Beta 2 of Beeblex’s Objective-C SDK available
We’re happy to announce the release of Beta 2 of the Beeblex Objective-C SDK.
The new release comes with a long list of improvements, but here are the highlights:
- We have removed all dependencies on OpenSSL, which was causing all sorts of trouble when dealing with other libraries and on older versions of iOS. As a side bonus, the size of the library has gone down considerably, which is never a bad thing.
- We have simplified the verification process, removing a number of superfluous properties.
- We have added an extra check for time discrepancies between the device and the server. This should only be a concern on older devices and older versions of iOS.
- Thanks in no small part to the contributions of Stephane Peter (oh, how we love open source!), the SDK now compiles and runs under iOS 4. While we do not officially support any versions prior to iOS 5.0, you now do have the option of supporting customers on older releases.
- And, of course, we have made tons of performance improvements and addressed several issues.
This will be our last beta before the service goes officially into production. Let us know if you find any bugs or feel that some features are missing!
A note on source code availability
A number of folks have written today to express concern that the source code of our SDK is available publicly, worried that it might somehow make our software less secure.
I’ve worked with software for nearly two decades, and a constant in my life as a developer has been that the quality of any piece of code is directly proportional to the square of the number of eyes laid upon it.
Thus, the reason why we have released the SDK as an open-source project is that we believe that’s going to make it a better product in the long run. The security system implemented by Beeblex should be safe because it is well reasoned and well written, and not because its mechanisms are hidden from prying eyes.
Ideally, if we have done our work well, one should be able to fully understand how Beeblex works and still be unable to break it. And, if there is some sort of security flaw, by opening our code to the general public we also increase the chance that someone smarter than us will notice it, let us know, and give us a chance to fix it.
The same concept applies to our API entry point, which some eagle-eyed users have noticed allows open index listing. This is done on purpose: Eventually, we hope that more folks will start using our API directly and come up with great products based on it that we can’t even imagine. In the immediate, it’s worth noting that the full URL to the entry point is listed in the SDK, which is publicly available anyway; therefore, obfuscating it wouldn’t serve much of a purpose.
Marco
Launch day!
Beeblex launches officially today, which means that, by the time you see this post, the service should be fully available (although still in beta).
For the past ten years, we’ve been producing and selling developer knowledge products, including our flagship magazine, books, conferences, and training.
We also worked on a number of iOS projects, and Beeblex brings our two passions—the Web and Apple’s mobile operating system—together in a single, neat package.
We hope you’ll like what we’ve worked on, and we look forward to hearing your comments about them.
