[OT] Mac App Store (was Gatekeeper)

[Peter Haworth]

My strategy for all this is going to be to just get my app signed
initially.  That will take care of the Gatekeeper issue.

As for the Apple Store, it seems the issues are:

The license agreement.
It seems that the Apple Store requires you to use the .pkg method of
installing and if I remember correctly, that installation process can
include displaying a license agreement so I think that explains why they
don't want your app displaying one.

The MAS receipt.
I looked at the MAS data structure and doesn't seem like it would be too
difficult to parse it out in LC but the checking side of it is another
question.  You have to get hold of the GUID and I don't think LC provides a
way to do that.  Haven't tracked down the external to do it and I'm betting
against RunRev providing any built in method of MAS validation.

More important than that though is Andrew's comment about users being able
to download as many copies as they want from the Apple Store after paying
for a single license.  If that really is the case, MAS does no more to
protect against piracy than the licensing scheme I already have in place
and seems to make validating the MAS a moot point.  Or is that just a case
of MAS hysteria :-)

Sandboxing
I've only taken a cursory glance at this but it doesn't seem to bad on the
face of it.

The biggest problem I see is that you can no longer write to the users Home
directory.  Instead your app runs within a "container" that seems to
emulate the Home directory and any of its sub-directories.  Not sure if the
data still ends up in the Home directory or not.

The obvious question for us LC'ers is what will specialFolderPath("Home")
return on Mountain Lion?  Or perhaps there will be a
specialFolderPath("Container")?  Would be great to get an answer from
RunRev on that.

Pete
lcSQL Software <http://www.lcsql.com>



On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 6:52 AM, Andrew Henshaw <henshaw at me.com> wrote:

> Its quite complicated using your own code,  took me quite a while to
> figure it out!
>
> I believe there is an external available however (from Obleo?) which takes
> care of it all if you dont fancy tackling it yourself.
>
>
> On 10 May 2012, at 10:25, Guglielmo Braguglia wrote:
>
> > Hi Andy,
> > maybe you missed my previous eMail on this list ... :-)
> >
> > Please, can you clarify how you *validate* the 'MAS receipt file' from a
> LiveCode application ?
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Guglielmo
> >
> >
> > On 10.05.2012 11:03, Andrew Henshaw wrote:
> >> Yes,  a MAS reciept file is inserted into your apps package by the Mac
> App Store*so you can check it is there_and validate its contents_*.   It
> has a hardware signature so you can make sure your app is valid on that
> system and has not been copied to another system.  If everything checks out
> you can then treat the launch as a full registered copy and skip your trial
> screens.
> >>
> >> BTW,  another 'MAS' store feature is users can install the app on as
> many system as they like by logging into the store on other computers and
> re-downloading.  Each copy gets its own reciept for each computer which
> will validate,  so while you cant copy an app from one computer to another,
>  there is no real limit to how many computers a user can install on if they
> want.
> >>
> >> You might get away with the license agreement,  ive seen apps that show
> those first but when you submit an app you can also submit your own license
> agreement as a text file so it does look like the app store has its own
> system for that,  Ive just stuck with the standard Apple license so its not
> something ive done.
> >>
> >> Andy
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