IAP and Ads integration : Where to start?

Mells · January 2013

Hi,

as a beginner (still) I would like to ask you :

I want to learn how to integrate IAP in my ios apps, what is the best resource to start with it? Are there any sample project that demonstrate how to do it?
I want to integrate Ads (Charboost, Revmob), should I do it with BHWax?

( @ar2rsawseen Did you find your answer?)
Even searching on the forums didn't bring any solution.

As you see, as discussed here, it's not easy to know where to start.

Thank you

ar2rsawseen · January 2013

@Mells so are you interested in IOS platform or both?

Noup haven't found an answer and I am planning to do that myself when the need comes, but probably not so soon.

Mells · January 2013

@ar2rsawseen
I'm interested in both with a priority on iOS first.

IAP and Ads are 2 of the most common ways to monetize an app.
People (devs, or business owners) want to know if they can develop with Gideros, how much investment it will take, and if they can monetize their apps (that's the whole point, right?).

I wouldn't be working on releasing my apps *in a market* if it was not for the money.
I would be doing it for myself, for my device only, no constraint, no risk.

As a dev, it costs me money if I have to "find out" how to achieve this.
As a business owner, it costs me money if I have to pay a dev that will have to "find out" how to achieve it.

And I'm very much interested in :

not blindly investing in what could be a black hole (obviously I'm not talking about Gideros itself, but the fact that what are crucial features are not documented - in my case I have to evaluate how much money it will take to integrate IAP and Ads but this applies to many things for other devs)
make money from my apps

I believe that I'm far from being the only one in that case, I know some people who wanted to find an alternative to Corona Sdk, could have found a new home in Gideros, and left because they didn't know where to look.

I *strongly* insist that a guide, some resources, should be provided as soon as possible (understand : weeks at most) to cover the following :

How easy is it to learn Gideros (description of the benefits of working in lua, and Gideros)
How far can I extend Gideros (Plugins introduction)
How can I extend Gideros (Writing plugins and integration in Gideros, tutorial and link to external resources that cover the topic extensively)
How to integrate IAP/Ad networks (Demo project files)

To make an investment you need two informations : how much will it cost, and how much can you expect in return.
Currently none of those concerns are covered.

This is not only for me, but mostly in Gideros' interest.

How do you all build you strategies?
How do you monetize?

hgvyas123 · January 2013

wow so does your game is ready????????????????

for setting up iap in itunes store read this article

http://www.raywenderlich.com/2797/introduction-to-in-app-purchases

after setting up all things in site you might have to wait for few hours there is no specific time limits nor any way to know how much wait is necessary.

after that
use this code

http://giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/comment/12226

make sure that you are using same bundle identifier, you have signed contract for paid apps or in app purchase and you are not using jb device.

moopf · January 2013

@Mells -The information is around. There are the Apple guides on using IAP, there's the Gideros API documentation which does include the iad and storekit (IAP) modules. There are also lots of threads on the forum about IAP especially. Demo project files for these would be fairly useless as you have to setup so much on Apple's own iTunes Connect backend to get it to work and there, Apple's documentation is where you should go.

In terms of 'how much money it will take to integrate', it's time. Which, whilst obviously should be thought of in terms of a cost, is all part of the joy of development and the cost associated with that is directly linked to your experience as a developer.

Mells · January 2013

@hgvyas123 @moopf
thank you, that helps

@hgvyas123

wow so does your game is ready????????????????

I'm working on it, jumping between freelance projects and other obligations.

In terms of 'how much money it will take to integrate', it's time. Which, whilst obviously should be thought of in terms of a cost, is all part of the joy of development and the cost associated with that is directly linked to your experience as a developer.

I believe that's basically what I was saying : trying to understand which part of the cost is associated to my lack of experience and which is due to a lack of pointers : if I send here a dev that has no experience with Gideros and IAP, how long will it take him to get the work done compared to me for ex.

There are also lots of threads on the forum about IAP especially.

I have hard times to find the best answers on this forum.

I maintain my position which is that those topics should be covered somewhere (and your answers above would be already good enough for that, no need to replicate what's already available somewhere else).
I understand the importance of iTunes connect and how it would make the demo project less useful than I thought.
But you know a few lines to say how to make the integration, what to do in Xcode, how to "connect" it to your app, the basics that experienced dev don't think as important because it seems obvious to them.

moopf · January 2013

I believe that's basically what I was saying : trying to understand which part of the cost is associated to my lack of experience and which is due to a lack of pointers.

The way to think about it for development is that it is all associated with a lack of experience until you have actually done it for the first time. That's not me being flippant, it's absolutely the truth, especially when integrating anything with another service. Chalk it all up in the 'lack of experience' cost base.

Mells · January 2013

I get the idea.
But the time to learn how to do x is not the same if it involves a lot of self-work vs guidance and steps to follow.
About IAP there is no room for "my" way to do it. I don't need to experience it myself.
There is one way, that xxxx people have done already, it just needs to be documented so other people behind don't waste their time.

Without experience, I could jump into Gideros because there was the ultimate guide that members of the community kindly collaborated on. Without it, I would still be looking around.
So while I understand what you mean, my conclusion (?) is different.

moopf · January 2013

I get the idea.
But the time to learn how to do x is not the same if it involves a lot of self-work vs guidance and steps to follow.

Whilst I agree to a certain extent, here's something you might not like. All the steps in the world cannot always compensate for getting in, trying it and working it out yourself. If you don't do that you never really understand enough of what you're doing to solve a problem should it go wrong. Expect a world of pain when it comes to packaging up and submitting your app to Apple - despite all their documentation it's often a frustrating process (although it is much better now than when I first experienced it in 2008)

About IAP there is no room for "my" way to do it. I don't need to experience it myself.
There is one way, that xxxx people have done already, it just needs to be documented so other people behind don't waste their time.

