App Extension communication with External Accessory framework

Question

Created Dec ’18

Replies 3

Boosts 0

Views 1.2k

Participants 2

Hello,

I am working on an application which uses the External Accessory framework. I am able to establish a connection between my application and the external accessory. I am creating an app extension (file provider extension) which should help users to access the accessory. But, I'm unable to establish the connection to the external accessory from my app extension.

Is there a way for the app extension to access the active session that the container app has established with the external accessory? (Instead of the app extension directly communicating with the external accessory)

FYI, I've also enabled the background mode for the external accessory which is helping us to keep the session active between my application and the external accessory.

Thank you in advance, for any ideas.

Regards,
Uday

Boost

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Dec ’18

Is there a way for the app extension to access the active session that the container app has established with the external accessory?

No. I don’t think there’s any way to do that at all but, even if there were, it wouldn’t work in all circumstances because there’s no guarantee that the container app is running in all situations where the app extension is running.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

0

Answer 2

udaykiran.tumuluri OP

Dec ’18

Thanks for the reply!!

I also tried accessing the external accessory from the file provider extension directly, but the extension was not able to detect it in spite of adding all the necessary frameworks to the extension target.

Are extensions designed to access external accessories as well?

0

Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Dec ’18

Are extensions designed to access external accessories as well?

I don’t know )-: It’s not uncommon for app extensions to hit limitations like this, but I don’t do a lot of work with EA framework and thus I don’t have direct experience with this.

If no one else chimes in my recommendation is that you open a DTS tech support incident and talk to DTS’s EA framework expert.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

0