Curious what practices people have learned before making their final build and submitting to the App Store? Aside from switching switching from Debug to Release & commenting out calls to NSLog what other basic and/or not so basic things should we be watching out for?
+4
A:
Instead of switching to Release, I switch to "Distribution". It's a copy of Release, but that's is how I got taught by some Apple doc and iPhoneDeveloperTips.
Important points:
After the final build, but before you rush off to zip up your app, open the bundle using the Finder's Show Package Contents. Due to some bug in the MacOS, which bit me in versions prior to Snow Leopard (and it might still be there), if you zip up too fast (using the Finder's Compress or Archive menu item), some of the resources have yet to be flushed out into the file. When you do a Show Package Contents, the contents get updated. The way you would notice this problem is that the size of your compressed app would be between a fifth to a tenth or less of the expected size. You might think to yourself, "hey, that zip utility really does a great job of compressing", but that's not the case. This problem would occur at this point instead of during testing mainly because you are doing a "clean all" build and all the resources and contents of the app bundle are starting out empty and then being filled by Xcode. And for some reason, even after Xcode is done creating the file, the contents are still not actually there, if you compress, but would be there if you looked at them (sort of a reverse Heisenberg). Beware.
Another area I spend a lot of time on is to make a nice backup of the sources, after I have committed all the latest changes to SVN, made a new branch, and tagged the file. I also like to have my version number match my SVN build/commit number so I always know which SVN version matches my release. I have those two version numbers in my info.plist and can be pulled up by the app user when they hit i for info. For example, a current info.pist includes:
<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>2.0a1</string>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>346</string>
There are different thoughts on how to use the CFBundleVersion. This is my way. Also useful is the command line utility, agvtool.
Once the app is built, after compressing so you're not actually making any changes to the compressed version, go check the app file and make sure it is signed with the right distribution cert and not your adhoc one. Learning to use the command line utility, codesign, is helpful for this kind of checking and debugging. By making the compressed copy first, you ensure that you're not in any way going to change the final copy that Xcode has handed you and that you will upload to itunesconnect, if all looks well.
Other things to remember are the app icon, the various other icons and graphics you need for the iTunes store, the info.plist, and the fact that when the uploading of the app fails with a cryptic error message, it usually has to do with one of these pieces being missing from the compressed file you are building (those pieces that belong in the app bundle).
mahboudz
2009-09-26 05:42:34
+4
A:
A few things:
I actually recommend not creating a build configuration called "Distribution" as Apple specifies, because I often am creating ad hoc builds for beta testers. I create two build configurations, one called Ad Hoc and one called AppStore, so I'm not confused. The only difference between the two is the presence of the Entitlements.plist file for the Ad Hoc build. This way I can test as closely as possible what I will be submitting to Apple.
Most developers are optimists. That's why we are working weekends to create an app that we just know is going to make us a millionaire. Before submitting though, be a pessimist. Imagine everything that can possibly go wrong, and double check it.
Don't assume anything. Don't assume that that tiny little change you made to the app won't affect anything else. Murphy's Law says that that tiny change will cause your app to crash on all iPod Touches or something. Test, test, test thoroughly between the final code edit and Appstore submission. If you have to make a tiny change, then repeat until it's perfect.
Remember that if the app doesn't crash for 99.9% of your users, then 1 out of every 1,000 downloads will result in a 1-star scathing review.
I use Clang static analyzer, Leaks and Object Allocations during development, but I do an extra run of these tools before submission just in case.
If you don't have an older device, get one, because the 3GS performance is significantly better and you may miss some important performance issues.
Test your app with the following configurations when network or location are applicable:
- iPod Touch
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone in Airplane mode
- iPhone with Wi-Fi
- iPhone with EDGE
- Call the phone while using your app
Chris Garrett
2009-09-27 00:31:10