Appcenter distribute in-app updates not working in Xamarin.iOS

Question

I am trying to distribute an internal iOS app (built using Xamarin.iOS) using Visual Studio AppCenter, but can't seem to get in-app updates to work.

when I download and install the app (through the email link) the browser never opens to register for in-app updates, and when I distribute a new release to that group, the app does not offer an update.

I've followed the instructions here.

I've added the info.plist entries and started the appcenter distribute module. Analytics + Crash reporting are working OK so the AppCenter ID is fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

@lavanya there could be a lot of different reasons as to why they are not working. As you can see in the Notes here and here,

1. Did your testers download the app from the default safari browser?

2. Are cookies enabled for Safari in their settings?

3. Is your app not available in the App Store yet?

Could you please provide more details? Because if you answered No to any of those questions, you won't be able to use MS App Center's In App Updates on iOS

Answer 2

If you want to create your own VersionChecker, in the override of the ViewDidLoad of the first view controller, you can call the CheckVersion() function

public override void ViewDidLoad()
{        
    base.ViewDidLoad();
    CheckVersion();
    OtherCode();
}

And then in the CheckVersion function you could do something like this

        public async void CheckVersion()
        {
            var newVersionAsString = new VersionObject();
            string responseContent = string.Empty;

            using (HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient())
            {
                try
                {
                    var versionCheckUri = "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/saamerm/af01aec0187d38a22fdd9b4378afc9c3/raw/680332a9a45eb015bc17fbf817fbac537348e3d4/Version.json"
                    using (HttpResponseMessage httpResponse = await httpClient.GetAsync(versionCheckUri))
                    {
                        if (httpResponse.StatusCode == System.Net.HttpStatusCode.OK)
                        {
                            responseContent = await httpResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                            newVersionAsString = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<VersionObject>(responseContent);
                        }
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception)
                {
                }
            }

            var currentVersion = new Version(NSBundle.MainBundle.InfoDictionary["CFBundleShortVersionString"].ToString());

            if (currentVersion != null && !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(newVersionAsString) && (new Version(newVersionAsString.latestVersion)) > currentVersion)
            {
                string AppleStoreAppUrl = "itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pages/{YOURAPPURL}?mt=8";
                var alert = new AlertView { ViewController = this, Title = "Update Required", Message = "To continue using this mobile app, please install the latest version." };
                alert.AddAction("Update Now", ActionStyle.Cancel, (action) => { UIApplication.SharedApplication.OpenUrl(new NSUrl(AppleStoreAppUrl)); this.Dispose(); }).Show();
            }

where VersionObject we got from jsonutils.com

 public class VersionObject
    {
        public string latestVersion { get; set; }
    }

Please test this before using it, I can see an instance where it may not work