Is there a "Cheat sheet" for submitting an iOS app to the App Store
App is tested and ready for submission
Distribution provisioning profile is created and downloaded
When attempting to add the distribution provisioning profile to the Library > Provisioning profiles - I get a "Valid signing identity not found"
I have spent a whole day going thru fragmented pieces of information but there seems to be no information that would outline the whole workflow - does apple make it this difficult for a reason.?
Try this two parts series tutorial "How to submit your app to Apple".
http://www.raywenderlich.com/8003/how-to-submit-your-app-to-apple-from-no-account-to-app-store-part-1
Edit: 2nd part of the tutorial:
http://www.raywenderlich.com/8045/how-to-submit-your-app-to-apple-from-no-account-to-app-store-part-2
This isn't quite a workflow, but it's the most comprehensive list I know of things to check pre-submission: https://ontestpad.com/library/201/ios-app-store-submission-checklist
It's by no means a step-by-step walkthrough, but if you can answer yes to every item and still have issues submitting, I'll be surprised.
Although you can use the various online list to help check if you've forgotten anything, nothing beats reading all of Apple's documentation, all of it, including documentation in the iOS Developer Center, iOS Provisioning Portal and iTunes Connect, plus your Standard Developer agreement. Apple's documentation is their latest word, which changes from time-to-time, and includes tons of details not on all of the summary lists, stuff that could potentially get you into trouble if you don't understand all of these details.
Keeping up with the various iPhone/iOS developer forums on the various mistakes that developers occasionally make, and on interesting new or unexpected reasons for app rejections, also helps.
Related
I am now preparing to submit a new app to the Apple iTunes store, and I have a question with regard to the guidelines, which rose when I read through the guidelines.
What are the things I need to submit for an app review?
If my app is rejected, on what grounds can I exactly appeal?
Is it possible to resubmit an app for review, after taking into consideration the possible points for rejection have been corrected, and if so, what is the exact procedure?
What is the minimum time period that will be taken for a review, the first time and for an update? (I read that review can be expedited under certain grounds, but I am referring here to the normal update process)
Thanks in advance.
I will try to give you as much information as I can, but you should search more on the Internet or SO, because I'm sure there are plenty of answers.
Anyway, this is a possible duplicate, but here are some informations :
First of all, your questions are too broad. What do you mean? You want to know the process?
In order to submit an App to the AppleStore, you need Production Certificate.
You can check if everything is setup properly by checking your signing options :
Open xCode, click on your target, general tab, Signing part.
Here is the Apple Documentation.
You can also check everything on the Apple Developer Website.
You have to Archive your App, xCode - Product - Archive.
Then you can export it with the Organizer.
When you have your .ipa file, you can upload it for submission with Application Loader Xcode - Open Developer Tool - Application Loader.
The process might be painful the first time, but after two or three Release, you will handle it easily.
Your App might be rejected for plenty of reasons, anyway Apple will send you an email containing the reason if your App is rejected.
The delay may vary, sometimes it took 2 or 3 days, sometimes 10+.
When your App is finally accepted, log in on iTunes Connect, and you will find the "+ Version" option on the left.
It will enables you to deploy the build you want on the AppStore.
Hope it will help, don't hesitate to search on the Internet, or look documentations, tutorial.
Good luck for your release.
I am using XCode 6 and building the IPA. I have been following many posts in Stackoverflow and have gather information and the steps as to how to create the provisioning profiles and build the IPA.
I have been able to build the AdHoc IPA and have been successful in deploying it in my device. The application gets launched and is running fine. Now my query is that, as I am able to install the application on my device without any issues, does it mean that the IPA when uploaded to Apple will also get approved. (I am not using any private APIs. I am building my application using Appcelerator).
No, it doesn't mean that at all.
You've proven only the following:
That you have an app that compiles.
That you have an appropriate provisioning profile to load to your device.
Apple cares about a lot more than just that. For instance, you say it's "running fine", but Apple will test it fairly thoroughly to see if they can get it to crash. From personal experience, they might even find a crash that you can't replicate on your end (which is terribly frustrating!).
Also, Apple has gotten more picky about their approval process. I submitted an app that had an extra feature that linked to another app that was related but distinct. Apple ruled that my app was incomplete as it required another app to be fully-functional. What did I do? I removed the extra feature, and then Apple approved the app. Yes, I took away a feature and my app went from "incomplete" to "complete". My point? Apple's review process is fairly subjective and it can depend on who looks at your app and what kind of day they're having.
On your first app submission, be prepared for several back-and-forth sessions where they reject your app and you have something to fix. On the plus side, they're generally pretty specific about the problem they found, so it makes it easier to fix it!
