Question

I’m coding an app in XCode4, and am approaching a part of the development in which I use web services to connect to a MySQL database to both pull current and write new user account information.

Just wondering if this will work in the iOS Simulator that comes with the XCode bundle?

Answer 1

You don’t need an answer for this question, as you have it right there in the same question.

I really think you should take home the following:

1. A web-service is an interface to a (possibly) remote entity that will answer to you with data/calculations etc.
2. There are two sides to a web-service: (1) the server side which is the real web-service, and (2) the client side which are the web-service libraries that you use to connect and use/get data from
3. A web-service to a MySQL database will encapsulate/hide the database from you. This is usually so that you don’t need to deal with the query language/data conversion/relationships/etc. Keep in mind that there’s no MySQL over web-services (out-of-the-box), so someone has to connect those two for you.
4. A MySQL server can run on your computer, on a virtual machine on your computer or on a remote computer.
5. The web service can run on the same places, but not necessarily on the same place
6. That said the iOS Simulator doesn’t need to run the web-service or the MySQL server, It only needs to connect to them. As such they may be wherever, you just need to be able to connect to them.