I want to create a community around a current iPhone app I’ve built. It will allow registered users to upload and download small configuration or settings files, which are used in my app to customize functionality. These files are serialized plists (binary files around 500 bytes), but can be converted to a JSON or XML format if necessary.
I do not need an HTML front-end; I plan for it to be accessed only via my app. Files do not need to be private or secure. I do not plan to store or ask for any user private data–just a login and password.
I’m looking for tips that might get me close to my goals with the least amount of effort – I want to focus on the core functionality of the app, and have this as a stable feature that I can add to in the future if it is useful. I would of course prefer FOSS, but a commercial solution is not out of the question. Things like file sharing sites with apis, login ideas, and so on.
So, what software solutions are out there that I may not be aware of? I know that Drupal has modules to allow user logins. Is there something that would work not as a web app, but as a service only? Dropbox has file sharing and an API, but I’m not sure I could use it the way I’m intending.
In short, I could code this, but would prefer a pre-baked solution that would deal with things I may not have thought of. I am sure there must be something out there which I can use.
More Details, and what I plan on the service offering:
- Registration of users via the iPhone, and all that entails (will code the UI myself–I just want an API to connect to)
- Viewing of these files quickly and efficiently (the files were built with performance in mind, and this is a free app, so I would like to keep server costs down)
- Uploading their own files, with a few integrity checks
- Rating the files
- Gathering statistics on usage (which files were downloaded most often), etc., to provide a way for the files to be ranked by rating, popularity, etc.
- Optional – submitting revised versions of the files (a tree).
- Optional but preferred – statistics on users (no. files uploaded, perhaps rewards system for sharing)
I’m just not up to date with current technologies and open source solutions. I have experience in SQL, relational database design, and have built backends in Java, so a custom solution is not out of the question. However, it’s been a while, I’m not a security expert, and would prefer to not reinvent the wheel for what is a fairly simple project, so an off-the-shelf solution would be preferred.
Check out http://www.parse.com!
It is absolutely brilliant for stuff like this.