As I get closer to submitting my app, I was wondering what most of you do regarding leaving the app on line so that changes get pushed to the user through buzztouch, or taking them offline so that all future updates need to go through iTunes updates? I don't expect to make many updates, maybe once a year, though in the beginning there might be a change or two if I happen to notice a spelling error or some minor change. So it's not like there will be tons of updating and it seems to me leaving the app on line would be the simplest way to go but I'd like others who have decided to go offline to give me their rationale for doings so. Thanks.

Hi Steve, I've done both. One of my apps, AZ Fishing Spots, is completely offline, and I did that because I wanted all the information available to the user when they were out in the wilderness, and had no access to a network. Another one of my apps, OVFPS, is for a local girls fast pitch softball league, and that's partially online, because I wanted to be able to update key documents (like game schedules, news, etc), and have them pushed out immediately. In that app, I did include some documents (field setup, rules, etc) locally so that people would always have them available. So, I think it really depends on your content, where you see your users using your app, and how often you expect to push out updates. If only updating a couple times a year, I'd probably opt for totally offline, and either deal with the spelling mistakes until the next scheduled update, or just push out a minor revision. Having an online app for mostly static content seems like it might be annoying to end users. Mark

Don't understand what you mean in the last sentence that having it online for mostly static (ie not changing much) content might be annoying. Is that because there is the small delay while the app searches for updates to push and if there's not going to be many updates why bother having any, even a small, delay? Steve

Yep, that's pretty much what I mean. If each time you load the app, it has to reach out to the network to check and see if there is an update, and the network is not available, then an error message should get thrown. Why put the user through all that if you have no real intentions of updating content via the control panel? Plus...if you take it completely offline, you can add and test new features on your Mac without interrupting current users, because the app never goes out and check the BT_Config.txt file, which will constantly be changing as you experiment with new content. Mark

Thanks Mark. And just so I do it right, if I want to take the app offline, should I do it in the control panel by deleting the entries in core properties (report to cloud and config data url)and then download code to then send off to Apple or just in Xcode edit the config file and delete those entries? Steve

Hi Steve, Of course, there's a handy-dandy document for this! http://www.buzztouch.com/resources/Understanding_App_Refresh_and_Offline_Apps_v1.0.pdf In short, yes, remove Report to Cloud and Config Data URL from Control Panel, download new code, send it off to Apple. If you have users currently running your app with those URLs enabled, the next time they update, they will be taken offline forever. Mark

Thanks again. Steve

There are also Screen Data url's on some screens (menus, etc). You should delete those out before you download also.

Those will actually continue to work if you take the app offline in the sense that you don't check for configuration changes, but, yes, I would recommend providing all content locally. That may mean changing a Custom HTML/Text screen to a local HTML screen. Mark

Yeah, I only use HTML Docs for offline apps. I did have a problem with an app once that was offline, and one of the screens still had a data url. It was calling out looking for changes and causing a refresh problem. Once I took it out, all was fine.