Loading resource items in iphone via itunes

Question

I have an app that has about 60 png files and a couple of cfg files in the main bundle. Runs great in the simulator, and when I download from Xcode to iTouch. But I'm stumped on distributing to my testers. I have their provisioning profiles, etc. But when I created the app and sent it to them, it showed up as a folder (NR1.APP) with all the individual resource files under it.

1. Do they drag this entire folder into iTunes/applications? Or is there something in xcode that creates a single binary app with all resources in it?

Answer 1

Application bundles are just folders. Navigate to one in finder, and right-click -> 'Show Package Contents'. An exciting world awaits.

Dragging the application bundle into the library in iTunes should take care of it, however you can also distribute an .ipa file, which is just a renamed .zip with a directory called Payload in it, with the application bundle inside.

Answer 2

I presume your testers are on Windows? The short answer is that iPhone apps are in fact folders (called bundles) with a specific file layout. On Mac OS you don't notice because finder hides it for you, though you can look inside by selected "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu in finder.

Anyway, yes, they can install it by just dragging the app, assuming everything was decompressed correctly. THe problem is that the most Windows decompression tools mangle archives of bundles (at least with respect to how iTunes expects them). You can read all the gory details on what you can and can't do in this blog post.