Check if my app has a new version on AppStore

Question

I would like to manually check if there are new updates for my app while the user is in it, and prompt him to download the new version. Can I do this by checking the version of my app in the app store - programatically?

Answer 1

Just use ATAppUpdater. It is 1 line, thread-safe and fast. It also have delegate methods if you would like to track user action.

Here is an example:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    [[ATAppUpdater sharedUpdater] showUpdateWithConfirmation]; // 1 line of code
    // or
    [[ATAppUpdater sharedUpdater] showUpdateWithForce]; // 1 line of code

   return YES;
}

Optional delegate methods:

- (void)appUpdaterDidShowUpdateDialog;
- (void)appUpdaterUserDidLaunchAppStore;
- (void)appUpdaterUserDidCancel;

Answer 2

Coming From a Hybrid Application POV, this is a javascript example, I have a Update Available footer on my main menu. If an update is available (ie. my version number within the config file is less than the version retrieved, display the footer) This will then direct the user to the app store, where the user can then click the update button.

I also get the whats new data (ie Release Notes) and display these in a modal on login if its the first time on this version.

The Update Available method can be ran as often as you like. Mine is ran every time the user navigates to the home screen.

function isUpdateAvailable() {
        $.ajax('https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=BUNDLEID', {
            type: "GET",
            cache: false,
            dataType: 'json'
        }).done(function (data) {
            _isUpdateAvailable(data.results[0]);
        }).fail(function (jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
            commsErrorHandler(jqXHR, textStatus, false);
        });

}

Callback: Apple have an API, so very easy to get

function isUpdateAvailable_iOS (data) {
    var storeVersion = data.version;
    var releaseNotes = data.releaseNotes;
    // Check store Version Against My App Version ('1.14.3' -> 1143)
    var _storeV = parseInt(storeVersion.replace(/\./g, ''));
    var _appV = parseInt(appVersion.substring(1).replace(/\./g, ''));
    $('#ft-main-menu-btn').off();
    if (_storeV > _appV) {
        // Update Available
        $('#ft-main-menu-btn').text('Update Available');
        $('#ft-main-menu-btn').click(function () {
           // Open Store      
           window.open('https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appname/idUniqueID', '_system');
        });

    } else {
        $('#ft-main-menu-btn').html(' ');
        // Release Notes
        settings.updateReleaseNotes('v' + storeVersion, releaseNotes);
    }
}

Answer 3

My code proposal. Based on the answers by @datinc and @Mario-Hendricks

You should of course, replace dlog_Error with your logging func call.

This kind of code structure should prevent your app from crashing in the event of an error. For fetching the appStoreAppVersion is not imperative, and should not lead to fatal errors. And yet, with this kind of code structure, you will still get your non-fatal error logged.

class func appStoreAppVersion() -> String?
{
    guard let bundleInfo = NSBundle.mainBundle().infoDictionary else {
        dlog_Error("Counldn't fetch bundleInfo.")
        return nil
    }
    let bundleId = bundleInfo[kCFBundleIdentifierKey as String] as! String
    // dbug__print("bundleId = \(bundleId)")

    let address = "http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=\(bundleId)"
    // dbug__print("address = \(address)")

    guard let url = NSURLComponents.init(string: address)?.URL else {
        dlog_Error("Malformed internet address: \(address)")
        return nil
    }
    guard let data = NSData.init(contentsOfURL: url) else {
        if Util.isInternetAvailable() {
            dlog_MajorWarning("Web server request failed. Yet internet is reachable. Url was: \(address)")
        }// else: internet is unreachable. All ok. It is of course impossible to fetch the appStoreAppVersion like this.
        return nil
    }
    // dbug__print("data.length = \(data.length)")

    if data.length < 100 { //: We got 42 for a wrong address. And aproximately 4684 for a good response
        dlog_MajorWarning("Web server message is unexpectedly short: \(data.length) bytes")
    }

