I have completed alpha testing my app using the CN1 'Send IOS Debug Build' and QR-coding it onto my iphone. So i'm ready to load it onto the AppStore, but i don't have a Mac (but i do have the ITunes developer account and the apps certificates generated).
Its just confirmation on the next steps.
The good people at Coursera produced a number of excellent tutorials, of which this one describes the steps i need to perform:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/codapps/lecture/F1B6x/video-how-to-distribute-your-app-on-apples-app-store-you-need-a-mac. I have failed in finding a CN1 badged tutorial on this (closest is the certificates generation).
But time and technology move on, so i wanted to check this was still accurate - do i still need to:
Install Application Loader from Itunes Connect onto a Mac? Is there a non-Mac approach? If not then i will use the http://www.macinthecloud service.
Take the. ipa and artwork file from the CN1 build server and apply that to the mac, and then follow the rest of the steps in that tutorial?
Please don't shoot me down for such a basic question. Once i get through this first app i'll be cooking. Thanks in advance.
Yes, a Mac is needed, but MacInCloud works fine. As you said, you use application loader to upload your .ipa file. That's all you need the Mac for, so uploading artwork and everything can be done through iTunes Connect from your PC. The icon that will show up on the phone screen is bundled into the app, and I think the artwork with the build may not be the right size, so you might have to generate an icon for the store listing and of course the screenshots.
Related
I believe this is a duplicate question, but examining the others I could not find my problem exactly.
I have developed a flutter app and I intend to publish it. So I rented a virtual Mac, loaded the project in XCode and tested it on a simulator. Everything worked fine.
I have an Apple Developer Account, Certificates, registered an iPhone, etc., but it seems that I have to physically connect the device to the computer to be able to run it on the iPhone. No way to do that remotely (I'm in Brazil and the virtual Machine in NY).
XCode tells me to plug in the device so it can register it (but I have registered it already in the developer's site).
I thought it would be possible to generate some kind of executable to download to my iPhone, but it appears that is note the case.
Is there any other way I can do that?
Maybe I can skip this step and try to publish the app, because it is the same project as an Android app already tested and published in Play Store.
The answer is yes, the modern answer is probably TestFlight. But this has always been possible using OTA downloads. To do this, archive your app, create an OTA manifest and put this on a web server somewhere. Then you can download the app straight to your phone (assuming it's signed with the correct provisioning profile and all that). We used to do this a lot before TestFlight came along.
This question and
this article are somewhat related to what you want to do
I was having trouble to test without an iphone what I did is register this device on my account https://messapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/udid.png and so far I could build the app for iOS.
I have created an iPhone application. I don't have the iPhone and I want to test the application on the iPhone of my friend who is far from me. How can I test it on his iPhone?
When I searched on google, it told me that you need to have the device with you. Is it possible to send the wrap and send the application to a remote location and get tested from there? I also have the Apple ID and license.
Yes with a tool like TestFlight you will be able to check wether or not your will work on a device. Thus is good for acceptance testing but never for technical working of an app.
But when it comes to really testing a device is needed, there is not way around it. You should do performance testing on a device.
Also there is no way to use the debugger unless it is connected to your development machine.
If you are developing for iOS get an iOS device.
It's possible, check Test Flight:
https://testflightapp.com/
I used it in the past for the same scenario as you
You should have a device yourself for testing on, before you publish anything in the App Store. Testing in the simulator is just not the same as testing on a device.
On developer.apple.com you will need to create a Ad Hoc distribution profile. You will also need to add all the devices you want to run the app on to this profile. Once you have the profile and you have it installed in Xcode, you can run an Archive build and sign it with the distribution profile. After this you can select the archive and click on 'Distribute...' to generate a .ipa file.
Once you have this .ipa file, you could use a site like testflightapp.com to distribute the app to test-devices. (you could also just email it ;-) )
If you are looking for just a way to transfer the ipa to someone else the best simplest solution for that would be http://www.diawi.com/ or https://appsendr.com
Get the target Device UDID and add it to your testing list, Create your IPA, drag it to the site above, Done.
No need to signup or anything like that.
I like appsendr better because of the small app they provide.
Lets you drag the IPA to your tool bar and have the ipa url right in your clipboard once it's uploaded.
I have created a mobile app using Phonegap Build (not just Phonegap...but Build). I have a Windows PC and do not use eclipse or xcode. I just write the Javascript and let Build do all the complex stuff for me.
I can easily test my app on an Android device by scanning the QR code that is displayed on the Build page after my app compiles....but how can I test on an iPhone or iPad? I can convince a family member to loan me one for a day, but I don't have a Mac (I could probably visit another friend to use one, briefly).
It would not be appropriate at this point to spend $99 on a developer certificate, even though this app may be submitted to the store eventually. If $99 is the only option, I would be grateful to anyone who makes this clear!
Or perhaps I just need to learn about TestFlight or Lesspainful? The descriptions are confusing me at present, but I will try harder if I hear some experts tell me that this is the right way to go!
It would be good to test on a real Apple device, as I haven't had much luck getting an emulator going...but perhaps the only answer to my dilemma is to tell me to stick with emulators. (In which case: is there a nice step-by-step tutorial for a complete beginner to install an iPhone emulator in Windows?).
Thank you.
