I'm developing an iOS app that is going to be used internally within our organization, and do not intend to publish it to the App Store.
I have some elementary questions to which I can't seem to get correct answers despite some research.
Since the company owns the code, in which name should an Apple ID be created?
Once the app is ready to be deployed to the device, in whose name should I purchase the developer program?
Should I go for the corporate purchase where it asks for DUNS number of the corporation? In such cases, should I rely on the purchase departmentof my company to make the actual purchase?
Also, how do I sign the app? I believe it asks for an email id to generate the key. Can this ID be mine?
Finally, How do I add more team members who can support or add new features to the app in my absence?
How can I provide them access to build the app (code signing).
The intention is to have an ID to test the app in real devices. The test machines are in Country 1 and Country 2. So, if I purchase the ID from Country 1, can I use the same ID to test the devices in Country 2 too. Is there any restriction in doing that?
We would like to test the app in iPhone and iPAD. Is there a limitation in number of devices to be added to a developer ID?
We have an apple ID in Country 1 and another apple ID in Country 2, since we have two Mac machines, 1st in Country 1 and 2nd in Country 2. Whether both apple IDs can use the same developer ID?
Appreciate the answers and sorry for the long list of questions.
Thanks,
Mathew Liju
You have three choices: With a "normal" developer account, you can manually install an app on a reasonably large number of devices; I think it is about 100. Usually this is used to give an app to testers. With a "corporate" developer account, you can distribute an app on all devices owned by your company. Your company has to sign some contracts; you are not allowed to distribute outside your company. And with a "normal" developer account again, you can put the app on the app store. However, anyone can then download it, and Apple will be testing it and can reject it.
Up to 20 or 50 devices I'd go with the "normal" developer account. I have one private account, and one belonging to the company - your company should probably buy one "normal" developer account and then any developers in the company can use it. You can always start with that account, and if the number of users grows, buy a corporate account.
Yes you need the corporate purchase where it asks for DUNS number of the corporation.
You will be able to make ipa files that aren't tied to specific devices.
Also for testing you will be able adhoc builds.
You will not be able make builds for App Store.
All other is the same as with developer program.
Related
i have developed and uploaded an ios app into the App Store Connect. The app is going to be used only within our company.
I should select "Available for private distribution to specific organizations..." option but it's disabled (greyed out). In January i published 2 apps in same way and i was able to select the b2b option.
Now that option is greyed out and i have no idea what's different this time. Obviously all agreement (taxing..etc) signed as i already published 2 apps in January. Also the app is free, selected country is UK, everything filled as with the other apps.
I am sure i am missing something but can't work out what's that.
Apple gave the answer in email:
“Available for private distribution to specific organizations on Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager” option is available only if you've agreed to the latest iOS Paid Apps contract even when your app is free."
If there are 2 or more developers who have developed the App for AppStore, How can they have both of their names displayed below the app together?
Also, do they all need to have a developer account or one is enough?
You need a single paid developer agreement.
Only the legal name of the entity (person or company) that entered into the developer distribution agreement with Apple will be shown on the App Store.
You can have whatever credits you want inside the app
You can also used the description on the App Store page to add a second name. So if you’re developer account is in the name of a company you could put in your description the names of the lead developers.
If it is an individual toss a coin for whose name appears in the developer section then put both names in the description.
It is not possible. That's exactly why there is the enterprise account, so you can have teams and upload apps as a company.
However, it is possible to transfer the app from one account to another, but never two accounts at the same time.
Hi I developed one business app for my customers(SALES PERSONS) it integrate with ERP ,
this app distributed to many Sales Person iPad's by Developer provisioning profile.
My bad time Developer provisioning profile have one year validity only..
How can I distribute my app to my sales persons iPads with life time provisioning profile.
*This app is not uploaded App store because business purpose only.
Is there any other way to business app distribution methods?
Please share your ideas ..
I hope it will help me...
Thanks...
You or your organisation resprectively need an enterprise account. It is a bit more expensive, has higher application criteria and a stronger contract but enables you to do exactly that.
See Apple's docs for details.
