iOS Will my app pass through App Store guidelines

[jimhunty]

Hi, I have built an App for the android marketplace and it's done ok (about 250 downloads in less than a month). I want to convert it and publish it on the app store. It aggregates news for a soccer team in the UK. You can see the application here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phonegap.ltfcnewsfree&hl=en

Before I spend a fair bit of money investing in a mac, I thought I would ask if it's likely it will pass the review guidelines?

 

[xStep]

The only people who can more than likely tell you, is Apple. Even at that, if their internal guidelines change any advice you squeeze out of them could be obsolete.

Look for apps in the Apple App Store that do the same thing.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I think your app will be accepted.

About the only issue I potentially see with it is, what does it do in the background? Apple has fairly strict rules regarding behavior of apps in the background.

 

[jimhunty]

Thanks for the responses.

In the background it currently brings in some code to display the news feed. In this case it works like a styled ordered list.

If this is an issue i can change this so that the app collects a JSON array and then displays it within the app.

Think either of these will be a problem?

 

[bindle]

Have a read through Apple's guidelines in order to judge for yourself. A google search will get you to the document.

One rule it may violate is 12.3:
12.3
"Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links, may be rejected"


If the app is only displaying news from a feed it may get rejected. You can try and avoid being rejected for this by adding additional functionality such as sharing stories etc.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

It seemed to me it was already more by collecting articles from a variety of sources.

Regarding rules like that though, if you submit and get rejected, you can always modify and submit again.

 

[jimhunty]

Thanks for the feedback.

The word 'Maybe' give me hope...

There are a few things i could do to flesh it out a bit in case it does get rejected.

Thanks for all the help

 

[seepel]

Thanks for the responses.

In the background it currently brings in some code to display the news feed. In this case it works like a styled ordered list.

If this is an issue i can change this so that the app collects a JSON array and then displays it within the app.

Think either of these will be a problem?

If by background you mean while the app is closed this most likely won't make it through. Apps can only play audio, retrieve location, and access VoIP while not active. So you would just need to modify it to update the feed when the application is launched instead. Other than that I don't see any glaring problems, limited functionality is a gotcha that you hear about sometimes but my impressionis that these cases are fairly isolated.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

You can receive push notifications, but I have no idea how that kind of thing works.

 

[jnoxx]

You can receive push notifications, but I have no idea how that kind of thing works.

Long tutorial short, you need to create an SSL HTTPS connection to Apples servers, you need in the app to send your ID of your device to the server, server side you need to send a push notification, which goes via Apples servers and distributes it to the actual devices. that was a really short description, and not easy at first ;>