Categories
Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing

Should we put Event Manager X in the Apple App Store?

I’m asking for opinion because it will mean some compromises and we don’t know if that’s acceptable.

We currently sell a little utility called Event Manager X directly from our web store, which was really designed for selling much more expensive software, where the ability to log back in and check serial numbers and other status was useful. As it’s a $4.99 tool it seems perfect for the App Store and it has always been our intent to get it there, in among other projects.

Finally, some time has become available and we’ve been exploring what’s required and there’s a problem.

Right now Event Manager X will quit Final Cut Pro X; reorganize your Events and Projects as you’ve set in Event Manager X, then re-run Final Cut Pro X. We need to do this so Final Cut Pro X will recognize the changed folder status: it only checks when it starts up or when new drives are added. It certainly doesn’t like it when we move an Event out from under it while it’s running!! So we don’t do that.

The problem we’ve run into is that an App Store sandboxing policy – and apparently one that is rigidly adhered to – is that no application can quit another application.

So, that would mean that when you requested Event Manager X to make your desired changes, that we would put up a dialog asking you to quit Final Cut Pro X. We can detect when it’s not running and make the changes and then restart Final Cut Pro X on your behalf, but we would have to have you do that one step that we currently do for you.  We don’t like losing functionality, particularly anything that makes the app work more smoothly.

So, the dilemma is that the App store is absolutely the right place to sell Event Manager X (and Project Xto7 as well where there’s no issue) but we hate losing functionality.

So, what do you all think? App Store with a less smooth workflow/product, or keep the functionality and keep it out of the app store? We’d rather not do both – having one version on our website and another in the App Store – but it’s certainly a possibility, although how to make the differentiation clear is a problem. Our preference for our Final Cut Pro X related apps is to have them in the App Store only.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

37 replies on “Should we put Event Manager X in the Apple App Store?”

I already have the app, but putting it in the app store with a dialog seems the best way to go.

This is a tough choice – I MUCH prefer the automatic restarting, but you’ll lose a ton of money by not having it in the App Store.

I prefer the current version, but vote for the App Store as better for you.

Larry

Following Apple’s rules seems the best path here. It will be interesting to see how sales are on the app store. My preference is to buy there for ease of updating.

Agreed. Just wanted to say though that built-in updating through the app has been part of all our apps since the start. But no better than the App store. One thing we will miss in the App store is direct connection to customers and the ability to do really fast turnarounds for updates.

By Post Author

I say leave it as is. If people are pro enough to use pro editing software then we can buy a more functional product from a developer website. But then again many people are lazy so it’s a tough call

+1 for the App Store route.

Not sure one app being able to quit other apps is good thing at all. Bring on that sandboxing.

Hey Philip
I’d say go ahead and make the change and then put your app in the App Store where it can attract more business. The “issue” of the user having to first close FCP X before launching it (or on request) is really not an issue at all, users can handle it … and its a common enough practice with many installers theses days too (a dialog that requests one manually quit relevant apps before the installer can proceed), so most folks will be well used to it.
Cheers
Andy

Getting the App from overseas was no problem for me so I don’t see how putting it on the Appstore would make that easier.

Sales from the Appstore would most probably beat sales from your webstore, though people made very decent money peddling apps this way in the pre Appstore era. It came down to the product being great, ergo: functionality.

Seems to me it boils down to a business and money question over a technical one. And how long it will take before Apple themselves implement such a function in FCPx.

Business decision is easy – the App Store is the place to be with OS X utilities- but we were worried about use experience and whether it should be compromised for better sales.

By Post Author

I figure it’s a couple more revisions of FCP X before they add functionality that makes Event Manger X redundant, but we have expected they will all along. It’s an interim product that fills a gap in the main product. Eventually the main product must catch up. (And frankly when I take off my developer hat and put on my user hat, Event Manager X’s functionality should be in the app directly!)

By Post Author

Even so I already have a copy. I suggest you put it int the app store. Quitting the app is no big issue.

Even Apple’s own installers and updaters have asked me to quit running apps (iTunes comes to mind). This is not an unusual thing for users. That you can restart FCPX automatically is still nice. I say go for it. Cash in on this now before you get Sherlocked.

