I have a base project, which I would like to re-brand and resell for clients. So my question is: When I branch and create a new project obviously it needs to be a separate entity from the main. Is the only thing that separates these apps during submission the Bundle ID?
Since renaming projects can sometimes be a pain, what I'm doing is:
Creating the branch
Opening it in XCode and changing the Target name, and this changes the bundle ID because it's set to com.whatever.${PRODUCT_NAME:rfc1034identifier}.
So I'm wondering when submitting a new project, is the bundle ID the only thing that needs to be globally unique? or are there more attributes that I would need to change for each new branch/project?
Thanks
From my experience, only the bundle ID needs to be different.
A few things you should notice though:
You probably want the app splash screen / icon / icon label to be different between clients too
Under Build Settings your Code Signing Entity might need to be different too. If you have certificates+provisioning profiles which are specific to the bundle ID, you would have to create new sets of those for every client and use them when building
If you see that you're starting to change resources (like the icon / images for branding / string tables) between clients, using multiple projects and a shared static library may be easier for you. Take all of your shared code and convert it to a static library iOS project, and then create a separate project per client (normal iOS app project) which uses this library. This way all the metadata (like bundle ID, certificates, icons) can be different, and the code be the same.
If your app defines any URL schemes (for example, if you implement login with Facebook you need to do this), these schemes should be different between clients too. If they are the same, you are bound to have collisions when a user installs 2 apps on their device.
And one last tip regarding Apple policy:
If you are planning to submit all of these client apps under your developer account, this may be against Apple policy and your apps might be rejected. Apple wants you to open a dev account (and pay the $99/year) per client..
Related
I have developed one iOS app but I have about 10-13 clients whom I will be selling this app. So, the app is one and I will just change the name on all apps and publish it from same account. Is it allowed by Apple? The source code will be same and the name will be different on apps. The app is built to sale copies to client so it is allowed?
It is possible, but Apple won't be happy about it, the proposed way to do this is to license your apps to the clients instead of placing them on the public app store.
Source: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/7825
Apple does allow one App with different names for different languages.
https://developer.apple.com/internationalization/
So you might use a little trick, where you only "translate" the name of the app and leave everything else as it is.
Yes you can submit the same app with different name.
You just need to create the different targets of the same app. Bundle identifier will be different but the source code will be same.
Here is the link for guiding of target creation-
Multiple target creation
I want to upload two build of same app with little UI changes on app store with different account. Can I upload the builds?
I have an app with multiple client so I want to upload builds for each client with their own account. I have modified the UI for each clients.
Yes, you can. What I do in similar situations is that I use one project for that (as you already have). And then I crate a copy of a target, so that I can customise it (custom logo, custom icon, ...).
To apply customisation in code I take advantage of "Custom Build Configurations". Here on SO I've described how I do this (as of writing it's the third answer to the question) custom Build Configurations
Sure you can, just make sure that the bundle identifier is different.
No issues in doing that. Just take care of the following things which must be different:
Logo
Bundle Identifier (as suggested by Fabio)
package ids of in app purchase items, if any
App preview images/videos
If you are using iAds for showing ads in your app, make sure you do not use the same provider account.
I'm in the process of starting to develop an IOS/Swift App with a Framework to share common logic with a Today Widget and I have some questions about the Bundle Identifier:
If I choose something as org.whateverIwant.TestBundleID for the App, should whateverIwant.org really exist or is it simply a unique identifier?
If I later add an a Cocoa Touch custom Framework to the project, it asks me for a Product Name (TestBundleIDFramework) and then it appends by default the product name to org.whateverIwant without TestBundleID. Instead, if I add a Target for a Today Extension it appends the Product Name (TestBundleIDExtension) to org.whateverIwant.TestBundleID. Given the fact that all the three parts (App, Today Extension and Framework) are part of the same app that I'll upload to the store, is this way of using BundleIDs correct? Should also the Framework be under org.whateverIwant.TestBundleID, such as org.whateverIwant.TestBundleID.TestBundleIDFramework as for the Today Extension?
Is it extremely important to chose the right Bundle ID at the beginning of the project (consider that I still have no developer account, I'll pay for it as soon as I see that I'm able to build the app I'd like to) or can it be changed without hassle later on?
An brief OT question: there is a Version field for each target, what is the one that Apple looks at when determining if the uploaded bundle (App+Extension+Framework) has been updated to a new version?
No. It is simply an unique indentifier.
You mentioned three: "App+Extension+Framework" I think only the App's bundle ID matters because you are going to submit the App. The Extension and Framework are just part of the App, theirs bundle IDs are internal which means nothing to App store.
You can change the bundle ID as long as you haven't submitted your App to App Store.
OT Question: App Store only cares about your App's bundle ID and version number.
I want to have two version of the same IOS app to stay in the same time in the same device, one for testing and the other for production.
The app is built using phonegap build, so what I have done is
using two different bundle id specified in build.xml (edit: config.xml), so that one is dk.xxxDev.mobile, and the other one is dk.xxx.mobile
having two different apps in the apple developer page, so now I still have the previous one for dk.xxx.mobile and the new one dk.xxxDev.mobile
building using two different provisioning file, one for each app (one is using a developer profile, while the other is using an ad hoc certificate, but i guess we don't care about it)
Still, every time I deploy using itunes or testflightapp, one app overwrites the other one! What am I doing wrong?
edit: I Also changed
- the tag "name" in the build.xml (so that testflightapp can distinguish them )
- I'm using different filnames when I add the app to iTunes
Can you check if the 2 versions of the app generate are using the same IPA file name?
The file naming convention for the Mpbile Apps is as follows:
app_name.version.IPA file
iTunes in the Mac or in the PC store the mobile apps in IPA format and if they are using the same name, installing one will override the other. This is a valid question for Apple Support and this is something that a future version of iTunes may fix.
I was doing something different from what I wrote, I was probably using the same certificate for both versions.
So doing exactly what I wrote, it is supposed to work.
You need to change bundle identifier of one of the apps
Select Project in Xcode, then select target and in general tab you will see bundle identifier string.
e.g. com.YourCompane.AppName change "AppName"
I'm a novice iOS developer and got my iOS developer program account, I setup the iOS certificate and Provisioning Profile and I can run my test app on my device(iPad). My question is if I want to run different test apps(imagine couple Apple sample codes) on my device without replacing the last tested app on my device(I mean keep all of them on my device at the end of test) what would be the trick here? I know each app has it's own bundle identifier, but how to manage this scenario for running all of them on the device with the same iOS Certificate/Provisioning Profile?
Just change the Name of the project and it should refactor. Change the name on the root of files & folders in xcode. You can click on it and it'll let you change the name. In Build Settings Properties change the name under there as well. Click at the very top of your list of files where it says the name of your project and it'll bring up the build properties.
If I understood you correctly, there are two parts of your questions:
Yes, you can run many (distinct) apps on your device.
To have multiple version of the same app running on your device, all you need is change app's product name to a different name, app1, app2, etc. It is a relatively easy process to do it. This SO Q/Aenter link description here has the instructions. You do not need to rename your project or any thing else. Just make a copy of the project and follow the instructions to make a new product name.