iOS7 fails to Launch App-Store app review page

Solar2D iOS
#1

Has anybody been able to successfully launch their app’s app store review page from within iOS7?

I reported this to Apple way back starting with beta 1 (radar 14373701), and it got some attention as they’ve asked me to test after every new beta, but it’s never been fixed. It’s still an issue even with the latest beta.

This has nothing to do with Corona SDK as my Xcode apps also have this problem.

I use this link format (replace <my-app-id> with a valid app id):

http:// itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?id=<my-app-id>&pageNumber=0&sortOrdering=2&type=Purple+Software&mt=8

It works perfectly up to and including iOS6, but iOS7 fails to load the page.

It fails even if you try to open the link in Safari on iOS7.

Unless it’s fixed, any buttons/menu-items from within our apps that launch the App-Store review page will not work in iOS7…

#2

Has anybody tested this with iOS7?

In the iOS7 GM build, it’s still not possible to open the App store review page from within your app.

#3

Even with the official iOS7 release, none of my apps (Corona or Xcode) will launch the “review page” in the App Store app.

When tapping on the “review” button from within the app, it just launches the App Store app and displays a white blank page.

#4

I’m seeing the same issue (I was using a similar approach as your first post to get directly to the review page).

The best solution/workaround I’ve found so far is to use (replace the X’s with your app store ID):

[lua]

system.openURL(“itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/idXXXXXXXXX”)

[/lua]

This goes directly into the App Store (no redirects through Safari) and successfully opens the app store page for your app on both iOS 6 and iOS 7.  It doesn’t go straight to the review page, unfortunately, but it’s better than nothing.

The native.showPopup(“rateApp”, options) API also does seem to work and do the same thing.

I haven’t found a way to get to directly to the review page itself on iOS 7.

  • Andrew
#5

I just tested an app that I updated about a month ago and the Rate and App feature works just fine.

#6

Agreed, native.showPopup(“rateApp”) is working fine in iOS 7.  It opens the app’s main page in the App Store.

ingemar and I had been trying to do something clever, where we used a special URL to open not just the app’s main page in the App Store, but the Write a Review page.  It saves the user a tap or two and helps improve conversion.  But unfortunately, that trick doesn’t seem to work anymore in iOS 7.

  • Andrew
#7

Thanks Andrew for reminding me of “itms-apps:”! I had ditched it (and forgotten about it) since it didn’t open the review page directly.

As for the other approach, even though a “http:” request was used, a Safari window was never launched in-between the call to the AppStore which made this approach very smooth. I used this in my Xcode apps as well as my Corona apps.

At least we can now use the “itms-apps:” approach (or Corona’s showPopup(“rateApp”)), even though the user will have to manually tap through to the app review tab…

#8

Has anybody tested this with iOS7?

In the iOS7 GM build, it’s still not possible to open the App store review page from within your app.

#9

Even with the official iOS7 release, none of my apps (Corona or Xcode) will launch the “review page” in the App Store app.

When tapping on the “review” button from within the app, it just launches the App Store app and displays a white blank page.

#10

I’m seeing the same issue (I was using a similar approach as your first post to get directly to the review page).

The best solution/workaround I’ve found so far is to use (replace the X’s with your app store ID):

[lua]

system.openURL(“itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/idXXXXXXXXX”)

[/lua]

This goes directly into the App Store (no redirects through Safari) and successfully opens the app store page for your app on both iOS 6 and iOS 7.  It doesn’t go straight to the review page, unfortunately, but it’s better than nothing.

The native.showPopup(“rateApp”, options) API also does seem to work and do the same thing.

I haven’t found a way to get to directly to the review page itself on iOS 7.

  • Andrew
#11

I just tested an app that I updated about a month ago and the Rate and App feature works just fine.

#12

Agreed, native.showPopup(“rateApp”) is working fine in iOS 7.  It opens the app’s main page in the App Store.

ingemar and I had been trying to do something clever, where we used a special URL to open not just the app’s main page in the App Store, but the Write a Review page.  It saves the user a tap or two and helps improve conversion.  But unfortunately, that trick doesn’t seem to work anymore in iOS 7.

