IOS Apps, how to get them on the devices

I thought I would open this dialog and see what it gets me. I have found that Android apps are pretty easy to install on a phone or tablet etc. Google just made it easy to do. Apple on the other hand not so much.

The only way I know to get an IOS app on to an Iphone is to use Itunes and their store. For that priviledge you need to cough up some dough to Apple. How much I am not sure but seems a yearly event and could run from $100 to $300. And if you choose to not use the Itunes store you have to install it on a Testing Device. See this quote:

"Yes, ahdoc distribution allows you to installed on up to 100 devices (including the ones you use for development), all you have to do is have the paid for developer account (the standard $99 one)."

Once you have a development license (that's the $99) you can then install your app on up to 100 devices, but you have to register them by some phone code number. To put them in the store will cost you some additional bucks.

If you are a serious developer than I suppose that best way is to pay the fees. That is what all apps in the Itune store have done and I think you can install as many as you want as long as you are currently paid up. I'm told the reason is to keep control of things and not fatten their wallets. Hmmmm.

So having said all that, I would like to know if what I am saying is true or if there are other ways to install the IOS apps. Or just any thoughts about the whole IOS app process.

Hello Donald,

I am not an expert in the iOS world then really I can't answer you like I wanted. I contact with one of my friend and App Builder's customer, who have at least one application into the Apple Store (here is, and here is the Android version). This friend of mine promise answer me later (today they are traveling) and at that time I can offer you the information and also learn about. :)

Thanks David for asking about that. I am hoping some folks here who have done the process can chime in also. And if they find it a good deal to sell IOS apps.

I forgot to menion that both Google and Appple take about a 30% cut of your selling fees as well.

i found this link that will take you to the place where you sign up to be an Apple Developer.

https://developer.apple.com/programs/

Hello Donald,

Thanks for the link. Probably they explain the process very well: a pain I don't know why, but Apple does not convince me at all. I think, for mobile purposes, Android is better, and, I also want to take a look at Windows 10. Why? Mainly because the provide us cheap devices, capables to do most of things that probably we need. However, if we really wanted to deal with the iOS platform... then yes, we need to asume their characteristics and rarities.

After take a look at the link you provide, I think I put my friend in a compromise,... to try to explain us how to proceed in less words. :)

Well the link is to Apple, but it really doesn't give the clearest picture. I went through the process with an app I had created by other person a couple years ago and found it difficult to do at that time. Perhaps it is a better process now or maybe some know other ways to run on your local phone. Any info is good so we will take what we can get if any.

Hello Donald,

If I am not wrong, if our iPhone device is hijacked, then we can install any kind of application. May this can help in some manner, however, hijacking the device is not allowed by Apple (again if I am not wrong) and the guarantee can be loss if we proceed in that way. On the other hand, probably my friend has an iMac with the OSX installed and uses the Apache Cordova distribution for that operating system.

If do not have an iMac, probably the only solution come from Adobe Phonegap, but, anything else (the appropiate developer key, certificates, etc.) must be provided by us after get it from Apple.

Hello Donald,

I am working hard in the next "big" App Builder's enhancement but right now my friend answer me about our question and I want to refer translate here. In fact probably we can't get too much information, but maybe their point of view offers some of them. We need to follow these steps to starts:

1º We need to register an account at https://developer.apple.com/ under the Members Center section; we need to create our Apple ID.

2º Then we need to choose what kind of developer we are by choosing "iOS".

3º This allow us to make applications; we need a license fee of $99 USD every year. My friend say the price is more or less expensive, but, apparently we can upload an application, and, if we do not plain to update it anymore (?), no need to pay the $99.

4º Something to take care about is the name we use as the application's developer. The name we choose can be never changed for the developer account.

5º Then we can access to the developer console. W need to download the latest XCODE version (so we need a computer with the OSX operating system), prepare the development profiles for every application and that's all.

After that we need to upload the applications and register it on Apple iTunes, but, my friend say here, "This is another history"... In principle we can starts with the above steps. In my opinion, we simply can start with the application with App Builder.