If you want to test on a device, your app needs to be signed using your certificate. You'll also need a development provision profile that includes the device ID's of any devices you want to test on. In order to get those things, you need to join Apple's iOS developer program. This is true even if you're using the PhoneGap Build service; in order to build for a device, you need to upload your certificate and provision profile to PhoneGap Build. Look at PhoneGap Build's Building for iOS page for complete information. All this means that you'll need to pay the $99 fee to join the iOS Developer Program.
An alternative is to jailbreak your device (or, in this case, your friend's device). You can find instructions for that on the web if you're so inclined. However, I don't think you'll be able to build through PhoneGap Build in that case -- you'll need to build your app yourself with Xcode or possibly some other set of tools.
Just as an update for anyone else that ends up here. You can now use Adobe PhoneGap Developer App which allows you to run the Apps on devices without ID's, licenses etc. Here is a guide to getting started.
You would need to join the Apple Developer Program to be able to sign the build and create the .IPA to use TestFlight or other methods to get the build onto the device.
There are options for you to test on a device without that though - see App.io for an in-browser emulator.
Whether you go with that or TestFlight I've blogged about Getting mobile app builds to your customers which includes the pros and cons of the options and the steps you'd need to go through.
install iTune on your windows PC. Copy IPA file to application directory of iTune. When connecting device (iPhone,iPad or iPod), sync apps. Then you can test on real device.
I have an iPhone app that I'm distributing to testers. I followed these instructions:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/ToolsLanguages/Conceptual/YourFirstAppStoreSubmission/TestYourApponManyDevicesandiOSVersions/TestYourApponManyDevicesandiOSVersions.html
And they work except for one of my testers, who does not use iTunes to synchronize his apps. He has many apps already on his phone and doesn't want to synch to iTunes because it sounds like it will delete them. So...Is there any other way to get a testing app onto an iPhone besides synchronizing with iTunes?
Simply distribute it using OTA ("Over The Air" distribution).
When you Archive your application using Xcode (menu Product -> Archive, I hope that's what you do already to keep debugging symbols so that you can symbolicate crash logs when testers send some back to you!), once you click on "Distribute", select the "OTA Distribution" option and follow the steps.
Don't forget to check the "Distribute for Enterprise" checkbox in the appropriate step and fill the requested informations (Product Name, URL of the IPA when you will upload it on your server, etc).
Once your .ipa and the associated .plist is created, upload them both on a web server, and make a link to "itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=<the_url_to_your_plist_file_here>".
When the users will open this link from their iPhone, it will prompt to install the application on their device directly, without the need to plug their device to any computer.
There are many tutorials on the net about this, simply google about iPhone OTA distribution.
I strongly recommend TestFlight. It's free and it's easy and they manage all that server side work.
Since your user is afraid of the iTunes Sync Process (for good reason), why not recommending him to use the iPhone Configuration Ultility.
That tool does not do a complete sync but only transmits the app you specified to.
It is free, easy to use and very reliable. Well, sometimes it has its hickups on Windoze systems but that seems to be a normal experience for users of that OS.
I need to show an app I have developed to a client for review prior to its submission to the app store.
The client has an iPhone but not a mac on which to run xCode.
I have a personal (not company) iPhone developer account.
The client is too far away to visit in person.
What are my options?
If the client has iTunes, you can provision a build of your app specific to the client's iPhone ID (visible in iTunes). They just need to drag it into iTunes and then install it on their phone.
Plenty of docs about this in the Apple iPhone Developer site. Good luck!
Option #1:
Login to the iPhone developer portal website.
Add their iPhone UDID to the list of devices.
Generate a provisioning profile that includes your own test phone and theirs. Download the file (ends with .mobileprovision).
Double-click it to install it on your development machine.
Quit and restart XCode, then set your code signing identity to the name of this profile.
Build the binary.
In the left side of XCode "Groups & Files" bar look for Products (may need to expand the folder).
Select {yourapp}.app. Right click and choose 'Reveal in Finder.'
Now take that .app file and the .mobileprovision file you downloaded, zip them both up and send it to the client.
They will need to unzip the archive, then drag-drop the .app and .mobileprovision onto their iTunes and sync the phone. Your app should show up and run.
The portal site has more detailed instructions, but this is basically it in a nutshell.
Option #2:
Sign up with a screen sharing service like WebEx or glance.net (both work on Mac and Windows machines). Run the app in the simulator as they watch the screencast on their machine. If it's in the early stages of development, this is probably much more useful since they can give live feedback. In later stages, sending them the app is probably more useful. The nice thing about screen sharing is that they can take over the mouse and click around and explore while you're there to explain things.
Option #3:
Get a screen-recording app like SnapzPro or ScreenFlow and run the app in the simulator while recording a voice-over of its features. Send them a link to the movie. This is pretty useful if you're walking them through all the features. It's also handy if more than one person at a time needs to review the material. The advantage over #2 is that they can watch it over and over on their own time and take notes.
Depending on the stage of development, #3 is probably best in early stages, #2 in the middle, and #3 in the final steps.
I recommend having the client use the iphone configuration utility to install/uninstall early builds of the app. I am using this with my team and it lets you get direct access to the phone's console and error logs which is super handy when you're in the early stages of development. It also lets you manage the install/uninstall of the app and see the explicit version that you are installing in a much easier to manage way than itunes does.
Option #4:
Try https://testflightapp.com/ , this is easy for distribution of your app. Even Twitter Mirror is Using this to test their beta release.