Difficulties with iPhone ad-hoc distribution for testing

Question

I'm attempting to do an ad-hoc distribution of my (first) iPhone App to a small group of volunteer testers. I've looked through Apple's documentation, as well as a number of blog posts, but am still having trouble. I have a couple questions about things that aren't clear (to me, at least):

When creating Development and/or Distribution certificate requests, for Common Name, should I use my name or my company's name? I registered for the iPhone Developer program as a company, and the portal shows this company name, but also my own name as "Agent".

Also, Apple's documentation (the "Publishing Applications for Testing" chapter of the Developer's Guide) contains a diagram showing the Tester Provisioning Profile as containing info about the Tester Device, the Test App ID, and the Development Certificate. When I try to create the Tester (Ad-hoc) Provisioning Profile on the portal, it selects the Distribution Certificate, not the Development Certificate. Is this right? It seems to make sense, but doesn't match the diagram.

Any other advice on ad-hoc provisioning would also be appreciated, particularly how to gather information for troubleshooting. My testers have reported getting an "application was not installed because an unknown error occurred (0xE8008016)" message, which doesn't tell me anything about what I may have done wrong.

Thanks, Andrew

Answer 1

I used my own name for Common Name, however, I'm not sure this really matters. I did name my dist. provisioning profile with my company name, though.

Ad-Hoc is considered distribution, so the distribution certificate is the correct one.

Did you create an Entitlements.plist file for your ad-hoc?

Are you getting any signing errors when you build your ad-hoc?

Answer 2

Does the ad-hoc build you created install properly for you? That's the easiest way to gather information-try it yourself, following the directions you're giving your users.

I had problems with Windows users not being able to install my app because Windows couldn't properly decode the compressed folder I created on my Mac. I eventually resorted to a Run Script build phase in XCode that created a .ipa file which worked properly for drag-and-drop for Windows and Mac iTunes.

Answer 3

In your entitlements.plist file you have to uncheck the get-task-allow bool to give it a false value. This is only for AdHoc distribution.

I learned this the hard way when I went through a build cycle thinking I had saved and checked in the right entitlements.plist with get-task-allow unchecked.

Answer 4

Well, I seem to have it working -- sorry for the long delay in following up. Here's the best resource on this that I've found: http://www.bigspaceship.com/blog/labs/iphone-101-understanding-distribution-pt-i-of-ii/ although even it doesn't get quite all the details right, and it seem that Apple changes the iPhone Program portal often, so maybe no resource will ever be fully up-to-date. Your mileage may vary.

To answer the questions I posed (and reply to some of the questions raised in other answers): For the Developer Certificate, I used my own name. For the distribution certificate, I used the name of the Company. Yes, the dist.plist bust exist and the get-task-allow property is false.

Finally, one more gotcha: the AppID/Bundle identifier should be all-lowercase.

Answer 5

I have put apps on the app store but trying my first ad hoc build and it works in the simulator but not on the testers device and I put it on my device and it loads on to the iPhone but when u run the app all you get is a gray screen.Again works fine in simulator but not on iPhone device?

Answer 6

I posted a sample packaging script that i use for automating ad hoc distribution builds, maybe this is useful?

http://iphonedev.makerlab.org/2009/12/packaging-script-for-iphone-ad-hoc-distribution-builds/

Answer 7

Hi I'm having problem with Ad Hoc distribution either. But I got a little different situation. The IPA file successfully generated & installed on testing device. But the app is not working on the device. It crashes. And this is what I got from the log. Thx in advance for the help.

Incident Identifier: C61913C2-0354-4458-A960-5A1DEEB56EE2
CrashReporter Key:   11e3398e15b83576f7a98bd62c6534d0229ffe3c
Hardware Model:      iPod2,1
Process:         BurningArmor [3160]
Path:            /var/mobile/Applications/42BFCEA9-50B7-4000-A9F4-C62D3A60DA4C/BurningArmor.app/BurningArmor
Identifier:      BurningArmor
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       ARM (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [1]

Date/Time:       2010-07-12 13:39:21.315 +0700
OS Version:      iPhone OS 4.0 (8A293)
Report Version:  104

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x00000001, 0xe92d0500
Crashed Thread:  0

