Hi all, I’ve been working on a music recommendation service that pairs with navidrome (think of it as a personal pandora).
I’ve also built an iOS app for it that I am trying to beta test. Even to use TestFlight, you still need to go through Apple’s approval process.
The reviewers are requiring access to a working server to test it, demo videos aren’t being accepted.
I really don’t want to have to set up an external host, as 1) authentication is a bit limited 2) you need a large music collection and I’m not comfortable opening that up on the internet.
Has anyone dealt with something similar?
Wait, how is this app going to function on release if you can’t stand up the basic resources for it to function for them to test it? Every user has to self host their own?
Which brings up another issue: if there isn’t an easy way for you to secure the server as the developer, is it fair for you to just dump all that on your end users?
Every user has to self host their own?
Did… Did you see what community you’re in?
Yes, but it still deserves the question to be asked explicitly. I don’t think most iPhone users looking for a music reccomendation app would assume they’d need to selfhost in order to use an app.
And again, if as the dev he’s not prepared to set up his own server for use to pass basic testing, it begs the question of what exactly he’s expecting out of his end users and if it’s truly a reasonable ask even if they’re prepared to self host
It’s a side car service for navidrome so you already need to have navidrome (or other subsonic compatible server) running.
Yes, iOS app approval is a pain in the ass (this is one of the reasons there is so much fuss about app store policies and anti-competitive practices). They do test the app and if it has to connect to a server, they will ask you to provide such for them to test against.
Setup a virtual host that you only turn on when they need to approve a new version. Give it some royalty free music to serve.
This costs me not just time, but money. I know it isn’t much but is really a big pain. The biggest issue is that the app and recommendation algorithm isn’t going to be useful with 20 songs. You really need 1000s of songs to actually use the app…
The biggest issue is that the app and recommendation algorithm isn’t going to be useful with 20 songs.
They are not testing for usefulness.
If your basic logic runs with 5 songs, then give them 5, not 20.
You don’t need to give them a premier experience, you aren’t trying to sell them on the features of your app. It just needs to function.
Load in those 20 royalty free songs and let the algorithm suck at picking the next of the 20.
I don’t want to be the asshole but 3 days of a super underpowered VM (it can be a oracle free tier for example) is a drop in the ocean compared to the $100/year/perpetuity that apple wants from devs
Main problem might be the content, as they might think that it’s going to be used for piracy
Maybe try to spin it as “Kevin macleod recommendation engine” by filling it with this content https://archive.org/details/incompetech-all-the-music-2020/page/n2/mode/1up
For the money angle, something like a Digital Ocean droplet would be appropriate here. They are $4/mo and you don’t even need to run the thing all the time, just when you need an app version approved.
Oracle Cloud offers 4 ARM cores, 24GB RAM and 200GB storage in their free tier (IIRC you can even divide that into 4 separate VMs). Very useful for cheap testing, if your code/server supports ARM.
Even then, a small underpowered x64 VM for testing purposes is often free on all hyperscalers. Not the fastest server, but depending on the use case?
