How to move data between free & paid apps?

Solar2D Android
#1

Hi,

I want to distribute my game in Samsung AppStore and since corona pro does not allow me to use their IAP, I will have to distribute free & paid versions.

I’ve got a problem with save games. I want user to be able to restore the saves from free version once they upgrade.

I’ve tried accessing the directories of the other version, but I don’t have permission to do it.

I’ve tried looking for a ‘standard’ way to do it, but I have found nothing I could do in Corona.

Is there a “standard” place I could write to in the free app and then read it in the paid app?

The file I have to read/write is about 6-8MB, so it’s not few bytes to store somewhere. Also I don’t want to send it over the network to my server and then send it back…

Thanks,

Krystian

#2

The reason you’ve not found a standard way is that neither Apple or Android allows you to read/write another apps sandbox.  This is for security reasons.

There are two options.  1.  Store the files “in the cloud”. i.e. save them to your web server or some service like parse.com.  Then the new paid app can then access the data which you don’t want to do.

2.  For small bits of data you could have the free version open the paid version and use URL scheme’s and the launchArgs to pass small amounts of data between the two…  Given  your data size, this may not be practical.

#3

Hi Rob,

thanks for replying.

In native Android development you use ContentProvider to “talk” between apps… of course there’s no way to do that in Corona.

I guess I’ll just have to dump the file somewhere on the device where both apps can access and then grab it in the paid app. If user won’t have enough space then… well… they won’t be able to do it.

#4

The reason you’ve not found a standard way is that neither Apple or Android allows you to read/write another apps sandbox.  This is for security reasons.

There are two options.  1.  Store the files “in the cloud”. i.e. save them to your web server or some service like parse.com.  Then the new paid app can then access the data which you don’t want to do.

2.  For small bits of data you could have the free version open the paid version and use URL scheme’s and the launchArgs to pass small amounts of data between the two…  Given  your data size, this may not be practical.

#5

Hi Rob,

thanks for replying.

In native Android development you use ContentProvider to “talk” between apps… of course there’s no way to do that in Corona.

I guess I’ll just have to dump the file somewhere on the device where both apps can access and then grab it in the paid app. If user won’t have enough space then… well… they won’t be able to do it.