Ad Hoc Distribution - Does it update an existing previous installed version of an app?

Question

What happens when a user installs an ad hoc distribution of an existing app? And what happens if this app (or a newer one) hits the App Store officially?

To sum it up:

1. A user already has a v1.0 and receives a v2.0 ad hoc
2. A user has the ad hoc v2.0 and the official public release of v2.0 hits the store
3. A user has the ad hoc v2.0 and an official public release of v3.0 hits the store

In other words,

is the ad hoc version a stand-alone build or does it in fact update a previous version as expected from an update? And will it be updated as soon as a newer version hits the store?

Answer 1

What happens when a user installs an ad hoc distribution of an existing app?

I don't have an answer for this; I would guess it overwrites.

And what happens if this app (or a newer one) hits the App Store officially?

Nothing happens when the app hits the app store per-se (e.g. no 'update' notice via App Store.app); however if the user installs the App Store distrib. the previously Ad Hoc install goes away. I did this with an app without local storage so I'm not sure if any local files would be retained (e.g. if the app saves content to its sandbox dir).

My disclaimer: I did this prior to SDK3.0. I had ad-hoc beta testers that I would e-mail test builds. Several testers were then given the official release via promo codes.

Hope this helps.

-Scott H

Answer 2

Even if the distributed application is entirely the same, for example the same executable, since both realeases are different, each release ought to have a different version number. So if you released 2.0 ad hoc, and then released official version, that version ought to be different, for example 2.0.1, for organizational and clarity purposes. You will know if the customer refers to version 2.0 that that is an ad hoc version, and if the version is 2.0.1 that is the official version without requiring further information. In summary, each individual release should have an individual and unique revision number.