I have an app that has already been sent to Apple for review. Is it possible to setup self hosting for this app even after submitting or do I have to do that while in the building stage? Thank you for any advice!

The main issue I'm aware of is the updates to any plugins. If your app is using previous plugin versions before the recent updates this may cause you a problem. I had noticed that after I updated my plugins to the most recent version, my apps wouldn't update. I could be wrong here, but be careful. Hopefully someone can give you the correct advice.

Yes and no. You can set the app up in your self-hosted environment and point the dataURL there from the Buzztouch.com control panel. But, that will only effect users who receive the update. If they hit "no" on the refresh dialogue or if they install the app after you've made the change (in which case they won't get a request for refresh), then they will continue to be connected to BT.com. If your app is in initial review, I would pull it out and resubmit. It will be worth the saved headaches.

Is it hard to setup self hosting? I am completely new at this and I wouldn't even know where to start to integrate the app into a self hosting account.

Once you set it up, it works the same. But setup can be tricky if you're unfamiliar with web hosting. It's a little more complicated than setting up Wordpress on self hosted, but you don't need to know php or SQL to do it (although you can do some neat things if you do!) There are those of us that can set it up for you for a nominal charge. But you might want to explore whether you really need it. Are you planning on making more than 50 apps? Or do you want to let clients access your control panel for their apps? Or do you want to create custom plugins? Those are the main 3 reasons to self-host, and none would warrant moving your app over to self-hosted unless you were needing to implement a custom plugin. But even then, you'd have to recompile and issue an update, so it would make for a good time to transition your app over.

great info, thank you! I will do some research.

If I self host would that be a solution to why my app takes a while to start? Sometimes it can take 14-20 seconds for the app to start.

Probably not - the call to Buzztouch.com to check if a refresh is needed is pretty quick unless the device's Internet connection is slow. Even on 3G, that step shouldn't take more than a second. If you're experiencing that long of load times, I would take a look at the debugger output to see where the hangup is occurring.

Hi teamcaz, I have had great success with Self-Hosting using x10hosting.com Their free hosting works great and supports Push Notifications as well. cheers! ian

Hey Chris...I think maybe you missed what I would think is a huge plus for self-hosting and that being push notifications. I think that's a big reason why I'm thinking about it, to be able to attract more attention to my app. But I have a question about how that works before I decide whether to self-host or not. Basically, how does it work? What "things" get sent to the notification bar? How often? Is all of this something you choose manually? Maybe I should post a new question about this but if it's a simple answer, hopefully posting here is enough since it is about self-hosting... Denis

Sorry Denis - I haven't messed around with the push notifications yet, so I'm probably not the best person to answer these questions. I know it's been covered pretty in depth in other threads, though. If you can't find the answers on the forums, I'd consider starting a new thread so you get some exposure for your question.