I say we can prepare the application (with some particular exceptions) from App Builder, and, when they are ready, we can start with the above steps in order to get ready for the Apple Store. And this is what I can say about this Donald.

Hope this can help to you and possible other people too.

Well that is all good information and from what I know seems to be correct. I guess there are no other workarounds out there as Apple has some pretty tight control going on. I am not sure about us having to have a max machine for the console as I don't recall that I ever had anything like that in my one attempt. my attempt only got me to where I could load my app on a certain iphone when I had the deivce number that was required for testing. If the console is needed beyond that then I am not aware of that part.

Can someone confirm that we need to download XCODE and load it on a OSX machine and what we would need to do with it when we had such a setup,

Thanks for all the help, your friend expecially.

Don

Hi Datadon,

Yes, without doubt Xcode is needed to create *.ipa file.

I have Mac OSX running on my VM Workstation.

I am little bit busy at the moment, if not so, I would have create *.ipa file from AB generated files.

Hi to all,

Thanks edunt for your answer. I am not really an Adobe Phonegap lover (I prefer Apache Cordova instead), however, in situations like this Adobe Phonegap may can help us, that is, at least for the "IPA" files generation.

Hello,

I have some news about how to prepare our applications to run in the iOS platform. Today I am talking more with Jordi, an AB customer who already have an AB application into the iTunes store, and they really point me in the right direction.

I was wrong when think we can't do anything from Windows when we are talking about the iOS platform. For that reason App Builder can creates BAT files for all the Cordova's supported platforms except iOS.

But this is not truth at all. On the contrary, Apache Cordova can help us by creating the appropiate files IN WINDOWS in order to be ready to build our applications IN MACOS after that.

You can update now your AB copy, since they include now a new option (app's options dialog -> Cordova tab) in order to generates a BAT file also for the iOS platform.

The steps are:

1º Creates our application, and choose the refered action to generates a BAT file for the iOS platform

2º Execute that BAT file, which tell to Apache Cordova we want our application ready for the iOS platform

3º Copy the "_Compiled" directory to a Mac and open the "\*_Compiled\platforms\ios\New App 1.xcodeproj" with XCODE.

4º That's all! We are ready to generates our application's IPA file, the equivalent to the APK file in Android.

So, in conclusion, and, contrary my first knowledge, we can use Apache Cordova IN WINDOWS to generate the appropiate files ready to be copied in a Mac computer to be finally built with XCODE (XCODE is the development environment in the Mac world).

You know another possible way (basically if we do not have a Mac computer...) is to use the Adobe Phonegap Build online service. I preffer the Apache Cordova way, however, if we really do not have a Mac computer... maybe there is not too much options out there.

Hope this information can results of interest for all!

That is indeed great news. Now all I need is a MAC. But if I am going to do anything with IOS then I guess it would be a good thing to have. What opp system for IOS is minimum to have or does it matter?

Hello Donald,

I don't want to say that but you are right: if we wanted to match the iOS platform probably the best option is to have a Mac or at least an iOS device in order to test it, etc. Some useful information below:

Requirements and Support

Apple® tools required to build iOS applications run only on the OS X operating system on Intel-based Macs. Xcode® 6.0 (the minimum required version) runs only on OS X version 10.9 (Mavericks) or greater, and includes the iOS 8 SDK (Software Development Kit). To submit apps to the Apple App Store? requires the latest versions of the Apple tools.

You can test many of the Cordova features using the iOS emulator installed with the iOS SDK and Xcode, but you need an actual device to fully test all of the app's device features before submitting to the App Store. The device must have at least iOS 6.x installed, the minimum iOS version supported as of Cordova 3.0. Supporting devices include all iPad® models, iPhone® 3GS and above, and iPod® Touch 3rd Generation or later. To install apps onto a device, you must also be a member of Apple's iOS Developer Program, which costs $99 per year. This guide shows how to deploy apps to the iOS emulator, for which you don't need to register with the developer program.

