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iOS Restrict access of apps to intended users

A

AbhishekApple

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 5, 2010
86
0
I want my app in app store to be downloaded by intended users, how can i do so?

will i have to do it by coding or can i make certain settings while submitting the app to app store

please provide some links if it is possible.
 
balamw

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
979
New England
Xenc

Xenc

macrumors 65816
May 8, 2010
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London, England
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

You could distribute ad-hoc up to 100 devices, distribute through the Enterprise Programme (as mentioned above), or could implement some sort of login screen at the front of the app.
 
balamw

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
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New England
dejo said:
Intended users? Please elaborate.
Click to expand...

I was going off of the "restrict access" part of the thread title.

Though it made me wonder. Are in-house apps restricted in any way?

i.e. if a porn site operator wanted to list all of its customers as members of an "organization" that required fees to join and distribute an app from their website, could they under the auspices of the "iOS Developer Enterprise Program"?

Otherwise reaching your intended users sounds like marketing 101.

B
 
dejo

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
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The Centennial State
balamw said:
I was going off of the "restrict access" part of the thread title.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I just felt "intended users" was far too vague for us to start drawing conclusions yet.

balamw said:
Though it made me wonder. Are in-house apps restricted in any way?
Click to expand...
I thought they could only be distributed via a company's intranet. But, since the details of the Enterprise program are much less publicized than the regular program and I'm not even sure we have any enterprise developers on this forum (or they're covered by an NDA), we may not be able to learn much about its details.
 
balamw

balamw

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Aug 16, 2005
19,366
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New England
Xenc said:
implement some sort of login screen at the front of the app.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, the Netflix (among others) model. I can't say that I've seen an app that charges for the app, but requires service on the back end.

Any examples?

B
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
You can't restrict downloading to intended users from the iTunes App store. You can restrict only by country. You can have an app require a login for important functions, or only download proprietary data to intended users.

But to get an app accepted by Apple, you have to make it useful to everybody.

Example is a banking app. Plenty of these in the App store. Only useful for banking to customers with accounts at that bank plus a login. Useful to everybody because it displays maps to the nearest branches (or an interest rate calculator, or some such).

If your intended users are all employees of a company with a D&B rating (used to require 500 employees on this report), that company might be able to use the iOS Enterprise program.
 
balamw

balamw

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Aug 16, 2005
19,366
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New England
firewood said:
Useful to everybody because it displays maps to the nearest branches (or an interest rate calculator, or some such).
Click to expand...
The Netflix app doesn't do anything unless you log in, so are you sure about the "useful to all" restriction? Still haven't seen or heard of any paid apps that require a logon.
firewood said:
If your intended users are all employees of a company with a D&B rating
Click to expand...

The current website says "employees or members of your organization" which is why I started wondering about pay for service apps via the Enterprise program.

B
 
ulbador

ulbador

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2010
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balamw said:
The Netflix app doesn't do anything unless you log in, so are you sure about the "useful to all" restriction? Still haven't seen or heard of any paid apps that require a logon
Click to expand...

They denied an app from my company for this.

Basically, because you had to be a member of our site for the app to have any value, and my company isn't huge on the radar like Netflix or Amazon, it was denied. We even appealed the decision and it was still denied.
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
I'm just guessing, but it looks like since Netflix and Amazon customers are such a huge percentage of iTunes users (even Apple TV supports Netflix), that Apple considered that close enough to "useful for everybody" for them.

So if your "intended users" are 50% or so of Apple's customers, you might be able to somehow get an exception.
 
ulbador

ulbador

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2010
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dejo said:
What is a paid or free app?
Click to expand...

It was a free app. It basically was just meant to tie into a simple web service for reporting and such, but if you weren't a member of our site you would have absolutely no reason to download it. Because we are such a "small fish", it was denied.

My boss tried to make the argument to them that we were similar to the Facebook app (not in functionality, just in response to the argument that only members of our site would find value). No dice.



balamw said:
Good to know from first hand experience, but just like all the rules, there seem to be exceptions. to them.

B
Click to expand...

From my personal experience, sometimes whether the app is denied or not can depend entirely on who is reviewing it (and how they feel that day). That's why we went through the extensive appeal process.
 
balamw

balamw

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Aug 16, 2005
19,366
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New England
ulbador said:
From my personal experience, sometimes whether the app is denied or not can depend entirely on who is reviewing it (and how they feel that day). That's why we went through the extensive appeal process.
Click to expand...
The reviewers are people too, and given that we often see apps pulled from the store after approval for one reason or another they are not infallible.

B
 
ulbador

ulbador

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2010
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balamw said:
The reviewers are people too, and given that we often see apps pulled from the store after approval for one reason or another they are not infallible.

B
Click to expand...