You may get approved the first time out, but it's a higher bar you have to pass than just the items you mentioned in your post.
EDIT
Also, you need to make sure that you have an appropriate Distribution profile. For loading to your device, you are most likely using a Development profile. Make sure you've gone through the steps to create an App Store Distribution Profile (which also required a Distribution Certificate, by the way).
For the last couple of days I have been struggling trying to set up the enviroment to test in app purchase in xamarin. Their docs page is not very clear on what it needs to be done, at least for me.
For what I have researched, I need to sign a contract with apple, which requires me to give apple some information about my bank account, taxes, etc. That information is going to take a little while, maybe a week. So without contract, can I test in the sandbox mode in app purchase?
So far, I have created a development provisioning profile, my app id and bundle id as well, the products which I am going to sell within my app, and my test users. I tried getting product info from my device, but it did not work, no error, or app crash. Probably I am missing something here which causes this behavior.
I read in this page that I need to install my provisioning profile and configure xcode to sign the app with this profile. How do I do this in xamarin studio?
Also, I need to tell xcode whats the application bundle id, again, how do I do this?
I read the In-App Purchase Programming Guide and gave me an overall understanding about the architecture needed to implement in app purchases, but I am failing on the little details.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you very much.
CraigD's answer to this may help: IAP ( In App Purchase ) sample for MonoTouch?
It doens't touch on live testing per se, but Craig's github example may help you with those details of implementation.
I would like to distribute an App preview to a musician that I am working with. He is not an employee of my company but offered me to do the game sountrack for free.
I have checked on the iOS Provisioning Portal and found the following dislcaimer:
"Important: Your iOS Developer Program membership can be terminated if you provide pre-release Apple Software to anyone other than employees, contractors, and members of your organization who are registered as Apple Developers and have a demonstrable need to know or use Apple Software in order to develop and test applications on your behalf. Unauthorized distribution of Apple Confidential Information (including pre-release Apple Software) is prohibited and may subject you to both civil and criminal liability."
According to this I can only distribuite preview apps to test developer that I somehow employ. This excludes the case of friends working for free on non coding matters (e.g. musician).
Does anyone of you had a similar concern?
Thank you very much!
EDIT2:
I posted again this question on new post with additional details as Apple replied to me on this matter and did provide a different answer than the ones below. I have tried to add comments to those answers but this question doesn't seem to have any more visibility and need to solve this quickly, so thought that that was the way to go.. let me know if this is not correct. Thanks!
That's for pre-release Apple Software such as the beta a new version of iOS. You can send your own app to your friend so that he can test it, but you can't give him access to pre-release Apple Software and other confidential information.
Here is a guide that shows how you can send the app to beta testers, and here is a web application that makes the process easier.
Also Apple's Tools Workflow Guide says:
it’s always a good idea to perform wider testing with a representative sample of your app’s potential users. Such testing may reveal issues that surface only with particular usage patterns. An app tester is a potential user of your app who is not part of your development team but is willing to test it before it’s released through the App Store.) Adding app testers to your group of testers exposes your app to a variety of usage styles. You can collect and analyze crash reports (also known as crash logs) from these testers to resolve execution problems.
Nope, I think you misunderstood. You can distribute your own app as an Ad-Hoc to your friends whoever is a developer or not. However, there's a 100 devices limitation. And Apple is encourage you to do so before submit your app to App Store.
You cannot test your app the same way the users of your app will use it. They have different data and different usage patterns. Before publishing your app on the App Store, put it through real-world testing to find and solve as many problems as possible.
You can refer to THIS DOC to find out how to publish your App for user testing.
I've been trying to find some guidelines on the overall process for releasing an iOS app. The documentation on Apple's iOS Dev Center doesn't seem clear. I've found some sites that try to explain aspects of the process, but I haven't been able to find a clear, conscise guide that explains some of my questions, such as:
What do I have to do within my project (ie info.plist file changes, target/build settings, etc.)
I am using In-App Purchases. It is working in my sandbox, but what do I need to do (if anything else) to make sure this works when my app is released? As far as I can tell from what I've read, there is no way to test this in live environment until after the app appears on the app store.
Is there any other provisioning/certificates needed beyond what I have used when developing my app?
Anything else that I am overlooking?
If you know of a site (or sites) that explains this in more detail, it would be much appreciated. After searching for hours I can't seem to find answers to these questions.
Thank you.
Have you seen this document from Apple on "preparing for app store submission"? It's pretty clear on the steps you have to take to get onto the app store.
In short:
No specific changes, but you have to archive for a device rather than building for testing.
In App Purchasing will work on the app store without any more configuration
You need a distribution certificate for when you build an archive for the app store, make it in your iOS Provisioning Portal, under Provisioning page and Distribution tab.