I am programming an iOS app for somebody living in a different state. Last time I finished an update for him to test, he had to drive over to get it on his iPad.
He's all set up with provisioning profiles and such. Last time I just hit "Run" in xcode and it ran on his iPad.
Is there a way to send him the app as a link in an email? The app is very small (around 20mb). He doesn't have a mac so he can't open the xcode file, but he does have iTunes.
What other (preferably free) way could I send him the app via internet to test?
Thanks in advance
If you are targeting iOS 8+ you can actually setup Beta and Sandbox testers directly in iTunes Conenct, without needing any device UUIDs, just email addresses. This makes it a synch to setup and manage, without caring about which device[s] someone owns.
Just go to iTunes Connect > Users and Roles. There you can add people. Then going into your actual application, you can assign people to participate in testing. You then just upload your application via Xcode (like you would for a release) and lastly, approve that build for prerelease, which will allow all of your testers to install it.
Original Post:
We use Ad Hoc distribution to handle this. It took us awhile to get it all working but once we did it has worked amazingly for all of our beta testers. We send new updates of our app to a handful of people to test before we push updates.
Here is a tutorial that may help.
You can use Ad Hoc provisioning profile for his device and archive your project for Ad Hoc.
Related
I have an Xcode app that I have just finished developing. I do not wish to put this app on the App Store. Instead I would like to build the app and then serve it over my local host, so anyone connected to the URL on my network can simply download the app and use it.
How exactly can I achieve this?
One issue I am running into when selecting the organizer after archiving is that the buttons for export is grayed out. I am signing as my (personal team) but it does not seem to cooperate. How can I do this?
You have a few options here:
Enterprise developer account
Additional cost and can't upload to AppStore, users when installing for the first time have to trust the developer before the app will run
Ad Hoc profile
Requires adding UDIDs for all of the devices that you want to be able to run. Profiles will eventually expire (12 months I think). Would usually use this option with a service like HockeyApp/Diawi
Testflight
If you use internal testers then limited to 100 users that have to be invited to the Apple developer tea. If using external testers then can have much higher number of users, but app has to go through a short review process similar to when submitting for review to the app store
I have just developed our new iOs app and deployed it through iTunes to my iPhone.
I don't want to use the app store because it's an internal app. I would like to be able to send a link to the ipa and for someone to be able to download it and install it through iTunes. Is that possible?
The only solution I have came across so far is registering the receiver iPhones in my provisioning and use the ad-hoc deployment process.
We used to have an ipa that would install as described on any iPhone without any kind of registration.
I am bit confused between ad-hoc distribution and in-house distribution...
Would paying €299 for an organization account solve that?
Thanks!
Victor
Yes, you will need to shell out those €299 if you ever wanna get into serious app development.
Yes, you are correct, registering the receiver iPhones in my provisioning and use the ad-hoc deployment process can be done easily but will start to wear you out once the number of test devices start to go up.
This Apple Doc is the perfect guide to get you started with setting up an internal distribution host service.
I recently finished an application in Unity for a client who runs a sporting event and wanted the app to let the referees keep a more accurate log of the statistics of each game. When building for android, i get a single file that i can send to my device and install it/run it. The part that i have some questions is re-building that same project for IOS.
I know i MUST have xcode which means i MUST have a mac OS, but here are a few questions that i am unaware of.
1) With the most recent release of xcode, developers dont need the $99 apple developers kit to produce something and test it on their device. From what i learned, is it true that you need to verify each device you send the application to in order to test it?
2) Is there a way to compile the IOS application in a way that i can get a single file, or even a folder, and send it via email to my client, at which point they can download the file to their phone and have the application installed?
3) What is the easiest route i can take in order to get my application into ~30 peoples iphones without individually signing each phone to my application?
Thankyou for your help!
You will have to remove this question as what i understand this is a programming site, Please find the answer for reference below as per your question order.
with xCode 7.0 you can do this, we dont need any licenses and its free for any number of devices to test , refer :- link
Yes you can generate a executable which is termed as iPA , but if you want anyone else to install the iPA, either you will have to generate this using a enterprise profile, or you wil have to add you client device id while generating the profile on apple developer protal :- refer :- link
post which they can install the iPA using itunes
This is not possible as per my knowledge, as Apple has strict poilicies as you cant distribute witout their knowledge. that is the reason of having the apple developer account at first place.
Hope the following helps:
1) For testing on your local device XCode should set up proper provisioning files for the development builds of your app automatically once you purchase a developer license.
2) I build Enterprise Ad Hoc applications for a large publicly traded client and I'm able to send the compiled .IPA file to the client and have him test it by installing it via iTunes after I've signed it with a production certificate through XCode. He tests the app using that method before using a third party vendor to distribute the app on their corporately owned iPhones. The same should work if you sign your application with a production cert, although the aforementioned may be limited to the enterprise account's certificate.
