I had released an app that was using the default config data URL, and now I wanted to start making changes in the control panel without them going live right away. I read a few posts and the documentation about hosting the config data myself, and re-routing it in the core properties, so I gave it a try. I copied the config data to a txt file and uploaded it to my server. Then I put that URL in the core properties. I downloaded my app from itunes, and hit refresh (since the config data bundled with the app would have still been pointing to the default URL). After I made sure the app worked, and all the screens showed up, I went into my buzztouch control panel and made a quick small change to one of my menus. When I refreshed the app on my device, that change was seen on the app. Shouldn't it still be seeing the config data from my server, which would not have that change? Do I need to change the screen config url setting on the screen's advanced properties? Or blank it out? Thanks for any help!

Hi Stobe, So remote Config files can be tricky to understand sometimes. Did you change the Configuration Data URL setting before putting the remote Config file on your server? If not, after refreshing your app, it would be reading your remote Config file with the default Configuration Data URL setting, and prompt users for a refresh when you make changes to your control panel. Try changing the Configuration Data URL setting in your apps core properties to the URL location of where you plan on hosting the Config file. Save it. Then Copy the Config file and put it up on your server/dropbox/wherever you plan on putting it. You will also probably want to alter the Report to cloud URL as well as this is the URL pointing to a file that checks for updates and prompts the refresh from the file at you Configuration Data URL. If this is set to default you user will be prompted for a refresh from the remote Config file when changes are made to your control panel. They wont actually be getting the changes, but just re-downloading the remote Config file. So as an overview - The Report to cloud URL points to a file that compares a date to see if there is a newer version of your app. If so, it will download the new Config.txt file form the location set in the Configuration Data URL setting. Have a look at the Documentation and please ask any more questions you may have here. http://www.buzztouch.com/docs/v1.5/configData.php http://www.buzztouch.com/docs/v1.5/reportToCloud.php

You were right about the config data url still set to the default before I remotely saved it, good catch. fixed that. ok, so if I remotely host the config data, and I don't care about checking for a refresh, can I just delete the report to cloud URL? Or is there a way to have the report to cloud URL do everything except for the update check? (if I wanted to still see the hits that come from the report to cloud, but didn't want the updates to be checked for)? Thanks!

You can leave the reportToCloudURL in place to gather usage data. If you want to ignore it's results (and not trigger a refresh), comment out a few lines of code. iOS: yourAppDelegate.m file. Dont' alert user that something has changed. In the connectionDidFinishLoading method, comment out line 594 like: //[modifiedAlert show]; That will prevent the user from seeing the alert and pressing yes. No new data will be downloaded. No old data will be removed. Android: BT_activity_base.java. Comment out line's 202, 203, and 204 so the reportToCloudWorkerThread is never instantiated.

Still acting weird. I updated the config URL in the control panel to the self-hosted file. Then I re-uploaded the config data to my server and verified it was pointing to itself for the config URL. Then I manually refreshed my app on my devices. And if I make a simple change in my screens, they still show up on the devices. I did remove the reportToCloudURL in the meantime, and its not prompting me to do a refresh, but if I do, the changes still appear.

Is it updating the screen from the getChildItems part of the screen data URL? If I remote my config data should I delete all the screen data urls (if I want to be able to manually edit my screens with an itunes update)

One more step for you to do. You're correct in identifying the getChildItems in the JSON as the culprit. You'll need to reenter your control panel and access the Advanced Properties of any screen with Child Items. Like, Menu Lists, Location Maps, etc. (I didn't realize) The Screen Data URL has a default value to check for updates. Delete these and save. Re-upload your new remote Confg file and all should be well.