CopperLan SDK (iOS, Documentation)

[Gentle]

Dear CopperLan team,

I started researching CopperLan to use it in our own projects. Some of my questions could not be answered by the documentation. I don't want to use CopperLan to replace MIDI, instead I will use the Network and Connection features to connect different devices and exchange messages between them.
Unfortunately there is no SDK for iOS. Why? Is it planned to release one? When?
The documentation seems to be incomplete. Especially the section about messaging lacks completely. Why? Where can I find help?

Thanks and cheers
Gentle

[CopperPhil]

Hi,

Unfortunately there is no SDK for iOS. Why? Is it planned to release one? When?

Actually, an SDK for iOS is available, but it is not based on the same network foundations as the computer/embedded SDK. iOS does not allow to install root applications, and does not support raw socket handling. However the CopperLan network protocol is not IP based, we are using our own protocol on top of layer 2. So, given Apple restrictions, it's technically impossible to bring the CopperLan network engine inside the iOS device. The only solution is to rely on the CopperLan engine running in a computer located on the same local network through a TCP/IP connection. This is working, but as usual with WIFI performance is highly depending on the wireless connection quality.
The iOS SDK is only available for registered manufacturers, and distributed within the Mac SDK.

The documentation seems to be incomplete. Especially the section about messaging lacks completely. Why? Where can I find help?

Yes indeed... I'm sorry for that. Writing documentation is quite time-consuming and CopperLan is covering such a wide scope... Actually, most of the applications are controllers or target exposing parameters. In order to facilitate and accelerate the development, we wrote helper classes to be used on top of the CHAI and doing almost the whole job. Moreover, these helpers are working as an abstraction layer so the application developer can manage parameters in a very simple way, no more complicated than VST interface actually.
Finally, we have sample code, working examples, a big experience in product design, but we lack documentation...
So, you can send me an email (pca@copperlan.org) with a description of what you want to do and we will guide you on how to achieve it, giving you oriented explanation and sample code. This is more efficient than trying to understand all of the SDK from scratch.