Hey everyone! I finally looked into the whole online vs offline applications on BuzzTouch. I was hoping I could get an opinion in terms of which one my application should be. Personally, I can see myself leaning towards the "offline". My application's "core" primarily contains PDF files. As such, I can see why an "offline" app would suffice in this case. My application contains PDF files, print option, a video (using AT53 Video Player plugin), a couple of maps, Notepad feature plugin, AT53 Tweet sheet plugin, compose email, rate my app plugin, share via sms and email, as well as a website. I suppose I don't really see myself adding any more screens in the process. Anyways, all that to ask - do I keep this app online or should I move it to offline? Thanks again! Nicholas

Wow!!! It seems that you have almost used all the available plugins on market. I cant wait to see your app on the app store. Well i keep some of my apps offline. Those apps are the apps which do not need any additional changes either in interface or the contents of the app like adding some more items to the list or changing the overall color scheme of the app. In your case it seems that you too do not need to make any additional changes to your app. So going off line with the app is not a bad idea.

Thank you, Sandeep!! It's been roughly 8 days so far that it's been waiting in review, hoping for a response soon. Either way, I do plan on implementing the Scringo SDK into the next submission/update, depending on whether it's accepted or not :P Thanks for the input. I'm pretty sure that would be the best option for my app as well since there won't be any changes that should take place besides actual app updates. Just to make sure, I simply have to blank out the DataURL and reporttocloudURL in the config. file? Thanks again!!

Including scringo in your app would be an additional feature and will add a social feature to it. Scringo integrated apps are accepted by apple and this inclusion will make the app use basic features of the device so, the tester would find it hard to disapprove the app. Yes you are correct about leaving the data url and cloud url field blank. But make sure that you copy the latest config data from bt control panel to the bt_config file in xcode. All the best for approval.

Thanks again, Sandeep! One final question. Theoretically speaking, let's say my application gets accepted by Apple this time around. The binary I submitted does indeed have the DataURL and reporttocloudURL active so that the app is considered "online". If I wanted to integrate Scringo in an immediate update, how easy/difficult would this be considering my application is currently online? Or would this not be an issue and I could proceed in making the app offline and integrating Scringo by submitting a new binary update? Thanks again, that should be the last of it! Nicholas

here is the thing about online vs offline (somebody correct me if i am wrong) Online apps are great. They are small and compact and easy to install and upgrade. If you only have a 3g device this can come in handy. Given that the average American is a spoiled impatient child, this works because we all think we are to good to "wait" for anything...including a download. However.... My apps are all online, and there have been some problems as a result. Lets say you app has to do with sports, camping, hiking, boy scouts (like mine) or any other outdoor activity. If you are in an area with lousy reception then you may have a problem downloading screens and as a consumer, especially if you have paid for the app, then that is going to trigger that whole impatient child thing i was talking about earlier...lol. Here is a "split the difference" alternative. If you set the "force refresh" to "allow caching" then the screens will be available offline, once the consumer has initially loaded them when they were in a good area. So it all comes down to the needs of the app itself. Hope all that rambling helped... Cheers Al :-)

Integrating scringo into an ios app is very simple. You do not need to create any additional screen in your app from BT control panel so, it would not affect the app or its contents in case your app gets approved. In essence the codes for scringo implementation goes in the appDelegate.m file of your project. You can start implementing scringo right away despite the app being online without any fear and proceed to make the app offline and then submit it again for updation. You will get all the info of how to implement scringo in the following guide on BT iOS apps. But i would also advise you to take a look at the documentation provided by scringo to implement their sdk for iOS. It might come handy because the scringo guide from bt is for the older version sdk. The documentation from scringo might have some new changes in codes. Link: https://www.buzztouch.com/files/howtos/ScringoBT_PDF.pdf

Perfect Sandeep! Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge, this is reassuring to me knowing that I can integrate with no worry on the user experience if the app does indeed gets approved and goes live. Thanks again and I'll surely take a look at the Scringo and BT guides for any changes. :) Nicholas

Nice explanations. To define my app going offline or online there's one detail that I'm quite sure I understood but not 100% sure: The online implementation of an app won't update picture files and html docs, right? Then if I change any screen including a new picture or a button with a new picture it will appear with a question mark at the moment the user updates it. Also, if I include a new html doc it won't appear. Those would appear only if the user download the update of the binary from the stores. Is that right? Thanks.

Hey Alessandro, If you take your app offline, any changes you make in your Control Panel won't be seeing by those that use your app. You will have to send an update to the App Store and your app users will have to download a new update in order to see the changes. If you keep your app online, any changes you make in the Control Panel can be seen by your app users when the click the refresh button in your app with an active Internet connection. If you plan on making lots of changes to your app on a consistent basis, online might be your best option. If you think your app will remain constant and you feel like you will only update once in a while with new content/features, offline is a good choice. It's really up to you. So, to answer your question, if your app is online and you add content to it, users simply have to press the refresh button with an active internet connection to see your changes. Usually, they will be told that the content has been changed and a refresh is needed. If your app is offline, any changes you make will not be seen at all until an update is made in the App Store and your users download it. Hope that helps! Nicholas

I made some tests I noticed now that html docs and images were not updating because I was using the first field that is only the image or html name. In order to update to the user those files that I upload to the file manager I need to use the second field that has the complete url. That will be very useful! There are some screens that I use images and html files that won't update frequently, for those I will use only file names, then the images would be already in the binary. For other screens that I will input data with a certain frequency I will use images and html docs in that second field with the complete url. Thanks!