Question about iOS development workflow: installing an app on remote device? [SOLVED]
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I'm a complete iOS n00b so bear with me here:
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I developed an iPad app in Qt (5.3.1, QtQuickView and much QML), and built and deployed it to a couple of iPads which have been associated with my developer key (or "team provisioning profile" or something like that). It works great! The "deployment" happened from xcode, with the iPad connected by USB cable.
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I sent one of the iPads to the other end of the country for a collaborator to play with.
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Now I want to send the collaborator an updated version of the app. I'm nowhere near the point of deploying the app to the app store and it'd be nuts if the collaborator had to ship the iPad back to me to install some new software on it. So what can I actually send them - and what do they do with it - to install a new version?
I also have MacOS version of the app, and I just zip up the app bundle and put it on DropBox, and that works. If I was sending them a Linux or Windows version I'd build a .deb or an .msi file and send that... so what's the iOS equivalent (if there is one), and what do they do with it when they get it?
Thanks for any help. If google has an answer for this, it's smothered under stuff about the app store.
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OK, figured it out (think the choice of word "archive" threw me off the trail initially. I associate "archives" with backups, not deployment or installs!):
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In xcode, there is a "Product" menu with "Archive" on it (NB need to have iOS device selected as build target, not a simulator).
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That creates an archive in the Organizer window's Archives tab.
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Select the archive and hit the "Distribute" button.
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This brings up a dialog where you get to select "Save for Enterprise or Ad Hoc Deployment" then "use iOS Team Provisioning Profile", and then save a .ipa file (an "iOS application archive file" apparently).
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Then opening the ipa file (or maybe I drag-and-dropped it) in iTunes' app page's app list will install or update the app on the device, when applied.
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Hi,
Glad you found and thanks for sharing ! It would be a good idea to create a wiki entry for that as it may be useful for other users and the forum posts tends to get swamped in the sands of time.
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Oh, didn't even realize I could edit the wiki pages until now!
Any suggestions where to put notes on this sort of thing? There isn't an iOS section in http://qt-project.org/wiki/Category:Qt-Supported-Platforms and it doesn't look like it should go on the Mac OSX page either. OK if I create a Support_for_iOS page? There's a few things from my posts over the last few months getting into iOS I'd capture there actually.
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Sure go ahead, since it's missing, it's time for it to be created :)
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Brain dumped some stuff at http://qt-project.org/wiki/Support_for_iOS . And that's all I know so far; but it's working good for me!
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Nice !
Thanks :)
