With regards to security. By setting up a method to access your application via the network means you have opened a potential security hole on the device. A port is opened and listening which means different types of attacks can take place given this port being opened. HTTPS doesn't secure a potential buffer overflow attack on your open port. In addition your back-end server can be attacked as well with people gaining access to data you have collected. Mobile devices are not well known for setting up firewalls and these are reactive defenses at best.
Switchboard is a great idea and again it is great that you have opened sourced the code.
With regards to manipulating the code. I guess I assumed incorrectly, I thought you used Switch board to have the ability to change code paths within your applications? I.E. use new source that has changed, or old source which has been tested and is working.
Internet access has drastically changed the retention of my applications. Currently 700K downloads with a 50% retention. I would say I could bump this retention up if my apps didn't have internet access when they really do not need it. (Currently ad supported apps).
I completely understand the two people dilemma. I am bootstrapping with only myself doing everything. I still need to do a huge make over on my pathetic web site, and I haven't started on any of my real scalable/growth ideas yet.
Nice of you to open source it. I haven't looked over your code, but some thoughts come to mind.
Security - Make sure this doesn't lead to a back door into people's devices. Or make sure someone doesn't utilize this to make your product undesirable.
User opt in - Give users the ability to opt in or not. Tracking information might be useful, but some people do not like it.
Rollback is an important feature. User control of this feature with notification is a bonus. I.E. notify the user an error occurred with the option to rollback to a release that was stable for them. Currently we provide a link to all past versions which they can download and install over the current version if there is an issue. Not the best solution, but it has worked for us.
Internet access for applications that do not need it. This is tricky, so providing another service or plugin might be the way to go.
Automation - Manually keeping track of problems and resetting or rollback features can be time consuming. An automated approach with user opt in would be great as well. Automated analytic info on top of it would be even better.
With regards to security. By setting up a method to access your application via the network means you have opened a potential security hole on the device. A port is opened and listening which means different types of attacks can take place given this port being opened. HTTPS doesn't secure a potential buffer overflow attack on your open port. In addition your back-end server can be attacked as well with people gaining access to data you have collected. Mobile devices are not well known for setting up firewalls and these are reactive defenses at best.
Switchboard is a great idea and again it is great that you have opened sourced the code.
With regards to manipulating the code. I guess I assumed incorrectly, I thought you used Switch board to have the ability to change code paths within your applications? I.E. use new source that has changed, or old source which has been tested and is working.
Internet access has drastically changed the retention of my applications. Currently 700K downloads with a 50% retention. I would say I could bump this retention up if my apps didn't have internet access when they really do not need it. (Currently ad supported apps).
I completely understand the two people dilemma. I am bootstrapping with only myself doing everything. I still need to do a huge make over on my pathetic web site, and I haven't started on any of my real scalable/growth ideas yet.
And again, thanks for sharing this... Cheers...