How to Avoid Stress When Adding Devices to Ad Hoc Distributed IOS Apps

Uploading and managing iOS applications to the Apple App Store is a fairly straightforward process. What happens however when you are managing an ad-hoc distribution? This is not usually so simple. Adding new users in particular can often be a chore. This process for distributing using HockeyApp was therefore created at KnowNow Information to save time and make it easy for anyone to follow.

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The UDID or Unique Device IDentifier allows you to include the device in the provisioning profile for the application.

1) Visit http://whatsmyudid.com and follow instructions there

This will add the device to the provisioning profile

1. Login to https://developer.apple.com using your Apple ID and Password
2. Navigate via left bar to 'Certificates, ID's and Profiles'
3. Select via left bar ‘Devices/All’ - this will display a list of currently authorised devices
4. Click on the ‘+’ icon top right of the window.
5. Add the UDID and give the device a name to associate with this UDID.
6. Click Continue and the confirm your choices

This will apply the provisioning profile including the new UDID to the application. This step takes around an hour on my system for most applications, the steps below indicate where this occurs)

1. Start xCode
2. Select the application that you want to update
3. In the top menubar select Product>Archive (this step can take up to 5 minutes)
4. Once complete select ‘Export…’ in the right hand panel
5. Select ‘Save for Ad Hoc deployment’
6. Ensure that the development team selected for Ad Hoc deployment is correct then select Next
7. Select ‘Export one App for all compatible devices’
8. On the summary page ensure that the boxes for inclusion of manifest and build from bit code are selected. Then select next.
9. If you are using a third party application to distribute the app (like HockeyApp) then you don’t need to specify a real address to host. You must however use HTTPS: If you are using your own hosted location to distribute then you should follow the instructions here
10. Continue - this step may take up to 1 hour while the bit code is compiled.

HockeyApp is just one of a number of services that you can use to manage the ad-hoc deployment of your applications. Users need to be invited and the application that you archived in Step 3 needs to be uploaded.

1. Fire up www.hockeyapp.net
2. Login using ID and Password
3. Click on the app to be updated
4. If the UDID was added for a new user then select ‘invite user’ from top menu and complete
5. Select Version>Add new Version
6. Drag the .ipa file into the upload box.
7. Add release notes
8. Select Installation Yes and Restrict Downloads No or change as appropriate.
9. Select Notifications as appropriate.
10. Finished!

You can contact me via our website at www.kn-i.com and follow me on twitter @david_patto