Phonegap iOS integration - Will it ever be accepted by Apple?

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Is it possible at all to get a Mendix iOS app accepted by Apple? At the moment, I'm still struggling getting the code to work. While surfing the web for answers, I start getting the impression that it might not be possible to get a Mendix iOS app accepted by Apple. Here is what I found in an article: == start snippet == How to Avoid Getting Your iPad App Rejected By Neal Goldstein and Tony Bove To avoid having your iPad app rejected by Apple, read the documentation, steer away from Apple trademarks and images, and stay away from content that's questionable in any legal sense. These kinds of things will get your app rejected before it ever has a chance to shine in the App Store: Linking to private frameworks: Apple rejects apps that call external frameworks or libraries that contain non-Apple code. In addition, you can't download interpreted code to use in an app except for code that's interpreted and run by Apple's published APIs and built-in interpreters. Private frameworks and interpreted code may hide functions that Apple would want to know about. (Some private frameworks have been found to mine personal information from iPhone users without their knowledge.) Apple already knows about most of the private frameworks, so don't bother with them. == end snippet ==
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PhoneGap has officially been approved by Apple since 2009. See this blog post. Even when Apple updated their policies by excluding all kinds of frameworks PhoneGap was still permitted.

As explained in this thread there are some limitations if you read the App Store guidelines carefully. Mainly: the app should show a UI if not connected to the internet.

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Personally i don't really like the policy of apple. However i don't think that it is that strict as stated in your snippet, otherwise they would have a lot more trouble getting the whole world to addept.

Also have a look at the phonegap website, it shows some examples of which i assume are already available in the appstore.

Link

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I think the problem is that, loading from an external url, you're able to load javascript. This way, you're able to change the way the app behaves. For instance, a mobile widget within a Mendix app basically could do everything on the device. For Android I made widget that uses the camera of the mobile phone.

I think Apple's problem is that you're able to break an Apple installed app this way, also after the app is accepted: I can change the camera widget in my Mendix app without reinstalling the Android app on my phone - stopping and starting the app is enough. This way Apple is not able to do QA on apps loaded on their devices.

I'm afraid that if I'm correct, we're not able to actually develop iOS apps.

I think this is important to get sorted out fast. As we have customers that are very interested in iOS apps, I invested a lot of time sorting things out. I became an Apple developer for $99 a year. If it turns out developing iOS apps with Mendix / Phonegap is not possible after all, it is important for all of us Mendix developers to know that as soon as possible.

=== edit ===

I truly hope Johan is right - there is mentioning of a Mendix app already approved by Apple. That would be great news. As long as I have not seen this myself, I have my doubts, because of the reasons expressed above. If I understand correctly what Apple is trying to protect, the user experience on their devices, I can imagine them having issues with a Mendix app loading javascript from external url's.

As soon as I have solid information on this matter, I will add that to this thread.

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Good news: today I saw an Apple app (iOS) based on a Mendix app! Great, as the iPad is the mobile device used business wise the most.

At the same time, I can't read the Apple policy differently from the way I had and expressed. I will keep this in mind doing my business.

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