我可以将iCloud用作后端服务器和iOS App吗？

Question

I am creating an iPhone App. I have some tables to save users information. Do, I need to have a back end web server to store database or I can use iCloud storage without need to web server? CoreData can be used to save data in iOS devices but there need to be some remote db too, isn't it? Can that remote db be iCloud Storage.

Any tips and information is highly appreciated.

Regards

Answer 1

Cullen SUN's answer was right as it was answered 2 years ago.

But now you can use icloud as back end server for iOS app using latest 'Cloud Kit Framework' introduced in iOS 8.

Best tutorial I have found is from http://www.raywenderlich.com/83116/beginning-cloudkit-tutorial

Official Documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/CloudKit/Reference/CloudKit_Framework_Reference/

Answer 2

use iCloud as a web server is impossible.

Short answer: Whose iCloud account are you going to use? Yourself? User's? Apples never gives any API for an IN-App iCloud Account login, and it can only be set in Device's Setting.

Answer 3

It depends on what kind of app and data access you want to enable.

To start, I found this overview helpful:

http://gravityjack.com/ios-5-for-developers-what-you-need-to-know

The iCloud storage APIs let your application write user documents and data to a central location and access those items from all of a user's computers and iOS devices.

The key here is a user (an account) access to their documents and key/value storage data. So, the key scenario is all about enabling an account to share data amongst all of the devices bound to that account.

A custom cloud web server/service approach would enable multi-user/account access to a share application/data set. It's about more than synchronizing a single account, it's about creating an application where multiple folks share data. If you just need sync of a single accounts document/key/value data, then let iCloud do the heavy lifting. If you need a custom app with multi-user access to shared data (facebook, twitter, etc...) then you likely need your own custom cloud app/service.

Concerning device DBs/CoreData. It's typical to have devices that are occasionally connected. Imagine requiring internet access to get your address book. In that case, you need the app to primarily work off local storage with the cloud used as a conduit to either your other devices or other user's devices (write to local storage with background synchronization to remote cloud storage).