What are the distribution options for inhouse app with less employees? - ios

We have developed an app that works fine in Android and iOS and we tried to distribute in App store for one our customer. Since it is an in house usage app, Apple rejected it.
Our customer has less than 80 employees. So they are NOT eligible to purchase enterprise license for in house distribution either (so we purchased developer license).
Currently we deployed the app for users (only 20 users) using Adhoc method (connected the device in mac to deploy).
But they want to put the app in a centralized place where new users can download it and install it in their phone without connecting the device to mac (they need us on site to do it).
What are our options?
What is the apple business manager? will that help us?
Appreciate your help.
thanks,
Sri

If you want to distribute application for inhouse for some time then please find below link where it will be work for android and iOS both platform and you can provide app version app update with same link.
https://appho.st/
You need to upload latest apk and ipa file and generate link with those file and share it with inhouse tester and client.
For new app version update just upload new apk/ipa file with same account and provide same link to inhouse tester and client.
Apart from it if you have apple developer account then i suggest please use tesflight public tester link.
For android google play account please use open beta testing feature and generate link with it.

Related

How do I upload an application on App Store privately?

I want to upload an iOS app on the App Store. But I want to be privately. So the public can't see the app if they search for it. But everyone with an link for the app, to see it, and download it. Is it possible on the App Store to do this? If not, are other ways to do this?
I understand that on TestFlight I have to add every tester, and the build expires after 90 days. And I don't want that.
No App Store not allow this but you can distribute your app privately using Apple's Developer enterprise program for private distribution. these type of apps hosted on your server.
Read more about the enterprise account : https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/
you can find a article to using the enterprise account : https://medium.com/apps-studio/distributing-enterprise-ios-app-in-house-without-mdm-3ed015009893
You can use this website to upload an IPA file and all the devices added to your account and provision profile would be able to download the app using a url Diawi.
If not then you will have to purchase and enterprise development account from Apple where you can privately host your applications.

How to generate IPA file without apple developer program and without a connected device in Xcode 7.2?

My employer doesn't have an iPhone for testing, they are also not enrolled into Apple's developer program, but they recruited me as an iOS developer.
I was told to create an app and I did it with the help of simulator.
Now, they want me to generate an IPA file of that application for their client who is in another country to test, in his iPhone. Is that even possible?
You will certainly need a developer account if you want to run your app on a physical device (unless that device is jailbroken, which I wouldn't recommend). If your employer hired you as an iOS developer, you need to inform them that a requirement to doing iOS development is a developer account.
If you are going to be writing iOS apps to deploy on client device (which you won't have physical access to), you have a couple of options.
You could have your employer pay for the enterprise developer account ($299/year). This allows you to have an In House Distribution profile, which lets you build an IPA that can run on any iOS device without the need to register the UDID for each device in the provisioning profile.
You could use Apple's TestFlight to deploy the app to your clients' devices. This still requires a paid developer account as you are basically creating an app store build and distributing to others as "beta testers". The app goes through a more lax review process, but it still must have been signed with a distribution certificate, which you only can get with a paid account.
Bottom line, if your company is asking you to develop apps professionally, you need to get them to understand that the $99/year fee is part of the process. IF they can't justify that, they shouldn't be hiring out iOS development jobs.
Without Apple developer's account it is not possible. You would not be able to archive your code either. Have a look at these documents :
Apple's documentation : Exporting Your App for Testing (iOS, tvOS, watchOS)
Stackoverflow : How to export an ipa in Xcode 7
you have to enrolled into Apple's developer program, and add all UDID into you app device ID than generate a provisional profile. install it in xcode than create an archive, zip it and upload to diawi.com. Diawi( https://www.diawi.com/ ) is best solution, It will generate a link which you can give to client and they can install it on their device directly.
I have faced same problem at start of my job :)
- but it is not possible to generate ipa without apple developer account.
- and even if you connect device to deploy then device iOS version and XCode iOS version must be same.
you have to enrolled into Apple's developer program and this is not enough. For over-the-air installation you have to use apple's testflight or hockeyapp like third party apps.

