how to test and debug IOS Flutter app on Windows? - ios

I'm making app for IOS with Flutter but I'm on Windows. How can I test and debug my app on Windows? Is it possible? Thanks

It's not possible to test it directly from Windows. To build and test an iOS app you have to have a Mac.
Nonetheless, there are workarounds. For example, you could use a tool like Appollo (https://github.com/Appollo-CLI/Appollo) to build and test iOS apps on Windows.
Install the tool through your terminal
pip install appollo
Configure Appollo to work with your Apple Developer Account : https://appollo.readthedocs.io/en/master/tutorial/2_configure_app_store_connect.html
And then you can either start a build in configuration to access your remote Mac and configure XCode or test your app in the iOS simulator.
appollo build start --build-type configuration
Or build an IPA to test on your local device
appollo build start --build-type ad-hoc

Related

Running flutter app in real iOS device [Windows]

I've been searching similar questions but ended up with concerns regarding the actual deployment. I have no problems deploying ios version because I'm using codemagic.
My question here is if it is possible to perform flutter run if I connected an iphone? Like how I use my android device and have USB Debugging enabled.
There are cases that some functions work in android but doesn't in iphone. So if it possible to run my app in an iphone and debug it, I'll just buy an iphone instead of mac since my windows machine is very capable.
Technically you have to own a Mac to build iOS apps. You can use external service to do something similar to what you want though. You will never be able to plug your iPhone to your computer and update your app but you can build an app and install it on your iphone.
For example with Appollo. In this case you have to install Appollo from your CLI
pip install appollo
Then configure Appollo to work with your developer account.
Finally, you can build an IPA file
appollo build start --build-type ad-hoc
appollo build ipa
and you can then install this IPA on your physical device.
No, unfortunately you cannot do this because the one who builds the application for iOS is the Mac machine, not the Windows device. So, the problem here is not in connecting the mobile to Windows, but rather in the reliability of building iOS on Mac devices only.

Run Flutter Android Built App on IOS Device

I am very new to flutter and require your help.
I have built my complete flutter app for android, and now I want to test the same on Iphone, how is it possible?
I tried few tutorials starting with "flutter build ios --release" , but nothing is working for me
You need to have a mac, or use codemagic or get macOS on the VirtualBox on your windows system!
Xcode is required to build and release iOS app. You must use a device running on macOS.
Please refer official doc : https://docs.flutter.dev/deployment/ios
After successfully configuration, use flutter build ios command to build iOS app.
You need to have a Mac and Xcode to build and release iOS app.
However, you can use simple external tools to do so.
For example, Appollo (https://github.com/Appollo-CLI/Appollo), it is a python CLI that lets you access remote MacOS build machines.
You can install it with:
pip install appollo
You can checkout their Youtube channel for some quick tutorials, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNRrJd4UP0QQRoYF4JOEmA or the official doc, https://appollo.readthedocs.io/en/master/tutorial/index.html

Flutter build IOS on windows

I'm working on a flutter project and I want to build the IPA of my code using windows. I don't want to test the application in my windows I want just to build the IPA. Is it possible to do it. Any help is highly appreciated.
The only way to generate an IPA from you windows machine is by using a CI/CD service like Codemagic using the steps described in this article:
link your repository (Github, BitBucket , or Gitlab).
from settings > build for platforms > IOS
change the .app file you received to .zip and extract it.
You will find a file called Runner.app, put in a folder and compress it back.
change the extension from .zip to .ipa.
And here's your first IOS build without a Mac device.
You cannot build a flutter iOS app directly from Windows. What you can do is use external tools to do it. One of these tools is Appollo (https://github.com/Appollo-CLI/Appollo). It's a python CLI tool that let you access remote MacOS build machines.
Here is a demo of how to create the IPA on windows : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX3DAMwlEfM&t=11s
It's pretty easy to use :
First install it
pip install appollo
Then setup your Apple Developer account with Appollo : https://appollo.readthedocs.io/en/master/tutorial/2_configure_app_store_connect.html
Finally you can build the app and retrieve the IPA
appollo build start --build-type ad-hoc
appollo build ipa
And that's it.

Can I make an app on just 2 IOS devices with flutter on windows?

I need to make an app only for 2 people on their iPhones. Is it possible to build an app with flutter on a windows OS and just install it on those 2 IOS devices? Because I saw that you need a Mac for publishing the app, but what about just installing it for separate devices?
No, it is not possible. For build app for iOS and other Apple's platforms you need to have build tools that available only for macOS.
No you need a MacOS to build app for iOS.
But you can use a tool called Appollo (https://github.com/Appollo-CLI/Appollo) for that.
It's a Python CLI that gives you access to MacOS build machines.
You can do everything from configuring Xcode, generating your IPA file and publishing your flutter app.

Expo / React-Native, Is it there a way to test-run standalone iOS apps on a device/simulator?

I'm using Expo to code my apps with React-Native. I can test my apps on Android devices running them from the Expo client app or building an APK and running it as standalone.
On iOS I can run my app from the Expo client but I couldn't find a way to run the app as standalone. In this case, I would like to test the "native" facebook login functionality.
Is it possible to run an app as standalone (without using the Expo client) on iOS?
Note: I'm trying to avoid going through TestFlight for this, that will make my workflow painfully slow. I am using Mac OS.
Run expo build:ios -t simulator to create an iOS standalone simulator build.
Wait for build to finish, then download and unpack YourAppName.tar.gz
Start an iOS simulator and run xcrun simctl install booted YourAppName.app

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