Actually you couldn't be more wrong with IAP. What you do behind the scenes, how you deliver whatever it is you're having them purchase, or how you store or unlock that in the app, is all different based on how you want to implement it. The only basic that isn't is the simple mechanism for calling the store, launching a purchase and getting a response. Which is covered in the API. IAP can be used for a wide variety of things, some require more complex work outside the API than others.

Without experience, I could jump into Gideros because there was the ultimate guide that members of the community kindly collaborated on. Without it, I would still be looking around.
So while I understand what you mean, my conclusion (?) is different.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, about your conclusion being different. I guess I'm used to dealing with poor documentation or having to search to find the information I need. That's all part and parcel of development. In years gone by it would be language reference books, or books on software principles. These days it's Google and a quick internet search.

My only real problem with the documentation currently is that there are things that aren't documented in it, like Gamekit, which really should be. Yes there could be more examples as well to help others. There could be some investment in getting started guides as well for people new to the system but, as you said, there already is some of that in place with the Ultimate Guide. If money were available, I'm sure there would be people in the community willing to write such high quality guides.

But you know what, developing is hard. A lot of it involves banging your head against the keyboard until the principle of something sinks in

Mells · January 2013

Hey @moopf (I understand now a bit more about IAP).

Would you be kind enough to give me a pointer? My problem is that I don't know how to connect and integrate what I find about xCode and Gideros.

For example I want to integrate Revmob :
- Do I have to do everything in xCode like explained in the tutorial
- or instead of it use BHWax to access it in Gideros?
Where does it belong to?
I'm not asking for a long answer, just trying to grasp the principle.

My problem is how to connect things the right way, Gideros and xCode, IAP and Gideros (but I'll spend more time on the forums), ...
In fact I don't know from where Gideros would make things easier and what it is capable of (talking about those kind of integrations).

hgvyas123 · January 2013

@mells :-

you can use this

http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/1415/ad-plugin#Item_5

although it was written long time ago and since revmob guys are very fast in updating their sdk it might not work for revmob not sure

moopf · January 2013

@Mells - I'll be honest, I know nothing about integrating Revmob. Adverts is not something I ever see myself including in any of my apps so I've never looked at integrations in any detail, and each ad service will most likely require a different integration - that's the nature of third party integrations.

I also don't use BHWax as I'm interested in cross-platform these days, so wouldn't rely on such a large iOS-centric plugin.

Purely as an aside, and not knowing your business plan with your app, I think it would be a real shame to stick adds in something that promises to look so lovely and stylish. Just my humble opinion.

Mells · January 2013

@hgvyas123
Oh great, thank you for sharing

Since it was shared a few month ago, wouldn't BHWax make it more straightforward and easier to follow the updates of Revmob?

@moopf

Purely as an aside, and not knowing your business plan with your app, I think it would be a real shame to stick adds in something that promises to look so lovely and stylish. Just my humble opinion.

thank you for the kind words. This project is not related to my samurai game (that would not fit the project at all) - I'm experimenting on the side with different pricing strategies, with little apps that you won't see advertised here.
The goal is that those apps can fund some other projects that are more important to me.

hgvyas123 · January 2013

nup BHWax will not work for revmob.

moopf · January 2013

thank you for the kind words. This project is not related to my samurai game (that would not fit the project at all) - I'm experimenting on the side with different pricing strategies, with little apps that you won't see advertised here.
The goal is that those apps can fund some other projects that are more important to me.

Phew, that's a relief, although now I'd be remiss not to say that you have my interest piqued for the other apps you're doing

gorkem · January 2013

@mells would you be interested writing a blog post about your experiences with Gideros Studio, along with some of the questions you raised?

Mells · January 2013

@gorkem
I would do it with pleasure if I knew most of the answers (which is why I post on the forums with my "noob" questions

How easy is it to learn Gideros (description of the benefits of working in lua, and Gideros)
How far can I extend Gideros (Plugins introduction)
How can I extend Gideros (Writing plugins and integration in Gideros, tutorial and link to external resources that cover the topic extensively)
How to integrate IAP/Ad networks (Demo project files)

What kind of content would you be interested in?
Maybe we can find members who would be kind enough to share their experience and knowledge.

@moopf
me -> :-$

moopf · January 2013

@moopf
me -> :-$

huh?

Mells · January 2013

"I won't say a word"?
(oh, you think I was telling *you* to..? not at all! and thank you for your interest

Mells · October 2013

Going through the process again (how to setup IAP), has anything major changed in this area for the past 6 months?

For example the link that @hgvyas123 gave me (thanks!) works for iOS.
Has iOS7 brought anything different?
Is there a common wrapper for iOS/Android?

I would love to see a real implementation even if I understand now that everything has to do with the way you setup thing in your code.
That's funny how when you work on projects by yourself you often move from a position of an expert (at least better than average if you've spent time learning it) to a total beginner.

ar2rsawseen · October 2013

@Mells, yes there is a common wrapper in the Gideros Labs and example file with described workflow (http://giderosmobile.com/labs/iab), also more information here (http://docs.giderosmobile.com/interface/iab)

Mells · October 2013

@ar2rsawseen
great! Just wondering is it made on purpose that StoreKit is not supported and Ouya and Amazon were prioritized over it?
Maybe "common wrapper" means it's for Android stores only?
I thought it was a wrapper for all stores.

Edit : Ok I have followed the discussion, there is an alpha version.
//Added alpha code for iOS StoreKit//

Please Kill the Ouya

and bring stable iOS support.
(Also I've heard people use Google Play over Amazon anytime).

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