We need to release our Xamarin.Forms app for our customer as ipa-file, so he can release it in his company enterprise store. So my plan for deployment is this:
Customer sends me Distribution Certificate etc.
I create an IPA with these files and send the IPA back
Can i do this within Visual Studio without an apple developer account?
Or do i need to handle it in xcode? (i didn't work with xcode yet).
In order for you to build iOS solutions in Xamarin, you need an Apple Developer Account as this is where your certificates and provisioning profiles are stored.
You can always import a certificate that has been provided by someone else.
Afterwards, you can build your IPA in Visual Studio. You just need to set up a Build Host and use an Ad-Hoc Distribution in your case.
It may seem a bit tedious to configure your certificates and signing identities if you havn't done so before, but we've all been there.
Related
OK, so I created an app using Xamarin. I am wanting to push the app through Visual Studio 2019 on a Windows computer to certain iPhones. I included the my profile on Apple Developer website. You can tell it is ad hoc
Now I am in Visual Studio 2019, you can see I am using the correct provisioning profile
Now when I go to the Archive Manager in Visual Studio 2019 I see a couple of options
When I click Ad Hoc, I only see an option to "Save as". I don't know what to do beyond this point? Unlike when I push App Store, which uploads it to the store.
Please what do I do, what am I missing
That's the idea behind an Ad-Hoc build. The build is used to produce a file that is ready to be installed for the predefined devices. The file type can be either .xcarchive, or .ipa.
Quote from the official docs:
You distribute your app by providing the .ipa file for users to install on their devices. Because you select a valid ad hoc provisioning profile to archive the app, users don’t need to install the profile on their device, only the .ipa file. Users can use iTunes to install the app on their devices. If users want to use Xcode to install the app on their device, share the archive as an .xcarchive file package.
Basically, Apple guides you how to create a package or an archive which will be ready for distribution, but how these files will be distributed is up to the developer.
If you choose Save As in the last step/picture, you will have a distribution-ready .ipa file. You then need to deliver/send this file to the provisioned devices' owners. You can distribute it in 2 ways:
Follow the steps from the documentation. Unfortunately, this means that the user, that will have to have a Mac, in order to install the .ipa file through the iTunes. I haven't tried it on a Windows machine, but I doubt that it will work.
If you wish to simplify the whole installation process, you can go with uploading the file somewhere and sending the link to the users. Here, we can take 2 paths again:
a) Host it on your own. However keep in mind that this will require additional setup. There is plenty of steps only how to achieve this, but here's one way.
How to Install .ipa file to iPhone from Web Link?
b) Host it somewhere else. There are plenty of sites/cloud providers that can handle that for you. Personally, I am using Diawi, but I read somewhere that Dropbox should also work out of the box.
We have a series of iOS Enterprise applications that were built with Telerik Cordova (discontinued in May 2018). Those apps are in the process of being converted to a new platform, but in the mean time they must continue to service client needs.
The distribution certificate the apps were built with is valid for another 14 months or so, but the provisioning profiles expire in a few days. Since these are Enterprise apps they will expire with the profiles.
Unfortunately, Telerik can no longer rebuild the apps using an updated profile for us. We have re-signed the apps using new provisioning profiles (using both iReSign and Terminal). When we try to side-load the resulting IPAs through the XCode Devices panel, we get an error stating that the entitlements do not match and the apps are not installed.
The question was raised as to whether or not we not need to re-sign the apps since the certificates are still valid. Perhaps it would be possible to just replace the .mobileprovision file on the device somehow? I gave it a try using iTunes Sync but I cannot confirm whether the file actually went to the device or not.
Question: Is it possible to just update the *.mobileprovision on the device without re-signing the app? If so, could someone please give me the steps or direct me to a link to perform the steps?
Alternate Question: Otherwise, any thoughts on how to resolve my Entitlements issue? The app only needs Push Notifications, but Game Center and In-App Purchases are also enabled. These are reflected in the App ID and provisioning profile, and the distribution certificate is of type Apple Push Services.
I should point out that I am not an admin on the Apple Developer portal for the project as I am an outside consultant, so my portal access is strictly read-only.
Thanks in advance for any direction provided!
If the applications were distributed to the devices by an MDM, then you can push a new provisioning profile to them using the MDM.