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
If you use the ad hoc provisioning profile distribution, as you did, you meet at least two problems:
A limited time your users can use the app (the ad hoc provisioning profile has a limited duration)
A limited number of users can run the distributed app (remember that you can use at maximum 100 devices per year for testing, and from the Apple's point of view your users are just testers)
In general, to achieve what you want with iOS, you have a couple of options, but probably no one of them perfectly fit your needs:
Registers with the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.
In this case you can distribute your app without submitting it to the App Store,
but this method works only if your users are employees of your company
Enrolls in the Volume Purchase Program for Business
(VPP Business Guide).
In this case you can submit your app, in a restricted number of
Countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy,
Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan), to a limited
number of users, through a sort of parallel App Store.
This procedure is intended for companies that fit the following requirement:
big companies (that have a DUNS number) that hire a company that develops a Business
app for them (aka marks the app as Business and related to that particular company during the app creation in the iTunes App Store). The app will not be visible in the traditional App Store.
Maybe this second case can be your case, in case you are realizing the app for a DUNS company. Please consider that in this case the company itself (and not you) establishes who can install the app by sending it to the selected target users in different ways (promo codes, links to the app store,...).
I don't see other options at the moment.
Here is a link provided by apple themselves on how to distribute in-house business apps.
http://www.apple.com/business/accelerator/deploy/app-distribution.html
I'm not going to copy everything over cause there is quite a lot, but it basically says you can distribute your apps over a wireless network using a private server and an Enterprise Distribution provisioning profile.
Another link that is from that site is http://help.apple.com/iosdeployment-apps/mac/1.1/#app43ad8905 which gives a walkthrough on how to set this all up.
If you have any questions just ask. I have given a basic summary but I can go into more detail if you don't understand.
We are developing an app specifically to a single customer's requirements and want to put it in the hands of their evaluation team (3 people) as we go along. Before we release the product, we'll be going with enterprise distro but we need to figure out this interim step.
Get an iOS developer account for $99 and register the devices of those three people to your account.
I use a company called testflight, they are at testflightapp.com They make it pretty easy to distribute an application to testers when you have an ios developer account.
At my company, we have the customer sign up for the $99 developer program and manage their own devices, then have them add our developers as developers (surprise), and make special builds for their devices.*
We also recently had a (larger) client sign up for an enterprise account so they could distribute our builds to their employees for testing w/o having to manage UDIDs.
Takes the ball out of your court, but it does seem to adhere to the Apple standards.
*: We frequently end up releasing these custom builds to the app store via the customer's developer account, which (IIRC) is also in line with Apple standards. If the app is branded by/exclusively for a given company, it makes sense.
I work in a company, a client ordered an internal iOS app for his company.
What am I supposed to do to give him the application only for his devices without appstore? Do I need a special developer account? Thanks.
To distribute iOS applications internally or to a limited number of clients, you will need to be member of the Apple iOS Developer Enterprise Program, currently the price is $299 / year. For more information, take a look at this article at developer.apple.com.
If the number of devices is less than 100 per year (including all replacement and upgrade devices), the client can get their own iOS Developer enrollment and use Ad Hoc deployment.
If you use your own developer account, you may run out of allowed devices, and end up out of business till next year. So that's not recommended. Have the client enroll, and then have them let you use their account for deploying apps for their devices.
Ad Hoc app deployment requires renewing certificates and provisions every year to keep the apps running.
If the number of the client's iOS devices is much greater than 100, then for deployment to stock OS iOS devices, you may have no choice but to submit the app to Apple's app store.
I contacted Apple Support regarding to this question, and got this answer:
Thank you for contacting Apple Developer Support regarding our programs.
Companies who wish to work with consultants or contractors should themselves enroll their company in the iOS Developer Program Standard or Enterprise program. The developer should keep in mind that the employee submitting the enrollment must have authority by their company to bind the company to legal agreements on behalf of the company. At this time, each client must have their own Apple Developer Account if located outside of the US.
Once accepted in to the program, the company may then add their consultant or contractor to their Team Member list as a user or admin. The company Team Agent would then later submit their application to the App Store under their own company account/name.