what is sandbox in iPhone?

iphonegamedeveloper · 08-13-2010, 07:04 AM

Duncan C · 08-13-2010, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iphonegamedeveloper

what is sandbox in iPhone?

The sandbox is a term used to describe the limited file system available to each application.

Each app only has access to a few directories:

read-only access to the application bundle (a special type of directory)
read-write access to a documents directory and a temp directory.

Apps can't read or write to any other directories, either system directories or those belonging to other apps.

dustbyter · 08-13-2010, 10:11 AM

Another way to think about it by pulling an analogy in is to think of an actual sandbox at a park.

If kid A is playing in sandbox A, then anything in that space is available to them. Kid B from sandbox B should not be able to interfere in any way with sandbox A. Each is its own small environment.

In the real world the borders are physical, in the iphone, you have somewhat of a physical partition between applications as they each get their own folder structure, but its up to the OS to maintain the logical separation. Get elevated privileges on the device and then the borders start to go away.