If the applications were installed over the air from a web server or directly using iTunes or Apple Configurator, then you need to replace the entire application package on the device. This requires the app to be re-signed, since the changed .mobileprovision file will change the package signature.
If you don't have the original, app ID with matching entitlements in the developer portal, then you will need to delete the existing application from the device before installing the new, re-signed application. You won't be able to do an in-place upgrade.
I have an iOS Enterprise Account, and I currently use HockeyApp for OTA app distribution. When I want to send an app to HockeyApp that utilizes this license, I make an in-house distribution profile for the app, archive it, and upload the file to HockeyApp, and it works fine. I am the agent of my team on the developer portal.
I want for other members of my team (including a Jenkins instance) to be able to sign applications with the same type of distribution profile that they can make. However, when someone tries to archive an app with the same distribution profile, they are unable to do so. Further, they are unable to apply for a distribution certificate unless they send me the .certSigningRequest file and I apply for it myself, then send it to them (I know this is incorrect but this seems like the only way to get them a certificate).
Basically, what do I need to do to enable another team member to archive an app for enterprise distribution?
Then you'll have to export your certificate and private key from Keychain Access and have others (including the Jenkins machine) import it into their keychain.
See: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH20122?locale=en_US
We have developed an iOS app that has been delivered to the customer as an IPA with an ad-hoc distribution profile that allowed a set of their employees to install it on their devices. The customer now wishes to distribute that app internally to all their employees using their iOS Enterprise Developer program credentials.
I had hoped that the customer could simply re-codesign the ad-hoc IPA with their own enterprise identity. However, they say they can't do that. They say they "need an IPA file with the removal of the limitation to only certain devices".
So, what do I do?
Do I need to somehow create an "unsigned" IPA for them? (And if so, how do I do that?)
Do I need them to generate an Enterprise distribution provisioning profile for me so I can build the app with that profile?
Do I need to just send them the source or build output and let them build the package?
I have looked at the following documents, but they have not enlightened me:
TN2250: iOS code Signing Setup, Process, and Troubleshooting
Distributing Enterprise Apps for iOS Devices
It's completely possible to take any IPA and resign it with your own details, modifying the Info.plist, bundle ID, etc. in the process. I do this all the time with IPAs that have been signed by other developers using their own provisioning profiles and signing identities.
If they aren't familiar with the codesign command line tool and all the details of replacing embedded.mobileprovision files and entitlements, the easiest way for them to do this is for you to "Archive" the app via Xcode, and send them the generated archive file (*.xcarchive).
They can import that into Xcode so it is visible in the Organizer, and from there they can choose "Distribute" and sign it with their enterprise identity.
To import the .xcarchive file into Xcode, they just need to copy the file into the ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives directory and it should appear in the Xcode organizer. Then they click "Distribute" and follow the instructions:
Can I send to my customer a beta version of my iOS app that he can run in the Simulator ?
Can I install Simulator only (without Xcode) on a Mac ?
I actually need an efficient methodology to send him the beta versions of the app, without having to meet him at each update.
Also, (3.) is there a way to install a beta version of the app, I developed in my xCode on its iOS device without app store ?
Thanks
No, I do not believe you can.
No, I don't think so. If you could, however, you'd also have to put all your source code on that machine and build your app there, just to run it in the simulator.
Yes, it's called an Ad Hoc build. You create a special provisioning profile through the provisioning portal on Apple's Developer portal. You then sign the build with that provisioning profile (actually, "Build and Archive"). Then you can, through the Xcode Organizer, share that build via e-mail with your customer. The Organizer creates an .ipa file and includes it along with the provisioning profile into an e-mail message which you can then compose and send.
Edit: The Ad Hoc provisioning profile will, of course, need to include the UDID's of your customer's device(s) on which they would like to test. That is the missing piece here that ties it all together: UDIDs, Ad Hoc profile, signed app with that profile, e-mail it to the customer and they can install both files (ipa and profile) via iTunes.
Lots of documentation on this, right in the Developer portal.
TestFlightApp.com is a great way to easily manage and distribute beta tests and ad-hoc builds. It's nothing you couldn't do yourself, manually, but it really helps make it easy, and is free.