I want to update my app - I've got 20 or so photos I want to add to the bundle. Rather than linking to them and having them remotely hosted, I want to include them in the app itself. Problem is that if I link to them in a slideshow in buzztouch, that will be live immediately. But the images won't be in the app that people have presently. So they'll not be able to see the images until the update is on the app store. There have been 2,500 downloads of the app so far, so I don't want to confuse/disappoint people. Any way around this other than initially linking to the images remotely, then when the update's on the app store, change the link to link to the images in the app? Would Apple accept an app update that had several images in that weren't being used? Thoughts anyone? thanks! (buzztouch 1.5, iOS4)

I think I understand what you are saying. I am assuming that you have report to cloud and configuration data url enabled and pointing to the default urls in the apps core properties. If you change your app so initially the images are linked remotely, that will work after the end user is asked to refresh their app. Kind of annoying, but as you mentioned, it works immediately. (Keep in mind that the end user will only have to download the images once, and from then on, can reference them from cache. It might be easier just to leave it at that.) However, if you then use the control panel to create the new version of your app that you will later submit to apple, it will update the variable report to cloud checks when users load your app, and they will be asked to refresh, it will load the newer version expecting to find images in the app itself. But the images won't be there. So depending on how long it takes you to update your app and have apple approve it, your users could experience problems. So... Try creating a test app with images embedded into the xcode project like you want to have in your current app. Run it in the simulator to be sure it works. Check out the config file (look in core properties) generated from that screen. You'll see that when the app builds that screen it is expecting data in JSON format. For more information on how your app uses JSON check out the documentation: http://www.buzztouch.com/docs/v1.5 Once you understand the formatting, you can directly edit your config file in xcode without making changes to your control panel. This will leave your config file (and report to cloud variable) on the buzztouch server alone while giving you a new app to submit to apple. When the new app is approved, you can go into your control panel and make the corresponding changes. I hope this makes sense. Like I mentioned above, it might make more sense to have users refresh their app and access the files remotely. Either way they're going to have to download something to see the changes you want...

Nice thinking! Thanks - that eases my mind!! I'd rather have a new version of the app I think as I don't want to overwhelm our server (which is a shared one at the moment).....unless you can suggest a good (free) image host that I can link to....would flickr do it? Also, when the xcode project saves, it compresses the png files - do you know if Ping (http://macupdate.com/app/mac/23055/ping!) compresses as much as xcode does? If so, I probably wouldn't save anything much by adding the images to the project rather than uploading them to my server.

You're welcome! I believe filckr will work. I've been using dropbox.com ( email me - parker (at) buzztouch (dot) com - for a referral invite and extra space. ) <- They give you a 2 gigabyte account for free and you can access and share files easily between all of your computers (desktop/laptop/work/any random computer with internet access). Plus you'll get an extra 250MB for using my referral link above. I have no idea about the compression, sorry. Maybe try the Ping forum?

What would the url you use to access an image on dropbox? I got the url of an image: https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/AMAZING_files/colmwilkinson.png?w=490c2f7e but in the gallery page on buzztouch, it says not to use urls that don't end in .png /.jpg etc

You have to use the copy public link option for any image you use in your Dropbox Public folder. They all end with their file extensions. Navigate in your public folder to where the image is and click the drop down arrow to the right of it. (It looks like you copied the url after opening the image itself. Don't open the image.) You'll see an option to copy the public link.

ahhh, the public folder...ok, they're there now, and I see the public link - thanks!!