Hey I have taken over from a developer who submitted Add Hoc Build Binaries to the app store instead of creating a new binary with an app store development provisioning profile.
Can anyone tell me what will happen to these apps?
So far they they are fine, approved and selling with the added benefit that we are able to test the actual binary we upload to itunes connect, which if you compile using an app store only provisioning profile, you can't.
Am I missing something here? Why do apple instruct us to use an app store only provisioning profile, when add hoc ones work fine?
I question the assertion that an ad hoc build was submitted. I've done this myself by accident, and it gets rejected at the upload stage.
we are able to test the actual binary we upload to itunes connect
Have you tried this yourself and seen it work? Even if it were to work once, I wouldn't make decisions on the assumption that it will continue to work in the future.
Related
I was able to go through all the horrible process of builing the app for ad-hoc distribution.
But I can't install it in an iphone from iTunes. It shows an error message after installing the app, then another pop up appears that says "Some items bought from the iphone, including "Blendr" couldnt be transfered to your iTunes Library because you have no autorization to use them in this computer.
It also gives the option of allowing this computer to use the items bought in the iTunes Store by selecting Store > Autorize, but the owner of the phone doesnt know his login/pass and also I need to make this proccess as fast as possible, since I will be installing this app to many phones, is there a way that the iphone doesnt sync with my iTunes and just installs the app?
Thanks
EDIT:
I figure out that iPhone was jailbreaked, so that's the reason of that error message. But I tried with an iPhone 4 not jailbreaked & iOS 5(my app is developed using iOS 4) and I couldn't drop the app in it, no error message whatsoever..
Any ideas?
You may want to check out Test Flight which is a free service that lets you manage builds and distribute them to your users for testing. It uses some funky provisioning services in iOS that allows their app to be installed and then to provision the user's device for your app. It's pretty cool and really simplifies the whole Ad Hoc distribution process.
Now, truth be told, I've only played with this service a bit, and it was about a year ago. My sense is that to use it effectively, your users have to have some savvy about what is going on to be successful with it. I have not looked too deeply into it lately, but they are still in business, and it's been over a year since I tried it. I would check it out! I plan to do just that for my next project.
EDIT:
As far as using the "traditional" Ad Hoc methods... I have always distributed Ad Hoc builds (.ipa files) along with the Ad Hoc distribution profile used to build the ipa file to users via e-mail. Users need both files. And I have always instructed users to save the files to their desktop, launch iTunes, connect their device, drag/drop the saved files onto their iTunes Library, then sync. It should be that simple.
The other errors you're seeing seem unrelated to installing an Ad Hoc build on an iPhone that has been provisioned to use it. iTunes seems to do a lot of stuff automatically around making sure it has everything downloaded from the cloud that you bought, that it's all on the devices it's supposed to be on, etc. That is all ancillary to the Ad Hoc process, except that you do have to sync your device to get the Ad Hoc build installed, so there is no avoiding having iTunes do all it's housekeeping.
Perhaps the thing to do is to resolve all those other iTunes issues before trying to install any Ad Hoc software. That is to say, get things cleaned up so that iTunes is happy with the iPhone in question when it is connected, and is able to sync it without errors. (I know; easy for me to say. But I think you have resolve those issues first.)
Instead of using a Distribution AdHoc you can create a Developer Certificate adding all the phones you need to install it to, you add the new certificate to all phones and you will be able to install it directly from XCode. Hit Run and Enjoy!
If I'm developing an iPhone app for CompanyX and when we want to put it on the App Store using CompanyX's signature, and if they dont have the source code, can they do it themselves?
Or do I have to do it with their signature, since I have the source code and then submit it to the App Store?
We have settled on a process where "CompanyX" gives us an account to their iTunes connect so we can build, sign and upload to the App Store in their name.
Probably you can build it on your machine, send them the product and they sign and upload it themselves, however that would be more tedious, as Apple's toolchain with Xcode and the Organizer has become quite good at this for the "usual" case of someone uploading their "own" apps.
AFAIK you have to sign the source code with the key you get from Apple to submit it.
This isn't a coding question, but is to to do with beta testing my app and so I think it's relevant for here.
I want to give my app to people to try, such as online friends and my parents, neither of whom live anywhere near me. Am i able to provision an iPod Touch or iPhone for testing my app, and put the app onto that iPod or iPhone without doing it directly from my computer?
Yes, you need to generate an Ad-Hoc build. You get the beta testers to send you the UDID for their phones, then build an Ad-Hoc build targeting those devices and email it to them. They install it by dragging it into iTunes and then syncing their phone.
In reality it can be a bit of a trial the first time you generate an Ad-Hoc build. Apple's docs cover all the facts but lack a simple step-by-step guide. I'd strongly suggest you check out TestFlight - it's free to use and it makes the whole process much easier.