Definitely true. I know one of my apps was pulled for using CoreLocation solely for ads (due to AdMob). I must have updated the app half a dozen times with the offending functionality turned on before a reviewer caught it and denied the update.
 
87vert

87vert

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2008
313
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Pittsburgh, PA
how many users are you planning on?

What about setting a high price for the app?

Then giving your select users promo codes for the app. You could get 50 per version and just do a simple "Bug fixes" update to get more promo codes.
 
dejo

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
AbhishekApple said:
thnx this conversation helped...
Click to expand...
Helped how? Some more specific feedback would help us to know how we helped. Plus, we're still not sure what you meant when you said "intended users". Please be considerate to those trying to help you and try to answer the questions asked of you. Thanks. :)
 
A

AbhishekApple

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 5, 2010
86
0
dejo said:
Helped how? Some more specific feedback would help us to know how we helped. Plus, we're still not sure what you meant when you said "intended users". Please be considerate to those trying to help you and try to answer the questions asked of you. Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

i am developing a contactsDirectory app which shows list of contacts (already present in app) used by marketing dept of a/several company/s. Thus this app will be useful to only those marketing people(intended users).

we can distribute ad-hoc up to 100 devices but the users are more than that and doing this process is hectic so this option is dropped.
Also as ulbador said
They denied an app from my company for this.

Basically, because you had to be a member of our site for the app to have any value, and my company isn't huge on the radar like Netflix or Amazon, it was denied. We even appealed the decision and it was still denied.
Click to expand...

i cn't keep separate log in for intended user as it will lead to rejection.

and thus concluded to keep the app open for all users.

if still u find any work around please suggest.
thanks....
 
balamw

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
979
New England
AbhishekApple said:
i am developing a contactsDirectory app which shows list of contacts (already present in app) used by marketing dept of a/several company/s.
Click to expand...

IMHO this seems like something that should not be in an app, but handled in an Active Directory (or equivalent, even Google Apps) directory and accessed through the native Contacts app/interface.

Especially if all of the users are on iOS 4 and can use multiple Exchange servers.

Just MHO for a workaround.

B
 
A

AbhishekApple

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 5, 2010
86
0
balamw said:
IMHO this seems like something that should not be in an app, but handled in an Active Directory (or equivalent, even Google Apps) directory and accessed through the native Contacts app/interface.

Especially if all of the users are on iOS 4 and can use multiple Exchange servers.
Click to expand...

hi balamw
can u elaborate the idea of fetching thousands of record from server and inserting in present (Active) directory of iphone.i have least idea of MES..

can u post some help full links
i will dig on this mean while
thanks for suggestion
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
AbhishekApple said:
i am developing a contactsDirectory app which shows list of contacts (already present in app) used by marketing dept of a/several company/s. Thus this app will be useful to only those marketing people(intended users).
Click to expand...

A more generic app that included no contacts or company labels or graphics, but that will download all this data and save it to an internal database after a company URL and password is entered might be an alternative. Put the data in XML, json or plist format, publish the format and put dummy data on a test site for Apple reviewers to use.

Apple even recommends this technique. Look for the WWDC 2010 video on data driven apps.


AbhishekApple said:
can u elaborate the idea of fetching thousands of record from server and inserting in present (Active) directory of iphone.
Click to expand...

None of this is a problem for an experienced developer familiar with the source code of Apple's example iOS apps on their dev site.
 
A

AbhishekApple

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 5, 2010
86
0
firewood said:
A more generic app that included no contacts or company labels or graphics, but that will download all this data and save it to an internal database after a company URL and password is entered might be an alternative. Put the data in XML, json or plist format, publish the format and put dummy data on a test site for Apple reviewers to use.

Apple even recommends this technique. Look for the WWDC 2010 video on data driven apps.
Click to expand...
ya firewood i have used the same concept in existing app but i am facing delay problem while fetching records from sqlite db in app to an array.
actually i am displaying records indexed(A,B,C,...) wise, so i fetched whole record and then did sorting and added in following array format
like
Code: 
[
[Amazon,arizon,alaska,......],
[Buff,Bull,box,....],
.....
]
Their are thousands of record so it takes time to load.

Later i tried querying 26 times alphabetically
select * from Customer where name like 'A%'
select * from Customer where name like 'B%' likewise
and inserting the returned value in the above formatted array

Even this is taking time to load

if u r not clear with this please let me know
will post code
 
Last edited:
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
The device display is tiny. So you don't need to fetch every records to start. Just the few that fit the user's initial visible view (maybe the next few above and below for scrolling), and maybe some pre-processed stats on how many for each group/letter, etc. It's the lazy loading technique.

You can preprocess, index and compress all this info on the server before it's downloaded to the device, and download in the background (or require the user to do any long configuration downloads after installation and before first using the app). Then run offline. If the server timestamps all new data and changes, the app only has to download smaller updates if needed.
 
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