iOS getting and putting files on the web

[larswik]

Hey, I need a little push in the right direction as to what to research. I am looking for advice at to what direction I should focus on. Here is what is happening.

I have a local TV show that runs in hotels with restaurants and shops on it. As an extension to that program I am writing an app to assist the visitors in the hotels to better find the restaurants and get more information from photos and so on.

Right now I have a folder on my website called 'clients'. In that folder I have another folder for each client on my show. In each of those folders I have 3 images image1.jpg and so on. Now I just use this code to load the images which works great. ( cut out the code that gets the image because I had lots of other code)

NSString *pathToImages;
UIImage *image;
photoNameArray = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"image1.jpg",@"image2.jpg",@"image3.jpg", nil];

// for loop here
pathToImages = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://www.......com/app/dining_clients/%@/images/photos/%@", nameWithWhiteSpacesRemoved, [photoNameArray objectAtIndex:i]];

image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:pathToImages]]];

UIImageView *itemToAdd = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(imageStartPoint, 0, 320, 180)];

itemToAdd.image = image;
[clientPhotos addSubview:itemToAdd];

My concern is some level of security which is my weak area? As the app grows with updates I would like to be able to snap an image with my iPhone and upload it to a folder with another app, allow clients to manage their own content. Also worried about people hacking in and replacing images with inappropriate images.

Last night I read about something called a webDAV that my isp also provides. Is this more secure and can be used like FTP? Also read, while looking at the webDAV sites, that FTP seems to be on it's way out due to security issues. So, I want to make the best use of my time so I thought I would ask what is the best way of sending, receiving and securing files between iPhone app and a folder on my website?

Thanks

 

[Danneman101]

For your user database I'd check out parse.com. It's a very simple solution to integrate into your app, and you don't really have to handle the security by yourself in the same extent as you would with your own solution. You can also have users login using their Facebook-account, which seems to be the norm these days.

The only downfall (granted a major downfall in your case) is that they don't store any images for you, but I'm pretty sure you could link each user in the parse database to a unique folder on the ftp of your choice. There are people here that are far more skilled at this than me, so I'll stop speculating now But I've used parse.com and it's great imho.

 

[larswik]

I will look into that. I was hoping to keep everything on my server. I know I can password protect the folder and in the code for my app I have have the user and pass. But if people are able to hack my program can they see the built in user and password? Even if they can I would think they would still need my overall password and User name to get into my account in the first place.

But I know nothing about webDEV and thought this might be a web solution for upload and download. I was not sure what to look into since this is the first time I am doing a project like this.

I will look into that site, thanks!