Taken from here: http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/guide/platforms/ios/index.html

Hello,

Jordi add this other tip too:

"Out there exists different XCODE versions who works in Leopart, Lion, Mountain or Captain, which is the latest one. Choose the latest as possible is the best because they allow us to choose a better IOS target version. Mainly because it's interesting to minimum choose the iOS 8 version as the target, because before that version they are only the Ipad2, Ipad1 and iPhone4 devices.".

Probably this information can help too.

@Hi David,

Woow! my prayer has been answered. I have being trying to get xcode with the generated file. Thank you once more David.

@datadon,

There is a way of running OSX on your Windows OS with VirtualBox or VMWare workstation. If you are interested I will send you an email.

Edunt

Sure send me info, all is appreciated.

David

Good info and thanks Jordi

I am having an odd thought and maybe we can discuss here:

Given the cost factor and hassel for getting Apple apps to store etc, I am wondering if there does not exist a sort of communal account of some sorts? Something like a company account that would allow all employees to load apps etc.

So what I am saying is perhaps we could have a AppBuilder account that could be used by all here that might want to. I don't know if such a thing is possible or allowed but just raising the question and possibility.

I am not suggesting David do anything like this but if such is possible and useable and benefiical then perhaps I would consider such a thing. Those who would want to use such a thing could pay a small fee for the use etc. Nothing for profit of course,

Just a thought,,,,

Hello Donald,

Apparently there is an option to "[...] join the iOS Developer Program as a Company to be able to add additional developers to the same program". I just read here. Problem can be due to the fact that the company must be a real established company and not just a developers' group of friends.

I am having an odd thought and maybe we can discuss here:

Given the cost factor and hassel for getting Apple apps to store etc, I am wondering if there does not exist a sort of communal account of some sorts? Something like a company account that would allow all employees to load apps etc.

So what I am saying is perhaps we could have a AppBuilder account that could be used by all here that might want to. I don't know if such a thing is possible or allowed but just raising the question and possibility.

I am not suggesting David do anything like this but if such is possible and useable and benefiical then perhaps I would consider such a thing. Those who would want to use such a thing could pay a small fee for the use etc. Nothing for profit of course,

Just a thought,,,,

Hi,

Not a bad idea, Where I was working before we had one Developer account for development team only and we all share the detail.

but Your idea can only work for David and his team as a company.

Thanks

Edunt: Did you mean "no a bad idea" or "Not a bad idea" ? :-)

So you have to define a "Company", and what makes you one with Apple. Maybe they want a TaxID etc. I will look into it.

The option 2 in your link David would be useful. It would allow Testing on upto 100 phones. You have to have the phone id to make that happen.

I'll sleep (much later of course) on this a bit and see what pops up.

And while I am thinking of it. You have a sample app that gives phone info. I don't think it gives the IMEI number. There is another number but I don't think it is the IMEI. Any thoughts and if possible.

The IMEI or MEID number for your mobile phone acts as a unique identifier for that device.

Found this today and about says it all. I was written in 2012 but as far as I have seen not much has changed,

Think carefully before deciding on IOS for your products. It's a huge market but a pain in the patooee to deal with.

http://mobiledan.net/2012/03/02/5-options-for-distributing-ios-apps-to-a-limited-audience-legally/

Thanks for sharing Donald, I will take a look as soon as possible.

Hi guys,

I have installed OSX 10.11 and Xcode 7.3, I have tried to run Xcodepro and there is nothing happened on the simulator.

BEWARE: I am running OSX 10.11 on VMware.

Hi,

Please ignore above query, the issue has being solved.

Hello,

Hi,

Please ignore above query, the issue has being solved.

Maybe you can explain (if possible) the error and how solve it.

Then any other in the forum can learn something useful Ade. :)

Hello,

Hi,

Please ignore above query, the issue has being solved.

Maybe you can explain (if possible) the error and how solve it.

Then any other in the forum can learn something useful Ade. :)

What I did is I changed the simulator from iPhone 6s Plus to iPhone 6s and everything work as expected.

Thanks David.