How to distribute iPad App to Customer (B2B) with an iOS enterprise account

My company has an iOS Enterprise Account to distribute In-House Apps. Now we want to develop an app for a customer. The question is: How to deploy the app to the customer's employee's devices? I heard about a "B2B Program", but I wasn't able to find any further details how to deploy to a special Business Store.
I know that there are a lot of discussion about this topic on the net, but I missed the fine details how the process is working in detail.
So what possibilities we have to get the app installed on the customer's employee's iPads?
EDIT: I don't want to invite beta testers or anything similar. I need an official way to install the app on the devices of the customers employees.
Another faster solution then testflightapp is diawi.com.
The link doesn't hold forever but it takes a few seconds to generate a download link.
You either use an archived IPA or a zipped .app , drag it to the relevant part of the site and it generates a download link for you.
We have been using this with a lot of customers with great success.
Just remember - the link is temporary.
Alternatively you can build a simple web page around the IPA file on a server you own (look at the generated diawi page for reference of the tags and info used).
You can also try OTA Distribution process, for more details go through this link.
Here download link is permanent and you don't need to use any third party tool.
How about using a Mobile Distribution Platform like MobileIron?
http://www.mobileiron.com
A few clients at my work use them and their services are pretty good.
I'm doing this for a client now. B2B is, I think, not what you want. Enterprise distribution is intended, by Apple, for in-house distribution. 'In-house' extends as far as out-of-house reps, and even independent contractors who use your client's in-house business app.
Your client should purchase his own Enterprise Developer's certificate, or ask you to purchase one for him. Use that certificate and associated provisioning profile to publish the app (in the usual way using the 'Ad-Hoc' distribution type). Then deploy over-the-air.

Ways to deploy custom iPhone application? Outside the US

we run a small software company in Guatemala and we're having a bad time deciding/investigating how to deploy an app we were hired to develop.
The current options are, enrolling on the enterprise program, but does that means that we are as a third party cannot do that? How do we get the DUN for our client? (we would jump the app store validation)
Enroll to the traditional developer program and have our application sold via the B2B portal, but Guatemala is not listed as a country where our customer can enroll (and as a custom app we dont know if the approval process would approve our app)
Please any previous experience you can share is welcome.
You can go with below steps:
1) Create developer account on Apple. (You may ask to client to create it).
2) Request client to provide devices UDID number on which, they will test your app. (You can achieve this by going to iTunes, once device connected).
3) Create AppID, provisional profile with client UDID added.
4) Create AdHoc bundle and sent to client for testing the app.
5) Just check the AppStore from where your client can download app from app store. And simple upload the app on AppStore and check that country only.
Note:
To deploy app on App Store, you need developer account. You can not deploy app on App Store with Enterprice account.
Hope, you got an idea of whole process.
Let me know in case of any difficulty.
Cheers!
As stated above in comment. You need to have developer account, to create provisioning profile having device UDID attached.
In your case, you can request your client to create developer account or enterprise account for you or request his client to create developer or enterprise account.
You can also use TestFlight which is great tool for sharing enterprise applications for iOS.
Hope this info helps you.

Deploying an iOS Application Using Apple Enterprise Developer Program

I have created an application for a company that I need to deploy. The application is for internal use only so it will not be available on the App Store. Do I need a UDID for each individual on whose device the app will be installed? That would be impossible since there are 500 employees. Does anyone have a good documentation or experience on deploying the iOS iPhone application using the Enterprise Developer Program only.
With the Apple ENTERPRISE Developer Program you can NOT distribute an App in the Apple AppStore.
Its purpose is to collaborate an In-House App in your own company.
The Enterprise account does not necessarily need the UDID of your target devices. You can for instance also use a link which remotely installs the app directly on the device.
You can find more details here: https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/
If you are trying to deploy applications to customers/users on a production/long term basis, you can deploy an applications outside the apple store in three ways:
manually via iTunes
directly via iTunes Configuration utility
via weblink (sent via mms, email, webbrowser etc.)
In order to distribute an application this way, the application must have a special corporate signature, and each device must have a matching corporate signature installed manually.
The best overall explanation for the process is available at this link.
If you're just testing on a handful of test devices, then you I would suggest two approaches:
a dev release to a test device follow step by step instructions here.
Or you can use a helper application to deploy a beta release: testflightapp.
You can do distribute your iOS app to only a particular set of people (in your case, your company employee), by following these procedure
Get a apple enterprise developer account
Create a distribution certificate and provisioning profile
(In-House) using your enterprise developer account
Archive the ipa file using the created certificate and
provisioning profile
While saving the ipa, click on the check mark. So, the plist file
is also created.
Host the plist and ipa file in your server
Include a download html file with a href tag with src
"itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://mydomain.com/apps/MyInHouseApp.plist"
Now when you click on the link from your device the app will get downloaded.
I don't agree with the previous answer. Check this document page 26.
MDM servers can deploy both App Store apps and in-house enterprise
apps to devices over the air. Both paid and free App Store apps can
be managed by an MDM server using Volume Purchase Program (VPP)
managed distribution.
Once you have VPP and Enterprise Developer account you could be able to install apps in the app store or company owned apps into the managed devices.
Further for just deploying the in-house app you could follow this 9 step process.
If you need to deploy to many devices i suggest AirWatch. I've used it many times, it can be a bit frustrating to set up but once you have it working its very nice to have.
Testflight still requires udid and the limit is 100 for 1 year before you can reset. Enterprise deployment is best method for in house apps.

Resources