Question

I have an app on the App Store that needs to have its resource data files updated periodically (every 2-3 months). So far, I’ve just been deploying a new version of the app to the App Store every time I need to do this, but the fact that I have to wait a week or two for the changes to become live is cumbersome.

Theoretically, I was thinking of creating a new “version_control.txt” resource file which tracks the version numbers of every other resource file. Periodically, the app would check its version_control.txt against a version up on some web server, and then download any files that need to be updated.

Do there exist any frameworks or SDKs to handle all of this for me, or do I have to write everything myself? Is there a better solution?

Answer 1

You can’t update the resources in your app bundle without updating the entire application. However, there’s no problem with having your app retrieve resources from a web server and save them in your app’s Documents folder. From there, it’s simple to have the app look for its resources in the Documents folder before looking in its own bundle.

I don’t know of any frameworks that manage resource versions for you. There’s not a lot of work involved, and each app likely has its own requirements, so I’m not sure that a framework would help that much. If your web server supports it, you could request the resource file(s) each time your app runs, but add the if-modified-since header so that you only download a new copy if the version on the server is newer than the one your app already has.