    guard let response = try? NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options: []) else {
        dlog_Error("Failed to parse server response.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let responseDic = response as? [String: AnyObject] else {
        dlog_Error("Not a dictionary keyed with strings. Response with unexpected format.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let resultCount = responseDic["resultCount"] else {
        dlog_Error("No resultCount found.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let count = resultCount as? Int else { //: Swift will handle NSNumber.integerValue
        dlog_Error("Server response resultCount is not an NSNumber.integer.")
        return nil
    }
    //:~ Determine how many results we got. There should be exactly one, but will be zero if the URL was wrong
    guard count == 1 else {
        dlog_Error("Server response resultCount=\(count), but was expected to be 1. URL (\(address)) must be wrong or something.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let rawResults = responseDic["results"] else {
        dlog_Error("Response does not contain a field called results. Results with unexpected format.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let resultsArray = rawResults as? [AnyObject] else {
        dlog_Error("Not an array of results. Results with unexpected format.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let resultsDic = resultsArray[0] as? [String: AnyObject] else {
        dlog_Error("Not a dictionary keyed with strings. Results with unexpected format.")
        return nil
    }
    guard let rawVersion = resultsDic["version"] else {
        dlog_Error("The key version is not part of the results")
        return nil
    }
    guard let versionStr = rawVersion as? String else {
        dlog_Error("Version is not a String")
        return nil
    }
    return versionStr.e_trimmed()
}

extension String {
    func e_trimmed() -> String
    {
        return stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(NSCharacterSet.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet())
    }
}

Answer 4

Can I suggest this little library: https://github.com/nicklockwood/iVersion

Its purpose is to simplify the handling of remote plists to trigger notifications.

Answer 5

Here is my version using Swift 4 and popular Alamofire library (I use it in my apps anyway). Request is asynchronous and you can pass a callback to be notified when done.

import Alamofire

class VersionCheck {

    public static let shared = VersionCheck()

    var newVersionAvailable: Bool?
    var appStoreVersion: String?

    func checkAppStore(callback: ((_ versionAvailable: Bool?, _ version: String?)->Void)? = nil) {
        let ourBundleId = Bundle.main.infoDictionary!["CFBundleIdentifier"] as! String
        Alamofire.request("https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=\(ourBundleId)").responseJSON { response in
            var isNew: Bool?
            var versionStr: String?

            if let json = response.result.value as? NSDictionary,
               let results = json["results"] as? NSArray,
               let entry = results.firstObject as? NSDictionary,
               let appVersion = entry["version"] as? String,
               let ourVersion = Bundle.main.infoDictionary?["CFBundleShortVersionString"] as? String
            {
                isNew = ourVersion != appVersion
                versionStr = appVersion
            }

            self.appStoreVersion = versionStr
            self.newVersionAvailable = isNew
            callback?(isNew, versionStr)
        }
    }
}

Usage is simple like this:

VersionCheck.shared.checkAppStore() { isNew, version in
        print("IS NEW VERSION AVAILABLE: \(isNew), APP STORE VERSION: \(version)")
    }

Answer 6

Swift 4

We can use the new JSONDecoder to parse the response from itunes.apple.com/lookup and represent it with Decodable classes or structs:

class LookupResult: Decodable {
    var results: [AppInfo]
}

class AppInfo: Decodable {
    var version: String
}

We can also add other properties to AppInfo in case we need the releaseNotes or some other property.

Now we can make an async request using URLSession:

func getAppInfo(completion: @escaping (AppInfo?, Error?) -> Void) -> URLSessionDataTask? {
    guard let identifier = Bundle.main.infoDictionary?["CFBundleIdentifier"] as? String,
          let url = URL(string: "http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=\(identifier)") else {
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                completion(nil, VersionError.invalidBundleInfo)
            }
            return nil
    }
    let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { (data, response, error) in
        do {
            if let error = error { throw error }
            guard let data = data else { throw VersionError.invalidResponse }
            let result = try JSONDecoder().decode(LookupResult.self, from: data)
            guard let info = result.results.first else { throw VersionError.invalidResponse }

            completion(info, nil)
        } catch {
            completion(nil, error)
        }
    }
    task.resume()
    return task
}

enum VersionError: Error {
    case invalidBundleInfo, invalidResponse
}

this function receives a completion closure that will be called when the request is completed and returns an URLSessionDataTask in case we need to cancel the request, and can be called like this:

func checkVersion() {
    let info = Bundle.main.infoDictionary
    let currentVersion = info?["CFBundleShortVersionString"] as? String
    _ = getAppInfo { (info, error) in
        if let error = error {
            print(error)
        } else if info?.version == currentVersion {
            print("updated")
        } else {
            print("needs update")
        }
    }
}