  • Andrew
#13

Thanks Andrew for reminding me of “itms-apps:”! I had ditched it (and forgotten about it) since it didn’t open the review page directly.

As for the other approach, even though a “http:” request was used, a Safari window was never launched in-between the call to the AppStore which made this approach very smooth. I used this in my Xcode apps as well as my Corona apps.

At least we can now use the “itms-apps:” approach (or Corona’s showPopup(“rateApp”)), even though the user will have to manually tap through to the app review tab…

#14

Hey guys!

I just got confirmation from Apple that this issue has been fixed in iOS 7.1.

You can now open the review page directly instead of just the main page  :).

I’ve confirmed that it works on an iPod Touch 5th gen. updated to iOS 7.1

#15

Hey guys!

I just got confirmation from Apple that this issue has been fixed in iOS 7.1.

You can now open the review page directly instead of just the main page  :).

I’ve confirmed that it works on an iPod Touch 5th gen. updated to iOS 7.1

#16

@Ingemar, Thanks for this info, it was driving me nuts. My ‘review rate’ dropped drastically since the app opens the main page instead of the review page.

@Corona Staff, once this rolls out, will we need to rebuild and resubmit our apps for the change to take effect in existing apps, if using the native.showPopup(‘rateApp’)?

#17

We don’t have much more context than what has been posted here, but if they are updating the App Store app (which is what this uses), then our apps should not need to be resubmitted.   But then they may change something that would cause us to have to change something in which case an update might be needed.

We won’t know for certain, until 7.1 comes out, but there is a good chance that you wont need to resubmit.

Rob

#18

In order for this to work, showPopup(“rateApp”) needs to be modified internally to bypass the app’s details page.

The current behavior only goes to the app’s details page. The user will then have to navigate to the review page to write a review, and this negatively affects the number of reviews given.

Below is a quote from the docs and the reason for the current behavior is that other app stores do not allow bypassing the app’s details page. This has never made any sense to me as the app knows which store it’s connecting to and can act accordingly.

Passing in “rateApp” will display the “Write Review” popup window from the iTunes App Store for iOS 5 and older iOS versions. This bypasses the app details on iTunes so that the end-user can easily rate the app. On iOS 6 or any other app store, the app’s details popup window will be displayed instead , just like how it is done when passing in “appStore” to this function. This is because the other app stores do not support bypassing the app details view.

It’s always been possible to bypass the app’s details page on iOS until a regression bug was introduced in iOS 7.0, and now with iOS 7.1 it’s possible again.

#19

@Ingemar, Thanks for the details.

So, if i understand correctly, there are 2 reasons currently why the native.showPopup(‘rateApp’) doesn’t take the user to the review page:

  1. Apple ios 7 bug that will be fixed in ios 7.1

  2. Corona’s ‘rateApp’ that sends to the info page instead of the actual review page

@Rob, is this something that the staff has under the radar or should we use  – http:// itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?id=<my-app-id>&pageNumber=0&sortOrdering=2&type=Purple+Software&mt=8 – for now?

It doesn’t make sense to use the native.showPopup(‘rateApp’) if it doesn’t actually take you to the review page when another solution exists. In my experience, the fact to send the users to the info page instead of the review page converts WAY less into actual reviews.

#20

I’ve been thinking about this some more and at the moment I’ve become a bit indecisive. 

Currently I use Corona’s “rateApp” to get around the iOS 7.0 issue, but even though Apple has fixed the http-link issue in iOS 7.1, the problem is that anybody who’s still on iOS 7.0 will only get a blank white page when using the http-link.

It could be possible to check for the iOS version and then decide what to do programmatically, but I don’t think that’s possible unless you have an Enterprise account.

Also the http-link isn’t really an official way of linking to the App Store, so I’m not sure how CoronaLabs will want to handle it.