updating text of a mobile app (newbie)

[andrew at midwestcoastmedia.com]

> A goal this year is to get an app (for foreign language learning) on the
> Android and iOS stores. To this end, I have begun to re-study LC8's app
> building course; LC itself I've been using for decades.
>
> Let's say my original app gets approved. In that app is a datagrid object
> list consisting of 10 vocabulary categories, the contents of  which are
> read in from a text file in specialFolderPath("documents"). A few months
> later, however, I discover more vocabulary categories are needed.
>
> What do I do? Can I somehow "download" a new text file into
> specialFolderPath("documents")? Do I have to completely update my app? Or
> something else?
>
> In the past what I've done for my desktop Windows standalones is to
> download data from my webserver over the internet. But, I imagine mobile
> apps must work differently.
>
> Hand holding very much welcome!
>
> --
> Nicolas Cueto


This is VERY doable. I have a mobile app that "phones home" on every  
launch to see if there is new data. The app goes and fetches a text  
file from my server that has an integer value of the last time the  
data was updated (the seconds) and if that value is greater than the  
value saved in a local preferences file on the device the app knows it  
needs to run a soft update. A quick revQueryDatabase returns an array  
of data that then gets used as the dgData.

I'm by no means an expert, but have a couple mobile apps created in  
LiveCode doing something like this and would be happy to talk you  
through the hoops and share some best practices I've discovered along  
the way. Feel free to message me off list.

--Andrew Bell