Apple Newsstand. v 1.2 1/22

Transcription

1 Apple Newsstand v 1.2 1/22

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents What is Apple Newsstand? How do I make a Newsstand publication? How do I get my AppStore App into Newsstand? Notes for Submitting Newsstand Apps close to the release of ios 5. What s new? What will happen to my old issues? (New assets in Publish?) Newsstand Badging Background download Appendix 1: Visual walkthrough 2/22

3 What is Apple Newsstand? Newsstand is a new feature that will be available to anyone who upgrades their ipad to ios5. We expect ios5 to be rolled out at the end of September, but the exact release date has not yet been set. We will alert you when we know an exact date. Newsstand will provide a single place for all periodicals you subscribe to, as well as a store directly accessible through the Newsstand app that lets users shop for periodicals offering a subscription option. Think of it like ibooks for magazines and newspapers. We think Newsstand will be a huge boom to publishers, providing a much easier way for customers to find your apps. In order to take advantage of the Apple Newsstand, you need to build and submit an update to your app, following the instructions below. Once you ve upgraded, your app will still be accessible through the regular itunes store, as well as through ipads new Newsstand. Newsstand optimized apps offer a few advantages over regular apps, beyond their presence in the Newsstand store: instead of a little square icon, users will see the latest cover, and new issues will be automatically downloaded to suscribers devices. Read more about Newsstand here: ios5/features.html#newsstand Read more in depth information: _index.html How do I make a Newsstand publication? It consists of three steps. Want a full visual walk through? Check out Appendix 1: Walk through. 1. Go into Publish publish.magplus.com and a. Go into the tab Apps, go into Build Options and check the Enable Newsstand. b. Go into the tab Apps, go into Newsstand icon and upload the new 3/22

4 required asset ( Newsstand icon image file ). c. Go into the tab Apps, go into Build options. Check Newsstand and make sure you have not disabled the store (even though you only publish free issues, this is because the subscription option will be shown in the store.) d. Go into the most current and all new issues moving forward and upload the Newsstand image file asset. These images need to have the longest side at least 716 px, the other side can be between 358 px and 1432 px. So landscape, square or portrait is allowed. e. Verify or upload the push notification certificate. f. Click Generate App Build 2. Go into itunes Connect a. Set up your app for Newsstand b. Select the new Newsstand option and enable it c. Input needed information and assets d. Set up a subscription if you don t have one already (to be able to create in-app purchases such as subscriptions (even free) you will have to sign the ios Paid Applications contract found under Contracts, tax and banking in itunes Connect). e. Add one issue manually f. Use the Atom RSS-feed for new issues, and enter the URL you get from Publish (found under Admin, General Settings, Atom Feed) 3. Submit the new app to Apple via your itunes Connect account as an update, suggested version number 2.6. How do I get my AppStore App into Newsstand? Just follow the description above, as soon as your publication has been approved, it is moved from the regular AppStore to the Newsstand section as well as into the Newsstand folder on the device. This requires the end user/media consumer to have ios5, otherwise the change will have no effect (the app still being in AppStore). If the user has not upgraded their device to ios5, their app will remain on their desktop and they will not see the Newsstand icon. If they go to update their app, they will get a message saying they need to upgrade their ipad to ios5 to get this upgrade. All previous issues and subscriptions will continue to work whether the user upgrades or 4/22

5 not. Notes for Submitting Newsstand Apps close to the release of ios 5. Confidentially, App Review is actively reviewing ios 5 apps, but are stashing the ones that support specific features (such as Newsstand) in a holding area (once approved) until ios 5 is made available to the public. For this reason, when ready to submit your Newsstand titles, you'll have to submit your inapp purchases (ie, single issues or subscriptions) with the binary for ios 5 and mark the in-app purchases as not cleared for sale. It's very important that you submit them together and that you mark the in-app purchases as not cleared for sale. This gives you the ability to control when the in-app purchases show up in the app. You'll need to manually clear these for sale as soon as Apple have released the corresponding ios 5 binary (the day Apple go live to the public). If you submit your ios 5 binary and forget to indicate "NO" for the cleared for sale flag, the in-app purchases will go live as soon as the app moves into our "approved but holding" state. This is definitely not what you want to happen. So, the process: 1.] Set-up ios 5 version of your app in itunes Connect 2.] Set-up your ios 5 in-app purchases for your app in itunes Connect 3.] Choose to submit your in-app purchases WITH your binary note: see instructions in the recently updated itunes Connect Developer Guide here: 4.] For each in-app purchase, edit the Pricing and Availability section and click "No" next to "Cleared for Sale". Then click Save. On the day of launch (the day Apple release all ios 5 binaries) you will need to perform Step 4 (above) in itunes Connect, changing the flag from "NO" to "YES" and then Save. This will 5/22