Come to think of it, don’t the sandboxing rules restrict sandboxed apps from manipulating the filesystem at large?

http://bit.ly/rYH92y

That raises the question of how FCPX will continue to handle media the way it has been- wouldn’t sandboxing require it to change how it handles the Events and Projects folders? Uh-oh…

The sandboxing rule in general make workflow tools – the foundation of Apple’s advantage with Applescript for the last 20 year – pretty much dead via the App Store. Fortunately not everything has to be in the App Store and sandboxed (at least not yet)

By Post Author

Call me a control freak but I’ve always manually quit and restarted FCPX when using your Event Manager- i’ve never found it a drag- feels very natural for me.

So from a personal pov, i would be happy for you remove that functionality for the needs of having only one version of the application.

The App store makes a huge amount of sense in a business model of course, plus the following:

1.That Apple advertises you app on their site already
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/resources/plugins.html

2. Currently a search for ‘Final Cut Pro’, ‘Final Cut Pro X’ or ‘FCP X’ on the App store only yields a few training resources and no plugins or 3rd party software for FCP X. so your app would stand out. (I doubt i would have found your software if hadn’t read your blog or followed the community sites and forums- which i have done for years – but i know lots of editors and producers old and new who don’t do this.

3. the life span of the product is only a couple of years as was mentioned earlier – so make your killing now, so you can buy that yacht, sports car or trip into outer space 😉

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we were already on the resources site: general policy at Apple I think is to favor app store apps.

By Post Author

I definitively prefer the Mac App Store solution. We can restart FCPX ourselves.
By this way, the potential coming updates/enhancements of Event Manager X will be accessible through the easiest deployment way for us.

Do both. Reach a wider market with the app store and maintain a direct relationship with your customers who need the higher workflow functionality your other apps bring. The people who will pay for (and need) FCPX versions of Transcriptize et al.

Lose the functionality and only have one version tho. It’s just a click!

Practically speaking it’s a very large amount of additional work to maintain two versions of an App: one for App store and one not. It’s sufficiently a big hassle that we had to make a decision one way or the other for Event Manager X. We’d prefer all our FCP X utility apps go in the App store (practically speaking, despite having one app already promoted by Apple, they will promote App Store apps by preference.) So far the only App that (would have eventually) run foul of the App Store’s Sandboxing rules coming in March 2012, is Event Manager X. Project X27 should have no issues and anything else in the pipeline will be designed with the App Store rules in mind.

By Post Author

I agree App store is the way to go.

However, have you considered the other way FCP X refreshes events? As you mentioned in your post it will refresh when a new drive is attached. Is it possible to have your app mount and then immediately eject a blank dummy .dmg, triggering a FCP X refresh? It may also violate App store policy/sandboxing to have an app eject a drive, but I thought it a possibility.

It’s not elegant, but in my opinion it is preferrable to a user prompt.

Final Cut Pro X has no way of removing/ejecting a drive. It will mount all drives, but you can only unmount the drive(s) when Final Cut Pro is quit. No other way. No refresh command in FCP X either, which would do the job (and we’ve asked for it but aren’t hopeful). The user prompt is the *only* solution other than our app quitting FCPX .

By Post Author

Event Manager X will go into the app store in mid January. Lots of reasons why and I apologize for it being tardy. Project X to7 is being submitted this week to test out the waters. AFAIK X to 7 doesn’t have to get any “sandboxing” exemptions, and we figure going with something neutral for our first submission makes the most sense.

By Post Author

any news regarding event manager x coming to the app store?

phillip, you said mid january and now it’s mid february. i hope you have some good news for us 🙂

It is currently stuck in “Review Board” because it does things on behalf of the user like move folders and we want permission to move them in the User’s Movies Folder as well as external drives. So it’s been a couple of weeks now since it was submitted.

By Post Author

Yes. We submitted it to the app store and it was rejected because we wanted to move folders from (or to) folders created by Final Cut Pro X. And only Final Cut Pro X can do that according to App Store rules.

We think it only applies to the folders in the Movies folders and if we only worked with external drives we might be OK, so we’re looking at adding a new feature (or two) and taking that feature (managing the Events or Projects in the User’s Movies folder) out and trying again, but it’s hard to get enough time to do everything we want to do.

By Post Author

This one is a no-brainer: forget the app store. No reason to ruin your product because of some Apple rule. I feature your product on my web site and have turned a lot of folks on to it. Always got great feedback on it. No point in messing your app up.

Comments are closed.