iPhone to Mac Sync Over Wi-Fi

Question

Hi All,

I am writing an iPhone application and would like to sync data over Wi-Fi between the iPhone and a complementary Mac application which I will also be writing (much like what is accomplished with Things and 1Password). To provide specific context, I need to be able to upload a CSV file to the iPhone application, have the ability to edit the data on the iPhone, and then re-download that file to the computer.

I am familiar enough with the mechanics of parsing and editing the CSV file once on the iPhone, but I am unsure how to approach the Wi-Fi sync between the iPhone and Mac. Obviously this is possible, since other applications have achieved the same thing, but do I need to setup some kind of server on the iPhone (which the Mac can talk to) or maybe a server in the Mac-side application (which the iPhone can talk to).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In my apps, I use CocoaHTTPServer to get local info into and off of the phone. You run the server and out-of-the-box, it indexes all the files in the documents directory.

To do what you want, you will need to edit the code to return some other kind of data format (xml probably is the easiest) the call this from inside your app to get that data. CocoaHTTPServer easily take POST right out of the box too, so you can post an xml response as well.

After thinking about it, CocoaHTTPServer is best run on the computer side behind the scenes. the iphone can then send info to the computer where handling the code should be easier and you have more options.

Answer 2

On top of this you will want to look into Bonjour, it will allow the computer and the iphone to discover each other without too much difficulty. (ie by advertising their info on the network)