6 ensure the in-app purchases to start populating within the ios 5 version of the app. What s new? What will happen to my old issues? (New assets in Publish?) Only the most recent issue will appear in the Newsstand view. Once the user opens the app, it will function exactly as it does now, with their issues available in the Issues list. You can upload a dedicated cover image for the latest issue, but if you don't, it will simply grab the thumbnail from the first vertical in the MIB. Newsstand Badging The newsstand app will show a numbered badge when a new issue has been automatically downloaded to the users device but they ve not yet opened that issue. This will also cause a "new" sash to appear over the cover image in Newsstand; it will be cleared after the first time the app is used. These are default Apple graphics and cannot be customized. Background download For subscribers, their Newsstand app will automatically download new issues to their device in the background within an couple of hours of the new issue being published in Publish. You may still send a push notification to let them know the issue is there. News in itunes Connect There are a few new features in itunes Connect. 1. In itunes Connect, go into Manage your Apps 2. Click on your App you want to manage 6/22

7 3. Click on the blue new Newsstand button 4. To avoid setting up you issues manually you can enter your Newsstand Atom feed at the bottom of this page. The link to your feed can be found by going into Publish and navigating to Admin and then General Settings. The feed link is listed under Newsstand Atom Feed URL. If you have any questions regarding the Newsstand upgrade, please contact us at 7/22

8 Appendix 1: Visual walkthrough Click the new Newsstand option that has been enabled at your right Confirm this by pressing Enable. 8/22

9 Now you will get the option to set up a subcategory by scrolling through the options. You must also Choose file and upload a default cover art. After you are done, press Save. Hover your mouse over the question mark to learn what specifications are required. 9/22

10 Now, let s connect Publish to itunesconnect. Press Newsstand. Here, click the Add Issue, Apple requires you to add one for approval. 10/22

11 Here, add Published Date as the date you want your magazine to earliest appear in Newsstand. You can enter the current date. End date optional. As the Issue ID, please enter the GUID you can find in the Production Tool. Also fill in the remaining details. This whole step is temporary for approval so this issue can be removed after approval.. Now, scroll down to Atom Feed. 11/22

12 Please navigate to Publish and go to Admin, General Settings and the Atom Feed URL Now you might be done and get to jump to the end of this document (the Publish part), but if it says: Prepare for Upload, you might not have any subscription ready. Let s set one up now, click Manage InAppPurchases. Remember that Apple must approve any in-app purchases, which can take up to a week. Create a Auto Renewable Subscription Let s press Manage InApp Purchases 12/22

13 Create New (button at top left) inapp Purchase. Scroll down to Auto-Renewable Subscription and press Select 13/22

14 This is the InApp Purchase screen for subscriptions. Add a reference name, this is the name that will come up in itunes Sales Reports and is for your eyes only. Then press Add Language. Here you can enter descriptions and text. If your language isn t listed, choose UK English. These texts will not show up in the Mag+ app, but in itunes if a user chooses to cancel their subscription that way. Click Save and then Add Duration. 14/22

15 Here you can select duration, a product ID (Save this, since you will have to enter it in Publish). The Marketing Opt-in Incentive, if chosen, will show up only if users choose No when asked if they want Apple to share their name, and zip code with the publisher (that query is automatic from Apple and cannot be changed); in that case, a box will popup to offer them a subscription extension if they change their mind and agree to sharing. Check Cleared for Sale if you want the subscription to go on sale as soon as it is approved. Choose No if you want to activate the subscription later. Choose price Tier (it is possible to select Free). 15/22

16 Upload a screenshot in any of the allowed sizes. A Magazine cover will do fine. Here we uploaded a screenshot and can now press Save. 16/22

17 If you haven t set up a Privacy Policy, you will be asked that now. Enter a correct URL since it will be referenced to on Apples receipts. Perfect, now it looks like this. Click done. 17/22

18 Now it still should say, waiting for download. Press View details Look for this area and click Edit Here, click the subscriptions you want or just press Select All and click Save. These are the purchases Apple are going to approve for you to enter and use in your Mag+ Application. 18/22

19 Perfect, now we have the Ready to Upload Binary button at our bottom right. Press it. Here you might get a question about cryptography, press No and press Save. If you have XCode, you have Application Loader, start that now. Otherwise start your download of XCode (several GB). In the mean time, let s go into 19/22

20 We are going to Enable Newsstand, upload some new assets and rebuild the app. If you haven t set up your auto renewable subscription before or added a push certificate, please review the Mag+ Publish guide. Both these are needed for Newsstand. Click Apps Click Build Options 20/22

21 Scroll down and Enable Newsstand by checking the box. Make sure the Disable Push Notification Dialog is empty. Press Save Notice the two Newsstand icon and Newsstand Push Notification, both needs to be completed. Please add needed assets, if you have any problems with the Apple Push Certificate, please review the Mag+ Publish manual. 21/22

22 When all are set to Complete press build. Wait for the build to finish, and download it. Submit your App as normal (using the Application Loader) and review the Mag+ Publish manual for further assistance. 22/22