API for downloading reports

Originator:oliver.drobnik
Number:rdar://6807195 Date Originated:04/20/2009
Status:Open Resolved:
Product:Other Product Version:
Classification: Reproducible:
 
Many people are looking for way to download their iTunes Sales reports which are more convenient than going to the website. There are half a dozen apps both in open-source as well as commercial that scrape the site to allow for automatic downloading. At the same time Apple rejects apps that are doing this in a mobile way and cites 3.3.7 of the SDK agreement.

Providing a secure Web API would make all your developers very much happy because then they could create their own tools or could choose between competing mobile downloading tools.

Also waiting for the previous days report to arrive is an ideal case for push notifications.

In the very least I urge Apple to create a mobile report downloading app themselves if they absolutely won't let users access the data they desperately want to have.

By not taking the lead on report downloading Apple causes hundreds of thousands of unnecessary accesses to the report site when people or their scripts are checking if the report is now available.  Lots of unnecessary HTTPS/HTML traffic could be prevented if there whas an XML based secure API.

Comments

Also there is tons of scrapping sites doing the same and giving better results than itc mobile app.

By bgamap at Feb. 6, 2012, 10:48 a.m. (reply...)

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