Thread 0 Crashed:
0   BurningArmor                    0x000cf144 +[CCDirector setDirectorType:] (CCDirector.m:115)
1   BurningArmor                    0x00003234 -[BurningArmorAppDelegate applicationDidFinishLaunching:] (BurningArmorAppDelegate.m:33)
2   UIKit                           0x0001314c -[UIApplication _callInitializationDelegatesForURL:payload:suspended:] + 1192
3   UIKit                           0x001c16cc -[UIApplication _runWithURL:payload:launchOrientation:statusBarStyle:statusBarHidden:] + 292
4   UIKit                           0x0007c7b8 -[UIApplication handleEvent:withNewEvent:] + 1784
5   UIKit                           0x0007beb4 -[UIApplication sendEvent:] + 60
6   UIKit                           0x0007b7e8 _UIApplicationHandleEvent + 6704
7   GraphicsServices                0x00004edc PurpleEventCallback + 1024
8   CoreFoundation                  0x000742ac __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE1_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 22
9   CoreFoundation                  0x000761d6 __CFRunLoopDoSource1 + 158
10  CoreFoundation                  0x0007718e __CFRunLoopRun + 574
11  CoreFoundation                  0x0001e0bc CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 220
12  CoreFoundation                  0x0001dfca CFRunLoopRunInMode + 54
13  UIKit                           0x00007b18 -[UIApplication _run] + 524
14  UIKit                           0x00005fb8 UIApplicationMain + 964
15  BurningArmor                    0x0000302c main (main.m:13)
16  BurningArmor                    0x00002fec start + 32

Thread 1:
0   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00034e84 kevent + 24
1   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00102a48 _dispatch_mgr_invoke + 88
2   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00102494 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 96
3   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00102634 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 120
4   libSystem.B.dylib               0x0008b53c _pthread_wqthread + 392
5   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00082b6c start_wqthread + 0

Thread 2:
0   libSystem.B.dylib               0x0008c3b4 __workq_kernreturn + 8
1   libSystem.B.dylib               0x0008b718 _pthread_wqthread + 868
2   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00082b6c start_wqthread + 0

Thread 3:
0   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00000ab0 mach_msg_trap + 20
1   libSystem.B.dylib               0x00002f94 mach_msg + 60
2   CoreFoundation                  0x00074b18 __CFRunLoopServiceMachPort + 88
3   CoreFoundation                  0x000770e0 __CFRunLoopRun + 400
4   CoreFoundation                  0x0001e0bc CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 220
5   CoreFoundation                  0x0001dfca CFRunLoopRunInMode + 54
6   WebCore                         0x0000370c RunWebThread(void*) + 552
7   libSystem.B.dylib               0x0008af80 _pthread_start + 364
8   libSystem.B.dylib               0x0007d014 thread_start + 0

Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State:
    r0: 0x0013f980    r1: 0x0011d9fc      r2: 0x00000003      r3: 0x00317f10
    r4: 0x0011d9fc    r5: 0x339f2750      r6: 0x00317f10      r7: 0x2fffe390
    r8: 0x0013f980    r9: 0x00000000     r10: 0x001434dc     r11: 0x0030ae20
    ip: 0x000cf141    sp: 0x2fffe384      lr: 0x0000323c      pc: 0x000cf144
  cpsr: 0x60000030

Binary Images:
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0x3235c000 - 0x33a75fff  UIKit armv6  <6b1e7386ccb9170130465dd66e320a58> /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/UIKit
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0x33c07000 - 0x33c48fff  VideoToolbox armv6  <f599cd31636fd804c2cc820435577f5d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/VideoToolbox.framework/VideoToolbox
0x33c49000 - 0x33c57fff  GraphicsServices armv6  <336ba68fec36155d87dcd5cc93cb69a5> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GraphicsServices.framework/GraphicsServices
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0x342d7000 - 0x34342fff  libstdc++.6.dylib armv6  <c621f921d71ecad04aa90512945460f5> /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib
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0x36478000 - 0x36484fff  CoreVideo armv6  <639962081f133b863b43981e3214c1e9> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreVideo.framework/CoreVideo
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Answer 8

You can use this amazing software to generate OTA AD-Hocs!

http://github.com/downloads/pcsaito/iOS-BetaBuilder/BetaBuilderDB.zip/