How to manage application server changes when reviewing an iOS application?

Question

I want to know how others manage their API during the time that their iOS application is pending.

We are constantly updating / adding new API endpoints to each version. The main problem we are facing is when we need to make changes to the database schema. We do not want to push our backend changes to our production server until the application is approved by Apple (this may take up to 4 days).

We are currently installing our iOS application in a manual version and are flipping between two production servers. Thus, the application v1.0 in the application store will point to our prod1 server, and the application v2.0 in the overview will point to our prod2 server. When Apple approves v2.0, we copy our prod1 database to prod2, run all the migrations, and then release v2.0. As soon as we push our changes to prod2, we will update the configuration setting to prod1, which will send a response back to the v1.0 application by providing a link to the application store to download the v2.0 application.

There seem to be more effective ways to solve this problem. Interested in how others approached this issue.

Answer 1

We have successfully used the version of the iOS application (passed as part of the headers) in REST calls to support multiple versions of applications on the same server (s). Given that you often have to support several older versions of the iOS client, this is apparently the easiest approach.