My company hired a programmer to build our app last year. The app was created but it now requires some corrections and information update. The person we hired moved out of town. Therefore we are planning to hire a new programmer, but we need the app's source code for him to modify it. What is the best way for getting the source code?
J.R. Rodriguez
The only alternative, other than having the original code in hand, is to start over. Talk to the last person that had your app's project/source.
And if you're thinking you can extract what you need from a built app, keep in mind it will be a compiled version, leaving you only certain data sources/plists and assets such as images/icons sound files, etc., not the source code.
The source code will be contained in the Xcode program used to write the app. That source code was compiled by someone and then submitted for approval. Ask the programmer who wrote the original code to send you a copy of the source code.
Two comments: 1) it is usually much easier for the person who wrote the code to modify the code. "(M)oved out of town" does not mean "died and went to heaven." Are they still available to write the updates? 2) "(H)ired a programmer" may mean that your company owns the copyright for the original code as a "work for hire." Tell the programmer who moved out of town that you will allow him to use the code he wrote for you without asserting your copyright rights against him if he will make the code available to your new programmer and answer any questions the new guy might have.
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