iOS Device reporting

[7on]

Hey all, we're building an internal iOS app for company deployment and I've been hitting a wall in regards to some device reporting (namely phone number and grabbing the OS version).

We're planning on recording employee phone numbers and OS version for trouble shooting.

Does Apple provide the API for such information?

Thanks!

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I know that the iOS version can be found, but I can't remember how and I don't think I've ever done it.

The phone number for the device... I'm not so sure about. I'm pretty sure you can access the phone numbers for everyone they've listed as a contact, but I'm not so sure if you can find the users phone number by doing that...

Sorry I'm not terribly useful

 

[7on]

I know that the iOS version can be found, but I can't remember how and I don't think I've ever done it.

The phone number for the device... I'm not so sure about. I'm pretty sure you can access the phone numbers for everyone they've listed as a contact, but I'm not so sure if you can find the users phone number by doing that...

Sorry I'm not terribly useful

It's ok, I forgive you I'll do more poking around for the iOS version. Maybe I can grab the UDID, that should be good enough (we already grab the phone number for the Android phones, just wanted to keep it consistent).

 

[phantax]

You used to be able to get the phone number from NSUserDefaults

NSString *num = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"SBFormattedPhoneNumber"];

I believe using this is not 100% reliable as the number isn't read from the SIM, so you may get a null value back.

Also, your app will get rejected for using this if you intend to put it in the App store. For an internal application it should be alright.

I think your best bet would be to allow the user to select from the contact picker, or give them a numeric keyboard to enter their phone number the first time your app is launched.

 

[dejo]

Maybe I can grab the UDID...

As of iOS 5, Apple is phasing out access to the UDID.

 

[7on]

As of iOS 5, Apple is phasing out access to the UDID.

Oh nuts. Good to know. We are already capturing login details, but some employees might be using multiple phones/devices. I guess we'll actually have to TALK to the employees. Oh the humanity.

You used to be able to get the phone number from NSUserDefaults

NSString *num = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"SBFormattedPhoneNumber"];

I believe using this is not 100% reliable as the number isn't read from the SIM, so you may get a null value back.

Also, your app will get rejected for using this if you intend to put it in the App store. For an internal application it should be alright.

I think your best bet would be to allow the user to select from the contact picker, or give them a numeric keyboard to enter their phone number the first time your app is launched.

Thanks for the code! I currently have no way of testing it without deploying it for beta testers (which the app isn't ready yet) because our dev iPhone isn't in service. But the checking for nil worked so that'll be something I look for in the testing phase.

And don't worry, this is definitely just an internal app being deployed on company phones. The Android version is already out in beta testing, just trying to wrap my head around iOS development's more "interesting" aspects.

 

[dejo]

Oh nuts. Good to know. Any other unique identifiers that we can tie to the phone?

This might help. (Disclaimer: I haven't used this technique yet).

 

[7on]

This might help. (Disclaimer: I haven't used this technique yet).

Thanks, I think I'll stick to phone number and then if nil just put a zero in the db. Thinking more about it the user already logs into the app, so we know the user so if the app returns nil then it's not the end of the world and 99% of the devices should have a phone number.

What would be helpful is iOS version. If someone has an issue with the app and we can tell him that he needs to update his iPhone that would be handy.

 

[dejo]

What would be helpful is iOS version. If someone has an issue with the app and we can tell him that he needs to update his iPhone that would be handy.

[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion]

UIDevice Class Reference

 

[7on]

[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion]

UIDevice Class Reference

Thanks kindly, works wonderfully.