Hello to all,

From some releases ago App Builder generates the appropiate "debug", "release" and "run" shell scripts for UNIX (including Mac OS) in the same way than the generated files (BAT files) for Windows. I am working on an application which is also targeted to iOS and we use these generated shell files in order to build it in a MacOS in the same way than we can use the BAT files on Windows.

Hope this information can be useful!

Hello to all,

From some releases ago App Builder generates the appropiate "debug", "release" and "run" shell scripts for UNIX (including Mac OS) in the same way than the generated files (BAT files) for Windows. I am working on an application which is also targeted to iOS and we use these generated shell files in order to build it in a MacOS in the same way than we can use the BAT files on Windows.

Hope this information can be useful!

Sure, without doubt. It will be useful for us.

Well done.

Hello to all,

From some releases ago App Builder generates the appropiate "debug", "release" and "run" shell scripts for UNIX (including Mac OS) in the same way than the generated files (BAT files) for Windows. I am working on an application which is also targeted to iOS and we use these generated shell files in order to build it in a MacOS in the same way than we can use the BAT files on Windows.

Hope this information can be useful!

Hi Dave,

Sure, without doubt. It will be useful for us.

Well done.

Yes; I am use the shell scripts activelly in certain application in which I am working for Android and iOS. I just execute the "release" script, and then, without ver minor changes, "archive" the app in the XCode IDE. And that's all! Upload it to the Apple store in seconds. :)

Hello to all,

From some releases ago App Builder generates the appropiate "debug", "release" and "run" shell scripts for UNIX (including Mac OS) in the same way than the generated files (BAT files) for Windows. I am working on an application which is also targeted to iOS and we use these generated shell files in order to build it in a MacOS in the same way than we can use the BAT files on Windows.

Hope this information can be useful!

Hi Dave,

Sure, without doubt. It will be useful for us.

Well done.

Yes; I am use the shell scripts activelly in certain application in which I am working for Android and iOS. I just execute the "release" script, and then, without ver minor changes, "archive" the app in the XCode IDE. And that's all! Upload it to the Apple store in seconds. :)

Hello to all,

I can't wait see to that. I will wait little bit for it before finishing up on the video tutorials I am making on AB.

I use the AB generated shell scripts in Mac OS almost everyday and right now (they need some adjustments in the past AB releases) works like a charm. In fact the "iOS" BAT for Windows is maintained, but certainly we can now build the entire project in Mac OS directly with this AB generated shell scripts. :)

Hello to all,

I can't wait see to that. I will wait little bit for it before finishing up on the video tutorials I am making on AB.

I use the AB generated shell scripts in Mac OS almost everyday and right now (they need some adjustments in the past AB releases) works like a charm. In fact the "iOS" BAT for Windows is maintained, but certainly we can now build the entire project in Mac OS directly with this AB generated shell scripts. :)

Can we update our AB now and how can we use the script?

Hello to all,

Hi Dave,

Can we update our AB now and how can we use the script?

Yes; from some releases ago AB generates the "debug", "release" and "run" shell scripts for UNIX. You only must to check the "iOS" platform in the Cordova's platform options, then that scripts are automatically generated.

In fact from some releases ago AB enhance the BAT and Shell scripts in other ways too: we can write now custom code in that scripts in three different phases: at the start, after the Cordova's platform is added and at the end of the scripts.

Hello to all,

From some recent Cordova's version it's possible to sign our iOS applications by preparing certain JSON file ("build config") in which we can specify the appropiate information to sign our applications when debug and release it.

This message is to inform that App Builder incorporates now the right app's options in order to generate the refered JSON file, and use it from the generated SHELL files. So we can now sign our applications in one step.

Hope this information are useful!

P.S. The same options are also available for the Android platform: the right JSON file can be generated by App Builder now and used it in the generated BAT files for Windows.

Hello to all,

Here is an new entry in the DecSoft blog that can be of your interest: iOS apps with DecSoft's App Builder

Hello to all,

Here is an new entry in the DecSoft blog that can be of your interest: iOS apps with DecSoft's App Builder

Hi David,

Thanks for the informations. Although, I have read it when you sent it by email.

Keep up the good work.