3) If you're trying to remotely install a development version of the app on a test phone you will need to verify the phone via UDID in the Apple Developer center for AdHoc distribution, or use the TestFlight method. You can read more about how to do both of these methods here.
Hope this answer will help you out & good luck!
I think for that what you want you need a Paid Apple Developer because it is not possible (without Jailbreak) to install Apps which are not from the AppStore in iOS. So you have to "test" the App on each iPhone you want the App to run on, or you have to publish it to the AppStore, where you can set, that only specific Apple-IDs may download your app.
Thanks luca4499 and Max. I guess the $99 apple dev kit is the way i'm going to have to go then.
To clarify to other users interested in the same questions.
You can develop for multiple people without using the dev kit as long as your list of people isnt changing often, or you are ok with adding each device separately.
If you want to distribute your application, the easiest way is to get the apple dev kit.
I have a system which I want to present to potential investors. It is a client / server system and the client runs on mobile devices.
The client can only be used when certain people are connected to the server via another app, so I currently don't want to upload it to the app store for public use.
When I present the system to investors I can make sure that the correct people are logged in and run the demo.
I read online and didn't find a suitable distribution mechanism. I don't want to bother my potential investors with details about finding their device ids so I don't think I can use ad-hoc distribution. I can't upload it to the app store because the service isn't available 99% of the time. Any other options"?
Thanks.
Well you options are limited, you can open a new Apple Developers Account for Enterprise distribution. But the license for these distribution does restrict the distribution to company employees only.
You can use the iOS 8 SDK and Xcode 6 to distribute your app to 25 beta tester, wihtout going thru review. And later Apple will allow you to beta test, with app review, for a 100 users.
But for now AdHoC will be your best option, and use something like HockeyApp or TestFlight for the distribution. But using AdHoc does require you to have the device UDID before hand as they need to added to the AdHoc Profile.
Best way to distribute iOS app for testing or demo is to use Testflight. It is much easier then distributing IPA file and letting anyone install it on their iOS device.
I would suggest using TestFlight as it is simple and reliable. The only thing is, you need to register with the device ID. You can send the testFlight build to your selected clients with this.
www.testflightapp.com
Make an enterprise adhoc of your application. Apple allows you to create adhoc of your applciation with 100 users allowed at max.
And then you can demo your application to 100 people.
If you "don't want to trouble the investors with finding their device ids", then test flight is your best options. Your investors just need to install test flight make there account(with really easy steps) on test flight. And accept your invite. After they are are in your team you can easily get there device id by clicking info button next to there name on screen, under people tab of website.
Check this image for detail:
I am working on my iphone app and now I want to send my app to my testers. But how should I send it to them ? Plus, they don't have an Xcode. Is it necessary?
Take a look at Test Flight. We are currently using it and it offers a lot of great tools and is very easy to set up.
testflightapp.com
It distributes it adhoc and then you can push it directly to the testers and allows you to see install statuses. Time spent and other analytic tools.
To answer your other questions. The don't need Xcode. They just need to have their UDID registered on your apple account. They will get sent an email that will ask to download the latest release. The app then installs over the air.
Since iOS 4.0, users have been able to install Ad-Hoc apps over the air. Please note you're required to get the testers' device UDIDs and add them to your device list on developer.apple.com and to the app's the provisioning profile.
You can host the IPA yourself, but I would recommend using TestFlightApp.com.
Macworld wrote a decent article about the gist of it, and TestFlight is fairly straightforward to use, especially since it allows you to send an email or link to your testers and collect the needed UDID from them.
Try diawi.
I find it very simple and very friendly to use. Also there is no wait in the queue type registration stuff. When you open it just drag and drop the .ipa file and the provisioning profile. To verify whether or not your app has been installed, just add your email id in the field mentioned and you will get a confirmatory email about your app installation. For installation at the tester's end they simply need Safari to install the app and the profile.
Below are the steps to create .ipa file (xcode 4.2)
Select iOS Device>Go to Product>Archive>Share>Choose iOS App Store Package (.ipa)>Provide a path to save.
Easily done!!!
From 26 feb 15 Testflight is closed their service...
I have used new link for creating installation link of ipa and distribute link to your client, tester etc.
open this link
http://www.diawi.com/index.php
upload provisioning profile(drag and drop) to their dashboard.
upload ipa(drag and drop) to their dashboard.
click on send button.
after that copy generated link and share to your client and tester.
With iOS 8, Xcode 6, iTunes Connect and TestFlight you don't need UDIDs and Ad Hocs anymore. You will just need an Apple ID from your beta tester. Right now you can only beta test your app with 25 internal testers, but soon 1000 external testers will be available too. This blog post show you how to set up a beta test with internal testers,
http://blog.thebetafamily.com/2014/09/10/testflight-beta-testing-ios-8/