Hi, I have a meeting with the head of IT and a member of senior managament at my organisation to try and convince them to adopt using BT to create apps for employees. I am a relative novice in relation to self-hosting and was hoping you might be able help with some queries: 1. security of internal documents is a massive security concerns all round, if we self-host do the documents ever go to BT's server at any point or just from our server to the users' device. 2. would the cost of self-hosting (beyond setting up the server) be only $29.99/month? (sounds too cheap to be true). 3. can you easily distribute apps for iOS without going through the app store and without having to have the app approved by Apple? Thanks in advance for your help. Majic (very lost but very much trying)

The app has to connect to the BT server to package up the app you it then sends this package back to you server for testing or exporting to a market. If you joined before the site moved to the new one you should get an api key for free As for the £29 a month its something to do with how many times the api key calls the BT server this is limited to 100 a month unless u purchase extra keys I dont fully understand the api bit of if it myself and if i myself wil l need a extra key but hopefully someone will follow this message up Regards chris

#1. Security, Ha! In your dreams. Doc stay on your server, but apps are easily hacked. #2. Depends on use. #3. Easily, no & yes (Depends on your parameters.) Doable, yes. Feasible, depends. Fred

API is simple. Download source code twice, that's two API calls. Regarding #3 change answer to easily, Yes. Regarding security. Yes you can have security. How you do it is the question. Fred

So if every time I download code, it is an API call, is it bet just to build an app "blind" and only check your product occasionally? The beauty of the YouTube demos of Buzztouch was that you could see every little change instantly. Does self hosting do away with that?

Nothing to do with that. After you download source code, you build project in Eclipse. Export APK. Refresh as needed. Only one API call. Make 2,000 changes to app, still only one API call. Read Online vs. Offline found in MySkylla's Guide to Buzztouch to understand process. www.myskylla.wordpress.com Fred

I've personally developed internal applications for a company. Everything is internal and secure. Couple of things to keep in mind if you want security+internal component: 1) Make the app standalone 2) Use internal servers to connect to sensitive data 3) You can have 100 users internally on the none enterprise apple account, if your company is 100+ than you guys will have to go enterprise. (no need for the app to be approved, and is not posted publicly) This is a generalized overview, I have no idea what your company wants to do, however to the contrary of the comments above, it is possible to have secure data and apps running on a homebrew standalone setup.

So the BuZztouch control panel interacts with eclipse, right? And then when I install another plugin, it goes directly into eclipse, right? In short, the API call is simply the framework for the app and I will never have to do an API call for that app again, right?

That's correct regarding API. The Apple iOS Enterprise Program $299/yr as described above can/should be a component of an iOS solution. There are alternatives. Solution depends on many factors. Fred

Hi, quick question...how many questions can we host on buzztouch's database? I pan on having around 500 for each page and for different quizzes so around 2000 total questions...will that be a problem? Thanks

Not a problem. Using JSON to build the screens is probably the way to do it 'simply'. Fred

@Majic, What Fred is trying to express about the API calls is that each time you package your source code, it counts as one API call. But you only need to do it one time per app, unless you happen to change the apps icon. Then you would need to do it again. The beauty about buzztouch is that everything is controlled by a configuration file, and you can view the information in that file by hitting the Show Configuration Data link in your control panel. After you make changes to your app, you can either copy/paste that info to your local config file, and recompile, or, if you have left the Report to Cloud URL and Configuration URL's intact, all you have to do is refresh the app in the simulator (or the device), and you will see changes immediately. No API calls involved! Here's a doc that explains it a bit better : http://www.buzztouch.com/resources/Understanding_App_Refresh_and_Offline_Apps_v1.0.pdf With respect to security, not a single one of your documents has to reside anywhere other than where you compile your app. If you do that on a secure server (where Xcode and/or Eclipse reside), then you're good at least until the point you compile the app and install it on a device. As to whether they are hackable after that...depends on the device and the OS. Ultimately, probably everything is! Building screens using JSON instead of your control panel, is a viable options and will not count against your screen count. I'm currently writing a tutorial on this. Personally, I think BT Server can be very beneficial for you. I would be surprised if you could not accomplish most of what you want on it. Mark

Just to clear up one matter. You don't need to download the source code to change the icon. Downloading the source code is mostly unnecessary a second time. Fred

I believe you do for an icon change in v1.4...obviously not a concern here. I stand corrected! Mark

if i update my app and do some changes on my server. Are the apps on the stroe updated ? and does each person who downloads my app or update there current one do those count as API calls ?

They are updated as long as you left the URL pointing to your hosted server. The API call is only counted when you bring that source down to your server as I understand it. So if you have 2 applications but 100 people have bought your app. Then two API calls are used each time you need to download the source. Not 100. API calls are used the first time only be when making some major changes. Now I think I got that right.... Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.... God knows I'm wrong often...

Again API call only when you dowload the source code. Lots of people dowload the source code when making major changes. That's a bad practice. Rarely need to re-dowload. Usually done because developer doesn't understand process. Read Online vs. Offline only MySkylla's Guide to Buzztouch to understand process. Only need to dowload twice. 1 x Andriod 1 x iOS THAT'S IT. NO MORE. Make changes to source code one time or 2,000 still don't need to re-download source code. Fred

Regarding security, here's a good article that touches on the issues involved. http://m.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/power-your-mobile-strategy-cloud-189043 Fred

Hi, I'm confused on the API thing. I just noticed I have 3 API calls and I have not packaged any apps on my self hosted server. I just got it setup a few days ago. I'm still working off my apps on the regular bt server as I learn about setting up apps on the self hosted server. Can someone tell me why I have 3 API calls when I have not downloaded or packaged any apps?

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my original thread. Meeting was cancelled at last minute, so still waiting on discussion before I know if we can precede. All your answers though will certainly help.