Question

Hey I’m planning out an app for coding on an iPad. A common function of IDE’s is to have plugins for different syntax highlighting, my question is about the iOS rules/capabilities. Would it be possible to have others create a syntax file that can be “imported” in the iPad app?

I assume this could be done can be done over HTTP, but I am asking more like a “plugin store”

Thanks!

Answer 1

As long as the plugin isn’t executable code (meaning that instead it’s data that you parse yourself), you can do whatever you want. If you wanted to make them purchasable, you would need to go through in-app purchase.

The general logic flow would then be:

1. User launches app and goes to the store
2. User purchases plugin
3. App requests XML/JSON/whatever format from your server
4. Server verifies receipt
5. Server returns the file
6. App saves the file to the application sandbox and specifies that the file should not be backed up by iCloud (or saves it to the cache directory instead of the documents directory) since the device can re-download static content.

If the content was free then of course you would just skip steps 2 and 4.