Understanding the full iOS app creation process

[JoshV]

Greetings,

I'm new to iOS development and wanted to layout a scenario to see if I'm fully understanding the deployment process or not. 

If I simply wanted to create an iOS app that would alert users when they were within a mile of any gas station and I had the gas stations as a point feature class. 

1) Do I assume I have to push out a MapService (gas station buffers) from ArcGIS Server or is it possible to deploy the app with static offline gas stations tied to the GPS current location in order to determine if the user has crossed the 1 mile buffers?

2) Can I simply create this type of app by just using a Mac with Mountain Lion, xCode, ArcGIS Runtime SDK for iOS.  Anything else needed?

3) Would I just register for Basic Licensing and use the Client ID within my application or would I have to additionally pay for an ArcGIS Server license in order to push out a mapservice for the gas stations? (similiar to question 1)

I'm just trying to get a full understanding if ArcGIS Server is really needed in this type of app, licensing, building and deploying it, etc.  Many thanks.

[SuganyaBaskaran1 · Accepted solution]

There are a few options for the scenario you mention:

For your 1st question about alerting user when they enter or exit an area (geometry), you may check out the GeoTrigger SDK . The guide also explains how to create push notifications to alert users. Geotrigger uses a fraction of ArcGIS Online credit for every trigger. More details on the pricing available in the FAQ here

When you have your own ArcGIS server, you can publish services and access them using their REST end point in your applications. If you do not want to own a ArcGIS server, you may publish hosted services using your ArcGIS Online account from desktop. Your app can then access this online hosted service. For this, your account needs to be part of an ArcGIS online organization. Here???s more information on hosted services and arcgis online organizations

If you want to use offline geo database in your app instead, here is how you create it from ArcMap. It is read-only which may suit your current requirement. Using this option, you can then track the user???s location and handle push notifications yourself.

To get started with ArcGIS SDK for iOS, you can download it here. The page also has links to various guides, API reference and lot of samples.

To answer your 2nd question, you would in addition need to be a member of Apple???s developer program in order to deploy your app, or test it in a device. Without this account, you can still test the app on the simulator that comes with Xcode. Apple's developer library also has guides to get started with iOS development.

Hope this is helpful, please let us know if you have any other questions.

[JoshV]

Thanks Suganya,

So based on your "offline" answer, it sounds like I could possibly create an app like this without ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS online right?  If I just had the offline gas station buffers (using the arcgis runtime sdk) and used a method to determine of the users current location intersected the buffers, then I could pop up an alert to the user, etc.  Yes, I would also definitely need to join apple developers group to publish any app properly.  If I'm incorrect about anything I just stated above, please let me know.

Many thanks.

[SuganyaBaskaran1]

Yes, you can create the app using offline datasets. The database size may affect the size of your app when deployed. Or you can share the database separately with users and they can add it to the app through iTunes File Sharing.