Friday, May 30, 2014

Building and deploying Adhoc iOS app with Xamarin and Visual Studio

Just spent 6 hours this week figure this out. It will help me in the future and may help you too.

I am at heart a Windows developer, working with Xamarin tools and iOS on and off since 2011.
I am not an expert (yet), therefore some of this may be partially correct in terms of name or concept, but I pretty sure it will help you.

I am assuming you already setup a Developer development configuration and therefore you can edit, compile and run you app on your iPhone or iPad (Should probably create a blog post about it, because I barely remember it, though I think it is the same idea of what I am about to describe, a little bit easier).

Distribution


There are 3 type of deployments (also called distribution)
  • Development
  • Adhoc
  • Store
For each distribution you need

On the Mac

  • A certificate registered on the mac with the tool called "Keychain"
    • Tab My Certificates
    • You can create the certificate from the Apple Portal (see link below)
  • A provisioning profile for each specific type of deployment and app
    • You can create the  provisioning profile from the Apple Portal (see link below)
    • You must have the device id of each device you want to test on, selected in your profile. 
      • I generally ask my friends to install the app called "UDID Tool" and email me their device ID, which I register in the Apple portal.
    • When you save your profile add to the filename at the end the type of deployment
      • Development, Adhoc, Store (This will help in the future)
    • XCODE Registration
      • Download the profile on your Mac and double click on it
        • This will register it in XCODE
      • Menu Windows -> Organizer
This link Publishing to the App Store should help. The first time you will not have your Adhoc certificate. The Apple web app will lead you to create one. Go slow it is confusing.

On Visual Studio

You already have your project in DEBUG configuration working.
Make sure your Visual Studio is connected on the mac to the Xamarin.iOS Build Host.
Now open the Properties dialog of your project and switch to the Ad-Hoc mode.
iOS Bundle Signing tab:
  • Select the Identity, which is your registered certificate on the Mac
  • Select the provisioning profile, which is your provisioning profile registered on the Mac for the deployment and the app


iOS IPA Options tab:
  • Make sure the check box "Build ad-hoc/enterprise package" is checked


iOS Application tab:
  • Set you app name
  • Set your identifier with the exact value you used in the provisioning profile
    • I use net.frederictorres.myappname
  • Set the version

Finaly Building The App

  • Click on the Visual Studio BUILD menu and select menu
    • Build Ad-Hoc IPA...
    • On the Mac a dialog may pop up asking you to approve
      • Select Always approve for the future
  • When this done successfully, in the Solution Explorer, Right Click on the app and select the menu
    • Show IPA File on Build Server
    • This will open a finder instance when your IPA is located

Installing on your device

  • Connect the device to the Mac, iTunes should pop up
    • Make sure iTunes is authorized for the device
    • Open the App tab in iTunes, you should see your app
    • Double click on the IPA file
      • It will appear in the UI with an Install button
      • Click the Install button and then the Apply button.

Version

  • Visual Studio 2013 Update 2
  • Xamarin 3.0.54.0

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    Do you know if can I create the IPA if on Plattform I have iPhoneSimulator? I developed an app for a company and they don't have on the Provisioning Profile any device. So when I try to build on Ad-Hoc I have the this error: The OutputPath property is not set for project xxx.iOS.csproj. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='Ad-Hoc' Platform='iPhoneSimulator'.

    Thank you

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