(If you're feeling really adventurous you could try out Anticipation, a simple Ad Hoc distribution tool I wrote that runs on Google App Engine. It's free and open source, so help yourself!)
You are looking for Ad Hoc Distribution in Provisioning Portal. Basically, you will need to create an Ad Hoc Distribution Profile that has the Unique Device ID's of the devices your friends will use to test.
In Xcode, you will build your app with the above-mentioned distribution file using Build and Archive. When You open Organizer and click on the archived app, you will choose Share -> Email. This will open your mail client and attach the .ipa and the correct distribution file for your users to drop onto iTunes and Sync.
You want to look in to Ad Hoc Distribution. You'll create an Ad Hoc Distribution Provisioning Profile on the Provisioning Portal, then Build & Archive, then "Share" the archive signed with your Ad Hoc profile.
Check out this article, it walks you through it and shows a nice way to distribute it online. Note that you have to repeat the process every time you make a change to your app or add a new device to the profile.
You have to create an ad-hoc version of your app.
You need to get the UUID of the users devices. Erica Sadun created an app that helps you doing this. It gets the uuid on the device and emails it to you. Those UUID goes into a special provisioning profile you create in the provisioning center on dev.apple.
For ad hoc deployment I use Hockey Framework. Some php files you put on your webserver with the ad hoc version and the provisioning profile.
Beta testers can then install the app by visiting the website with their devices.
I want to create an iphone app for personal use.
Can I just put it on my phone and use it or do I have to go through the iphone store process to get it on my phone?
Thanks.
As long as you have a valid developer certificate to sign the app and you have a development provisioning profile and your device is registered as a test device. For that you need to be registered as an iPhone Developer Program member.
In other words, you have to pay Apple $99 to be able to put your own app on your own phone.
Yes, you can run your own apps on your phone. You need a paid iPhone developer account though.
Purchase a developer account for $99 from Apple. Create a developer provisioning file and build to your device. The annoyance will be the provisioning file is good for a limited time, requiring you to update it periodically and rebuild.
To run an app on an un-jailbroken iDevice, it needs to be signed. Registered developers get personal signing keys (and also have to register the device) which lets them test their apps. They also can do ad-hoc distribution, meaning compiling and signing an app so that other people can use it without being registered. This is limited in the number of users who can use it though.
Enterprise developers can sign apps for internal distribution, sorta like unlimited ad-hoc, but that program is expensive and unnecessary for what most people do.
As pointed out by others here, you can sign up as a developer to temporarily install apps on your device for testing purposes, but you would constantly need to renew your phone's installed provisioning profile to keep using it over time.
The only way to permanently put your own application on an un-jailbroken phone is to publish it to the app-store and download it through iTunes. Of course, Apple would need to accept the app so you would need to face the same regulations as other apps sold via iTunes, and your app would be public to everyone.
I have developed an iPhone App and I want to test this final distribution build before submitting it to the App Store for review.
Is there any safe way to make this app to run on a device?
You might want to also check out Craig Hockenberry's "The final test" blog post.
Craig gives a method of testing where the only difference between what you test and what you submit is the signing identity.
No, you can't. This makes me a little nuts, too. If you set up an ad-hoc distribution profile, that is as close as you can get. On the "positive" side, you're guaranteed to have your app rejected if it can't be installed properly...
check this out, you can actually test a distribution build :
http://nikhilkerala.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-test-app-store-distribution.html
You can setup a beta through the iPhone portal program. You can then load the App and the associated profile onto a phone through iTunes or XCode.
I know this question is a little old, but I've recently found a better way of testing and distributing my Apps prior to submission and this method allows me to easily get it on real devices without having to have the device physically in my hands or have the user muck with provisioning profiles, certificates or iTunes syncing.
Developers can create an account on TestFlight and create a team.
After creating a team, invite testers to your team (click "Invite a Teammate" on the team's page). The tester will receive an invitation email to join your team and will be walked through the process of creating a basic account (name, email, password) and will have their device registered and their account will be added to your team.
Once you have your testers in place, go to your team's page and select all the testers, export their device information via the link and import that list into an Ad-Hoc distribution profile.
Import that profile (and the Ad-Hoc certificate) into Xcode and rebuild your project and share it as an *.ipa file.
Go back to your TestFlightApp.com team's page and upload the binary. All the testers on your team with access to the build will get an email notification about it. All they have to do is click "Install" in the email and they will be taken to a TestFlightApp.com page that will install the App on their device over the air, no iTunes, no mucking around with profiles, etc.
I tested it this morning actually and I'm very impressed with how easy it is and it also happens to be free.
It is actually possible to install the distribution build if you have once previously installed an Ad Hoc build on your phone. Most people simply never tried it =)
And no jailbreak is required. For step by step instructions, see my answer here:
Testing App Store "Distribution" version