Finally after over a month DockShelf 1.3 has been approved for the App Store. This version is different from the one being sold from PayPal because it’s sandboxed to comply with Apple regulations. This would be fine except in order to comply with Apple’s regulations and sandboxing some key features have been removed.
I appreciate the need for sandboxing but it’s simply not appropriate for certain applications like DockShelf and I hope my users aren’t afraid of this little utility introducing viruses or trojan horses into their systems so much so they need a sandboxed environment to feel safe.
Here are some reasons why you may consider purchasing from me directly using PayPal instead of the Mac App Store.
- User scripts have been removed except for a few built-in Apple apps that I had to request special access to. Sandboxing has broken AppleScript pretty badly so I’m not sure I’ll be able to find work arounds so for now at least the features are just removed and as I expand this feature set in the future it may not be included.
- Drag and dropping things like text, images, URL’s etc… over application items won’t attempt to open the contents in the app because this feature uses the “pbs” command line utility which I think was violating sandbox regulations and getting DockShelf rejected form the App Store. Apple doesn’t supply clear enough information as to why you’re getting rejected sometimes and to prevent more weeks of waiting I decided to remove this feature to be safe but it still remains in the PayPal version.
- Terminating applications from docks is not allowed in the sandbox so that is removed.
- Opening applications at login (by right-clicking on dock items) has been removed.
- Updates can literally take months depending on unknown factors so I always release on the non-AppStore version first then attempt to deal with Apple next.
- Finally, developers pay Apple 30% of the proceeds of but I pay less than 10% by hosting and selling myself which means more money for development.