All non-trivial apps visualise content in some form, whether it’s game levels embedded in the app, data loaded from some internet service, or something else.
In many cases the developer who’s writing the Objective-C code isn’t going to be the person who creates or prepares this content. In the case of embedded content, this can lead to a slow feedback loop—the content experts create a database or some other assets, then send it to the developer. The developer prepares a build using the new assets, uploading it to TestFlight or some other ad-hoc distribution centre. Then the content people can download that app to see their content in the context of the application it’s designed for.
There’s a simple way to close this loop, letting content creators see the app with their latest changes as they make them. That is to use iTunes File Sharing to load the content via the app’s Documents folder.
If you have a line like this:
NSString *pathToContent = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathToResource: @"myDatabase" ofType: @"sqlite"];
Change it to use a function like this:
NSString *pathToPotentiallySideloadedFile(NSString *filename, NSString *type)
{
NSString *pathInDocumentsFolder = [[[NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject] stringByAppendingPathComponent: filename] stringByAppendingPathExtension: type];
if (pathInDocumentsFolder)
return pathInDocumentsFolder;
else
return [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource: filename ofType: type];
}
//...
NSString *pathToContent = pathToPotentiallySideloadedFile(@"myDatabase", @"sqlite");
Now if people working on your app have a file in their Documents folder with the same name as the one used in the app, it’ll load their version. So, how do they get it in there?
You need to make a simple change to your app’s Info.plist:
<key>UIFileSharingEnabled</key>
<true/>
Now when anybody with the app connects their device to iTunes, they’ll be able to use file sharing to add their own content. Don’t forget to turn this off before you go live!
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that this technique can be used for networked apps. Obviously there isn’t really any difficulty getting updated content into a network-driven app; or if there is, someone did it wrong.
It’s the opposite problem you have: keeping the content fixed. If your online component—be it a CMS, a data feed from an API, or something else—is getting new data you can’t always ensure that the app is looking at the same stuff in testing. Indeed, sometimes I’ve found the CMS developers changing the data format without telling anyone; if you’re investigating a particular condition related to the state of the data, it can be hard to reproduce.
You can use the iTunes File Sharing technique to load a specific version of the app’s data without relying on the network connection and the server giving you the same output. This is great for regression testing, as you can ensure that only your code is changing between runs.
