Coders must be careful to avoid tripping flags

A new automatic screening technique Apple is using for the App Store appears to be backfiring, claims developer Rogue Sheep. The screening is believed to be aimed at catching unauthorized APIs, blocked under Apple's submission rules. A number of the apps trapped so far are allegedly ones using Three20, an Objective-C library. Rogue Sheep's Postage has in the past relied on some Three20 code, and so private API calls were removed from the software before submitting a recent update.

The update was nevertheless rejected because of a supposed private API call, which Rogue Sheep claims it "did not explicity use" anywhere. Apple's screening is instead thought to have been alerted by a mere reference to the API call in Three20, one not actually employed in Postage. Rogue Sheep thus cautions other developers to avoid using category names similar to those for private APIs. The company says it would also like Apple to fix its use of the screening tool, and possibly release it, giving people the chance to perform tests before submissions.

by MacNN Staff