search

IMAmuseum / tap-ios

Native iOS (iPhone & iPod) tour application for the TAP mobile application software platform. Learn more about the project at TAPintoMuseums.org.
http://tapintomuseums.org
GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0
13 stars 5 forks source link

Difference between endpoint method or bundles #3

Closed hannolans closed 12 years ago

hannolans commented 12 years ago

As in the manual mentioned, TAP iOS supports now two methods for including your tour, via endpoint or bundles. An endpoint is an external URL, a bundle is a file package. What are the differences of both methods? Are the media files (audio/video) inside a bundle, and if you use an endpoint, will they stay external? Or is the idea in both cases the media files are imported in the app? If you use an endpoint, will it re-read tourML each time the app starts? So, will it act as an automatic update? That will be cool.

dlferro commented 12 years ago

The assets and TourML document are all included within the bundle. Using an endpoint will essentially load the TourML document and save it in the application. Whenever media is requested for a particular stop, the app will download the asset and store it within the apps local storage. So the big difference between the two is the lack of a physical TourML document and the assets initially. The endpoint also allows you to make changes on the backend and update the app. For instance, a user has already started the app and downloaded the TourML/assets. The next time a user starts the app, the app will check the TourML on the endpoint to see if there has been an update. If it determines there is, it will clear the local storage data for that tour and begin lazy loading the new assets again.

hannolans commented 12 years ago

The endpoint method sounds really interesting. I tested it and it seems to work! Will do some further testing.