Database Reference
In-Depth Information
/usr/bin/xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication \
-v build/BuggyWhipChat.app -o dist/BuggyWhipChat.ipa \
--embed certs/BuggyWhipChatAdHoc.mobileprovision
You also need to make sure that if you build your application on a different machine
(such as in the scenario described in
Chapter 3
), that you also import the new profile
into the keychain on the build machine—otherwise it will fail.
Now, assuming that the build process deposits the
.ipa
file in a location that the test
community can access, they can simply grab the newest copy of the file and install it
with iTunes.
A Better Mousetrap for Ad Hoc Infrastructure
Once you've been around the merry-go-round a few times with the Ad Hoc process, it
will grow tiresome—trust me. Fortunately, there are now alternate ways to make your
job easier. The two best known are TestFlight and Apperian (which will be discussed
in the next chapter). I've been using TestFlight with great success, so that is what I'll
talk about here, but Apperian is supposed to work in much the same way. Additionally,
you can roll your own version of TestFlight and deploy an Ad Hoc build to your own
web server, using tools such as iOS Beta Builder and Hockey, but TestFlight offers such
a (free) soup to nuts solution that I'd be hesitant not to use it unless you are philo-
sophically opposed to a cloud-based solution.
TestFlight doesn't eliminate the pain of having to create new Ad Hoc profiles and
rebuild the app when devices are added, but it does get you out of the business of having
to collect the UDIDs, and notify the testers when there are new versions of the app. It
also lets testers install the app without needing to run iTunes—they can do it directly
from the device. Here, in a nutshell, is how it works.
You begin by going to
http://testflightapp.com
and registering (
Figure 7-5
). Once you've
registered, you can upload the Ad Hoc IPA file to TestFlight, and TestFlight will au-
tomatically cross-reference the UDID numbers embedded in the Ad Hoc profile with
known devices that have been registered with TestFlight. You can then add these people
to your test team with a single click. Now when you upload new versions of your app
to TestFlight, they will automatically receive emails telling them to update, and if they
open the email on their device, they'll get a link that will do it automatically without
needing to sync to iTunes.
Even better, you can provide a short URL to new testers, and if they browse to the page
on their devices, they can self-register for testing. You still get to approve them—and
best of all, you get a copy of their UDID, so you can just paste it right into the portal.
If you have a lot of people at once, you can even download a file with a list of all the
UDIDs and device names, which you can then upload into the portal.
