- About the iOS Provisioning Portal
- The Provisioning Process: A Brief Overview
- Setting Up Your Development Machine
- Setting Up Your Device
- Using the iOS Provisioning Portal
- Summary
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using the iOS Provisioning Portal
As you already know, the iOS Provisioning Portal is used to request and download developer certificates, register devices, create App IDs, and to create and download provisioning profiles. You have already gone through the steps for requesting and downloading the developer certificate, so I will skip that section of the portal here. The rest of this chapter, however, will focus on the other areas of the provisioning portal.
Adding a Device ID
You can add a device ID individually or you can upload a batch of device IDs in a .deviceids file generated by the iOS Configuration Utility. The iOS Configuration Utility is available to enterprise members only so I will not cover it here. I will, instead, step you through adding an individual device ID.
Start by signing into the iOS Provisioning Portal web site (http://developer.apple.com/ios/manage/overview/index.action) then click Devices in the left side menu bar. Click the Add Devices button found on the right side of the Devices web page. Enter a device name followed by the 40-character device ID, as seen in Figure 6.12. I tend to be descriptive with the device name, adding the device owner’s name and device type, e.g., Kirby Turner’s iPad2. Click the plus sign (+) button to enter another device. When you have entered all the devices, click the Submit button. That’s it. That device IDs are now registered.
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Figure 12 (Click to Enlarge) Add Devices page in the iOS Provisioning Portal.
You can edit the name of a registered device, but you cannot change the device ID. If a device ID is no longer valid – for example, you no longer own the device – you can remove the device from the list by marking the check box next to the device name then clicking the Remove Selected button at the bottom of the registered device list.
How to Find the UDID for a Device
Finding your UDID for a device is not hard if you know where to look. There are different ways to find the ID of device. The easiest for developers is to use Xcode’s Organizer window. Open the Organizer windows (Shift-⌘-2) and select the device. The device ID is displayed in the Identifier field as shown in Figure 6.13.
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Figure 13 (Click to Enlarge) Device information displayed in the Organizer window.
Another way to find the ID, albeit more obscure, is to use iTunes. Connect your device to your computer then launch iTunes. In iTunes, select the device to see the device information screen, seen in Figure 6.14. Click the serial number. This will display the UDID in place of the serial number. Use the mouse to highlight the UDID then copy the value to the clipboard. Click the field again to return to the serial number.
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Figure 14 (Click to Enlarge) Device information displayed in iTunes.
Another common way to retrieve the UDID is to use one of the many free UDID apps available in the App Store. These apps not only retrieve the UDID from the device but also provide options to copy the ID to the clipboard and to email the device ID to the recipient of your choosing. Using a UDID app is the easiest way for a non-developer to send you their device ID.
To download a UDID app, go to the App Store and search on the phrase UDID. Select the app that appeals to you the most.
Adding an App ID
Adding an App ID is almost as easy as registering a device ID. Once again, sign into the iOS Provisioning Portal. Click the App IDs menu item in the left side menu bar then click the New App ID button found on the right side of the page, shown in Figure 6.15. This takes you to the Create App ID page.
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Figure 15 (Click to Enlarge) Click the New App button found on App IDs page in the iOS Provisioning Portal.
On the Create App ID page, seen in Figure 6.16, you enter the description for the App ID. Use a name or description for the App ID that makes sense to you. For instance, you might use the name of your application when creating an explicit App ID. The description you enter is used throughout the portal so enter a name or description that will help you identify the App ID.
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Next, set the Bundle Seed ID, aka the App ID prefix. You can have the portal generate a new seed for you or you can select from a seed that you previously generated. If you plan to share Keychain data access between multiple applications then you need to use the same Bundle Seed ID for each application’s App ID.
Lastly, enter the Bundle Identifier, aka the App ID suffix. Remember to use the reverse-domain name naming convention. Include an asterisk (*) as the last character if you wish to create a wildcard App ID.
Click the Submit button to save the App ID. Clicking the button returns you to the App IDs page. Scroll down the page to see the newly created App ID in the list of App IDs.
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Figure 16 (Click to Enlarge) The Create App ID page.
In the list of App IDs, you can choose from two actions, Details and Configure. The Details action is only available for wildcard App IDs. Click the action to see the details of the wildcard App ID.
The Configure action is only available for explicit App IDs. Click the action to configure the App ID for Push Notification. You do not need to configure the explicit App ID for In App Purchase and Game Center services as these services are enabled by default for explicit App IDs.
Creating a Development Provisioning Profile
The development provisioning profile brings you the developer, your device, and your App ID together so you can run and test your application on your iPad. To create a new development provisioning profile, login into the iOS Provisioning Portal and click Provisioning link found in left side menu bar. Click the Development tab at the top of provisioning screen then click the New Profile button. This will take you to the Create iOS Development Provisioning Profile page, seen in Figure 6.17.
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Figure 17 (Click to Enlarge) Create iOS Development Provisioning Profile page.
Enter a name for the provisioning profile. I like to use descriptive names, for example, My App Dev Profile.
Select the development certificates that will be associated to the provisioning profile. This identifies the development certificates used to code sign the application for development. You should select the developer certificate for each team member that will be using the development provisioning profile.
Select the App ID for the profile. Each profile can have only one App ID. You can use a wildcard App ID if you wish to use the same development provisioning profile for more than one application.
Finally, select the devices that the developers can use for running and testing the application on a device. Then click the Submit button to generate the development provisioning profile.
Downloading a Development Provisioning Profile
Once a development provisioning profile has been generated, team members can download and install the profile. To download the development provisioning profile, log into the iOS Provisioning Profile, click the Provisioning menu item, then click the Development tab on the Provisioning page. You will see a list of development provisioning profiles, as seen in Figure 6.18. Click the Download button for the profile you wish to install.
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Figure 18 (Click to Enlarge) List of development provisioning profiles.
Now you are ready to install the provisioning profile.
Installing a Development Provisioning Profile
There are a few ways to install a development provisioning profile. You can copy the profile file to ‘~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profile’, but the most common way is to use the Organizer windows in Xcode. This will make sure the profile is stored in the proper directory, and it will create the directory if it does not already exist.
To install using Organizer, launch Xcode and open the Organizer window (Shift-⌘-2). Select a device to install the provisioning profile on then click the + button to select the .mobileprovision file you downloaded from the iOS Provisioning Portal. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the .mobileprovision file onto Provisioning list in the Organizer window, see Figure 6.19.
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Figure 19 (Click to Enlarge) Click the + button or drag and drop the .mobileprovision file to add the development provisioning profile.
Another way to install a development provisioning profile is to drag and drop the file onto the iTunes icon in the dock. Note, however, this will fail if the provisioning profile directory does not exist.
I prefer copying the .mobileprovision file directly to the ‘~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profile’ directory. To make it easier, I added a shortcut to Finder for the directory. When I need to install a new provisioning profile, I simply drag and drop the downloaded file onto this shortcut, see Figure 6.20.
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Figure 20 (Click to Enlarge) Finder window with a shortcut folder to the provisioning profile directory.
That’s it for installing a development provisioning profile.