Apple’s iOS 7 Submission Requirements

29 January 2014

Apple’s iOS 7 Submission Requirements


Corona SDK

As many of you are probably aware, Apple has announced they are requiring app submissions to be optimized for iOS7 starting on Feb 1.

If you are using our Graphics 2.0 builds (by either migrating, or by using the compatibility mode), then you’re already good to go. Graphics 2.0 builds have supported iOS7 since Day 1.

If you are still on Graphics 1.0, you will have issues with Apple’s submission process. You have several options:

  1. Upgrade your project to Graphics 2.0 and use 1.0 compatibility mode (i.e. adding one line in config.lua). This has been used very successfully by many apps, including highly complex ones.
  2. Upgrade your project to Graphics 2.0 by migrating your code. This allows you to take full advantage of the great graphics capabilities of Corona.
  3. Use a Graphics 1.0 daily build that explicitly supports iOS 7.

 

Now, we recognize that daily builds are only available to Pro (and above) subscribers. We thought about what we can do to help you around this issue, so here’s what we are going to do:

  • We are making build 2014.1262 available to all Corona developers (Mac) (Win).
  • This build is based on Graphics 1.0 and supports iOS7, so you can use it to build your apps and submit to the app store.
  • This is not a public release. It is a daily build that fixes the following issues present in 2013.1260:
    • The Facebook listener won’t receive an event when the user denies the login request.
    • Requesting additional Facebook permissions returns the incorrect event state.
    • scrollView event.phase not being passed to the listener.

If there are other issues in 1262 that affect your app and you are not able to use it, we are very sorry. We want to shield you from disruptions like this, but that is not always completely possible. In this case, Apple has decided to enact a big restriction to keep pace with the mobile industry. And following Apple’s lead, we have to keep moving forward, and that means focusing 100% on our Graphics 2.0 builds.

Thanks!

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walter
24 Comments
  • Scott
    Posted at 16:10h, 29 January

    When we can build for Windows Phone/8, will we need to convert all our apps to Graphics 2.0 or can we use the 1.0 compatibility mode?

    • David
      Posted at 20:52h, 29 January

      Scott – most likely we will only support Graphics 2.0 straight up for Windows (no compatibility mode), but a final decision has not yet been made.

  • J. A. Whye
    Posted at 18:01h, 29 January

    You use the term “Upgrade to Graphics 2.0” — but what does that really mean? How does one upgrade? By buying the Pro version of the SDK, or do you mean something else?

    Jay

    PS – I’m a Pro user, of course, but I work with a lot of free users and this confuses me. 🙂

    • David
      Posted at 20:54h, 29 January

      Jay – we just mean use Graphics 2.0. The current public release (#2100) is a Graphics 2.0 build and it’s available to Starters. Now, there are specific features of Graphics 2.0 that are only available to Pros (and up). But the whole engine (for everyone) is now Graphics 2.0. Make sense?

    • Walter
      Posted at 23:08h, 29 January

      Okay, point taken: “Upgrade your project to Graphics 2.0”

  • Alena Amundson
    Posted at 20:47h, 29 January

    I installed this new version but it says that I cannot use it because I am not a user. Please help. Thanks.

    • Alena Amundson
      Posted at 20:49h, 29 January

      Specifically, the message says “Daily Builds are only available to current Pro (or above) subscribers…etc.

      • David
        Posted at 20:55h, 29 January

        Alena, I’m not sure I follow, but this may point to a bad setting on our side. Can you email me and tell me which build you are using, what level subscriber you are and what the error message is? My email: david AT coronalabs.

        • Alena Amundson
          Posted at 10:38h, 30 January

          Hi David,

          The build number is 2014.1262, I am a free subscriber, and the error message says ““Daily Builds are only available to current Pro (or above) subscribers…etc.”

          Thanks

          • David
            Posted at 10:41h, 30 January

            Looking into it…

          • David
            Posted at 13:20h, 30 January

            This is fixed.

  • Mo
    Posted at 20:58h, 29 January

    I have just submitted an app update using 1260 (i am using a Pro user) I can live with the issues listed above (Facebook) but I am wondering if Apple will reject my app if I used 1260? The game run fine with all my ios 7 devices so I am assuming it is ok. Are you just warning people who only have the last public build?

    Thanks for letting me know so I can reject the app if need before Feb 1st.

    Mo

    • Walter
      Posted at 22:12h, 29 January

      Yes, we’re addressing folks who don’t have access to daily builds like 1260.

  • Mo
    Posted at 22:38h, 29 January

    Thanks so much Walter. I appreciate it! I feel much better now that i know that apps made with 1260 are IOS 7 compatible!

    THANKS for taking the time.

    Mo

  • Dave Baxter
    Posted at 01:09h, 30 January

    I knew this would be coming from Apple but was hoping not yet. My mac won’t run the latest xCode so I can’t submit after 1st Feb 🙁 Luckily my Apple Developer program runs out on the 11th so no money wasted.

    I am going to carry on though and give the Android marketplace a go.

    Dave

    • Kohan Ikin
      Posted at 11:45h, 30 January

      Is Xcode 5 actually required to compile for iOS 7? I was able to compile my app on 10.7 with 1262 & only Xcode 4 installed with no problems (though I’ve not had a chance to test the build on iOS 7 just yet).

      If Xcode 5 is necessary and your Mac is too old to run 10.8, try looking into MLPostFactor from http://www.osxhackers.com. I was able to get Mountain Lion to install on my unsupported 2007 Black MacBook, and it actually runs surprisingly well.

      • Tobias Gries
        Posted at 15:43h, 30 January

        yeah is xcode 5 a requirement? if yes then it wouldnt make much sense to say you need a minimum of macos 10.7.x for this build (or even 2.0 builds)

        • Dave baxter
          Posted at 23:56h, 30 January

          You should have had a email from Apple stating that from the 1st of Feb 2014 all apps have to be built using xCode 5.

          Dave

    • Pawel Maczewski
      Posted at 12:00h, 30 January

      There’re also services like http://www.macincloud.com…
      Might be a cheaper option if used only for building… 🙂

      • A Funny Development
        Posted at 06:02h, 31 January

        Have you tried macinacloud?

        I’d be curious how well it works.

  • Nathan
    Posted at 19:25h, 30 January

    Hi Walter – does this have implications for iOS 5/6 support post Feb 1? Will my submissions >= build 1262 still be capable of running on pre-iOS7 operating systems?

    Thanks,
    Nathan.

    • Walter
      Posted at 14:30h, 31 January

      Yes, support for previous iOS versions is still the same as before. Apple posted numbers (https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/) showing iOS 5 is less than 3%, so we’ll probably be making iOS 6 the minimum version soon.

      • Nathan
        Posted at 15:07h, 03 February

        Thanks Walter.

        iPad 1 is still 5.1.1 maximum and moving to a minimum of 6 would not allow us to support it anymore. Still LOTS of apps offering iPad1 support, including some of the biggest games (like Clash of Clans) – would be a shame for Corona to kill our ability to reach this market.

        Nathan.

        • Steve
          Posted at 15:11h, 17 February

          Thanks Walter.

          Agree with Nathan. Would hate to lose 5.1.1 support just yet. Looked at our Flurry stats on a game with 180k users and devices with 5.1.1 compose 4.7% of users (about one in twenty). Every extra user helps — as we all know.

          Steve