Phonegap: flexible iOS app update (No AppStore)

Question

I have a Phonegap iOS app. My app is distributed privately, hence there is and there will be no usage of the app store. The app communicates with a homebrew middleware. In order to manage the app updates, I thought about doing something like:

-> On app start, check if a more recent version is available.

-> If yes then call a home-made Javascript module that will leverage the HTML5 file I/O API in order to update/create/delete files based on the output of the middleware.

• In your opinion; is this solution reliable?

• Are there any alternatives? (app store is completely out of the picture)

Answer 1

With a PhoneGap/Cordova app you normally load files from your local www folder. The problem with updating files at runtime is that you cannot write to the www location - you can only write to your app's 'documents' folder.

I assume you are using an Enterprise distribution since you are distributing without the app store. You could look at using something like TestFlight to distribute updates if you are happy for the users to have to go and check for updates.

You could also eliminate TestFlight and host the ipa files yourself, check for updates and then ask the user to download and install the update.

EDIT

It is not possible to write to the www folder with or without a plugin. This is due to iOS restrictions rather than PhoneGap/Cordova restrictions.

These links talk about distributing Enterprise apps over-the-air http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/FA_Wireless_Enterprise_App_Distribution/Introduction/Introduction.html

IOS Enterprise Distribution Through OTA

Enterprise In-House App distribution