File Sharing Without Network Connection

Looking for idea on a potential iOS application. This iOS app will be used in conjunction with an a Xojo desktop app in an environment where there will be no network connectivity. Or, perhaps better to say that the network (both WiFi and cell) will be overwhelmed with thousands of laptops and cell phones). This app could be used a hundreds of people in this environment.

The obvious choice would be to exchange a file between the desktop and phone/tablet but without a network this becomes much harder. Bluetooth? Some other sort of file exchange?

Looking for ideas and if there is already a Xojo solution for said idea.

is it slow network as opposed to NO network at all (no wifi/bluetooth/cellular ?)

are they possibly close together where you could turn on tethering of the desktop to the iOS device & set up private network between the two ?

maybe by a physical connection ?

[quote=246662:@Norman Palardy]is it slow network as opposed to NO network at all (no wifi/bluetooth/cellular ?)

are they possibly close together where you could turn on tethering of the desktop to the iOS device & set up private network between the two ?

maybe by a physical connection ?[/quote]

They strongly discourage independent WiFi because it interferes with the important WiFi (6 robots at a time are on the network and this year is likely to be heavy video usage) and cellular is hampered with too many people using their phones. Last year I had to leave the building to get a signal. Bluetooth is possible depending on if iOS can access it and a desktop app could use it.

Bluetooth is only relatively short range and if this is what I think its for then there could be a ton of interference

Whats the end goal ?
To get a file to/from something, say a robot, onto an iOS device and from there to a desktop ?

Is file sharing via iTunes acceptable? This is very easy to accompish with iOS.

All it takes is to write the file to be shared into the /DOCUMENTS directory
and set a single line in the applications PLIST file…

Then when the device is connected to a computer with iTunes, that file is visible on the iTunes App screen and can be copied from (or copied to) the device. No bluetooth, no wifi required.

[quote=246680:@Norman Palardy]Whats the end goal ?
To get a file to/from something, say a robot, onto an iOS device and from there to a desktop ?[/quote]
The end goal is to share a file between the desktop and iOS device without having to go through a web server since access will be iffy/non-existent.

[quote=246688:@Dave S]Is file sharing via iTunes acceptable? This is very easy to accompish with iOS.

All it takes is to write the file to be shared into the /DOCUMENTS directory
and set a single line in the applications PLIST file…

Then when the device is connected to a computer with iTunes, that file is visible on the iTunes App screen and can be copied from (or copied to) the device. No bluetooth, no wifi required.[/quote]
Not ideal, but better than nothing.

How does that work with potentially dozens of phones? Won’t iTunes try to hijack each one?

missed the “100’s of phones” part. iTunes would require each phone be authorized to the computer recieving the physical connection, and even then you could only have one at a time.

I am assuming you “network restriction” also precludes emailing the documents and having an app auto recieve and parse them?

http://www.libimobiledevice.org

it lets you mount the iOS device as a file system instead of having to go through iTunes