iOS Difficulty of programming and ios app with several layers and in-app purchases?

[The-Pro]

Hi everybody,

Im looking into making an ios app.
I cannot describe the idea behind it but I can say what I want the layout to be like and what features it needs.

It should be kept simple.

The first selection screen would need to be where the user can choose from a list of events, a search bar for the list and an option to add an event that isnt in the list.

Once an event is selected the user needs to get to a screen where information can be added, this info is important and needs to be sent to me for confirmation etc. From there the user goes to a list of in-app purchases which he can choose from.

In my opinion it cant be very complex and complicated. But you all will know that better then me.

I cant explain any further but thats not the point.

I would like to know from someone familiar with programming ios apps how difficult it would be to make an app with the above features.

Also does anyone know of good guides, tutorials etc that I could use to learn on how to make an app on that level.

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

The last time I tried using IAP (several years ago now) I found it to be very tricky. I don't know if the APIs for it have been made more friendly since - I've just stayed away from it.

Also, this should go under iOS programming, not Mac Programming.

 

[The-Pro]

The last time I tried using IAP (several years ago now) I found it to be very tricky. I don't know if the APIs for it have been made more friendly since - I've just stayed away from it.

Also, this should go under iOS programming, not Mac Programming.

Hope they have
Didnt know they had an ios programming section. My bad.

Moderator, feel free to move the thread. Thanks

 

[dejo]

Once an event is selected the user needs to get to a screen where information can be added, this info is important and needs to be sent to me for confirmation etc. From there the user goes to a list of in-app purchases which he can choose from.

What are these in-app purchases providing? Because if they are used to provide goods or services used outside the app, Apple will probably reject it.

 

[The-Pro]

What are these in-app purchases providing? Because if they are used to provide goods or services used outside the app, Apple will probably reject it.

hmmmm interesting to know. It would be services outside the app. Didn't know apple had a policy for that.

 

[dejo]

It would be services outside the app.

Most likely Apple would not approve such an app.

Didn't know apple had a policy for that.

You should probably read through the App Store Review Guidelines so you know what they are allowing / prohibiting.

Strange this is: you need to be a registered developer in order to access the Guidelines. I'm not sure if you can access them with a free developer account, but you definitely need to login before you can see them.

 

[The-Pro]

Most likely Apple would not approve such an app.



You should probably read through the App Store Review Guidelines so you know what they are allowing / prohibiting.

Strange this is: you need to be a registered developer in order to access the Guidelines. I'm not sure if you can access them with a free developer account, but you definitely need to login before you can see them.

thats a pain.

yeah I cant look at the guidelines. Maybe I will find them somewhere on the internet.

Thanks for your help

I found and app from a travel insurance company. It says you can buy travel insurance through the app on the go.
Is that allowed because maybe they are not using in-app purchases as such?

 

[xArtx]

They are reproduced all over the place:
edited out link.

 

[dejo]

They are reproduced all over the place:
http://photos.appleinsider.com/App Store Review Guidelines - App Store Resource Centerai.pdf

What's with all the AppleInsider watermarks? It's not like they own that content.

 

[PriapusZA]

What's with all the AppleInsider watermarks? It's not like they own that content.

Isn't this illegal in some way?

To the OP: Apps can accept other payment methods, such as credit cards, PayPal, etc. Which would be allowed for services outside of the app.

 

[The-Pro]

They are reproduced all over the place:
http://photos.appleinsider.com/App Store Review Guidelines - App Store Resource Centerai.pdf

thank you very much

Isn't this illegal in some way?

To the OP: Apps can accept other payment methods, such as credit cards, PayPal, etc. Which would be allowed for services outside of the app.

Ahhh ok. thats good.
its a pitty in-app purchases doesn't work. It would be the most convenient.

 

[xArtx]

What's with all the AppleInsider watermarks? It's not like they own that content.

It means "hey look at us, we provided it to the public, and you can't say you did it first because we can use Gimp too".
I don't know that it is illegal to link here, but if it's dubious, it can go now anyway.

 

[The-Pro]

thank you for all the insight. very helpful

back to the original question though. How difficult would it be to create such an app? what would I need to learn etc
thanks

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Searchable list of events you can add to? That's pretty trivial sounding. If you watch Stanford's free online course on iOS development they'll teach you enough for that. That assumes that this list isn't something that you'll want to update frequently. If you want to update it frequently, you'll probably need to set up your own web server to deliver data to it. Might not be so easy... I'm planning on exploring these kinds of things once I can afford a server + proper internet connection for it.

Sending stuff to you for confirmation could be easy or... not easy... depending on how you choose to do it. You could just make the app open a precomposed email and trust that the user will hit send... then if the app doesn't care about a response, that'd all be pretty easy. Otherwise it's outside the scope of strictly iOS development, as you'd need to set up some kind of server that would communicate with your iOS app.

 

[The-Pro]

Searchable list of events you can add to? That's pretty trivial sounding. If you watch Stanford's free online course on iOS development they'll teach you enough for that. That assumes that this list isn't something that you'll want to update frequently. If you want to update it frequently, you'll probably need to set up your own web server to deliver data to it. Might not be so easy... I'm planning on exploring these kinds of things once I can afford a server + proper internet connection for it.

Sending stuff to you for confirmation could be easy or... not easy... depending on how you choose to do it. You could just make the app open a precomposed email and trust that the user will hit send... then if the app doesn't care about a response, that'd all be pretty easy. Otherwise it's outside the scope of strictly iOS development, as you'd need to set up some kind of server that would communicate with your iOS app.

Ill have a look at those tutorials, thanks.
The events will have to be updated frequently, they need to be up to date all the time. I figured you would need some sort of server for it. Internet connection is a problem for me as well.

Sadly the email approach wouldn't be safe enough or reliable enough. The app needs to be able to know, "data sent and received, data being checked" etc. So yeah it needs to communicate between the server and the app.
Servers servers and more servers Oh boy, this will get interesting.