“Apple’s CloudKit framework for automating apps’ storage and retrieval of user data ‘in the cloud’ has learned a new trick,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider. “Developers can now read and write data in their app’s public database from a server-side process or script.”
“Last summer, the company added support for accessing CloudKit app data via JavaScript and Web Services, enabling developers to build websites that present the same data to users who sign in with their Apple ID,” Dilger reports. “Apple used this feature to develop a iCloud web client for Notes, presenting a web view of the same content users see when they open their Notes app on iOS 9 or a Mac. ”
Dilger reports, “Apple has now introduced the ability for developers to access their iCloud data via an automated server-to-server request, making it possible to build apps and web sites that not only store data, but can update, process or otherwise editor or modify user data stored on Apple’s servers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Enterprise developers, rejoice!
About time. Hot damn.
This is a giant deal
What can this do for me. Give me an example.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but this is a big deal because previously app data stored on Apple’s servers could only be accessed from the apps themselves. This allows the developers to access their data stored in Apple’s cloud from their own servers they have running elsewhere. This could be used to develop web interfaces or other web services that can interact with data stored on Apple’s servers.
Your device is no longer required to process the back end data transactions. This means a smaller app, more battery life, less strain on your data plan, and allows the developer to update the data in the “background”, without you having to be actively using the app.
Take Apple’s own news app as an example. Now when I open it it will be “searching for new stories” and I have to wait for that to happen. With this it would allow that to be done periodically on the server, without my device having to participate in the grunt work. Then when I open the app the new stories could be queued up and ready to go. (This is just an example to illustrate the point).
Surely if you can access the iCloud data from a server, you can access it from any Android, Windows, or Linux app.
Unless I am mistaken, this is freaking huge. Apple had announced that iCloud storage was cross-platform years ago at WWDC but then never followed through with any APIs. Has this finally happened?
Security Nightmare!
Depends… wait and see how it is implemented before you jump to a hasty conclusion. Still, it is a step worthy of concern and caution.
You need an API key from Apple to make a web request to icloud using the new sdk. If there is a problem Apple can revoke the key and access goes *poof*
Just as they can yank a bad app they can pull the plug on an offending party accessing icloud.