be the case?

Kind regards,
Panos
--

rcmills
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:27 pm

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by rcmills » Tue Oct 27, 2020 3:52 pm

That sounds quite likely to be true. I forget how to do that. It has been quite a while since I first set that up.

Can I do it through Xcode? Or, is there a good reference you could point me to for doing it?

Thanks!

LiveCode_Panos
Livecode Staff Member
Livecode Staff Member
Posts: 818
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:03 pm

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by LiveCode_Panos » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:13 pm

Hello rcmills,

This lesson might be helpful: http://lessons.livecode.com/m/4069/l/30 ... le-for-ios

See the "Add Device" section, or in fact see the whole lesson, to make sure everything is set up correctly.

Kind regards,
Panos
--

rcmills
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:27 pm

Re: Support for iOS 13.3

Post by rcmills » Tue Oct 27, 2020 8:48 pm

Many thanks, Panos!

That got the job done. Now, I just have to readjust all the field sizes and margins...in all of my apps. Ugh!

Post Reply

Return to “iOS Deployment”