I need to submit to the Apple app store a new version of my app. My app is based on JSON feeds. The problem is that the new app works with a new version of the feeds, but the new version of the feeds can’t be released while the current feeds still working for the current app.
So my question is how apple can review my app? Will Apple approve my app even if the feeds are not live?
My idea was to submit the app for the review even if it’s not working, and if is approved start the new feed and remove the old one. Any suggestion on how to solve this problem?
Another idea could be submit the app, and while is in queue keep the old feed live, and after 4 days start the new feed (so Apple can review the app), in this case the app won’t work just for a couple of days.
Thanks
Francesco
Short answer: No, your app will be rejected.
Longer answer:
You should provide a way to keep the current (past version) feed working at least for a while along side the new one, otherwise people that don’t update the app, which you have no way to control, will have an application that doesn’t work.
What you could/should do is keep the previous version available on one url (yourhost.com/feed) and the new version on another url (yourhost.com/feed/v2/).
Internally you can keep just one version, the newer, and then use some kind of facade/converter to handle the conversion from the new schema to the old one. This way you would only need to maintain one version of the code while providing a way for both versions of the application to work.
Your app will be rejected if Apple tester find it empty of content.