At this point you should download Xcode by proceeding to the Apple App Store using the App Store icon on your application dock. Apple places the latest non-beta release in the App Store. Search for Xcode or click here. Once we have all this information in the App Store Connect portal, we can go back to the Xcode organiser window and click Distribute App to upload the app to the App Store. Select the distribution method as App Store and the appropriate production provisioning profile.
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To publish an app to the App Store,an app developer must first submit it â along with screenshots, adescription, icons, and other information â to Apple for review. Afterapproving the app, Apple places it on the App Store, where users canpurchase it and install it directly from their iOS devices.
This guide describes the steps to follow to prepare an app for the AppStore and send it to Apple for review. In particular, it describes:
Important
Apple has indicated thatstarting in March 2019, all apps and updates submitted to the App Storemust have been built with the iOS 12.1 SDK or later, included in Xcode 10.1 or later.Apps should also support the iPhone XS and 12.9' iPad Pro screen sizes.
App Store guidelines
Before submitting an app for publication in the App Store, make sure thatit meets the standards defined by Apple's App Store ReviewGuidelines.When you submit an app to the App Store, Apple reviews it to make surethat it meets these requirements. If it does not, Apple will reject it âand you will need to address the cited problems and resubmit.Therefore, it is a good idea to become familiar the guidelines as earlyas possible in the development process.
A couple of things to watch out for when submitting an app:
Also take a look at App Store-related resourcesthat Apple provides.
Set up an App ID and entitlements
Every iOS app has a unique App ID, which has an associated set ofapplication services called entitlements. Entitlements allow apps to dovarious things such as receive push notification, access iOS featuressuch as HealthKit, and more.
To create an App ID and select any needed entitlements, visit theApple Developer Portal and followthese steps:
In addition to selecting and configuring the required applicationservices when defining your App ID, you must configure the App ID andentitlements in your Xamarin.iOS project by editing the Info.plistand Entitlements.plist files. For more information, take a look atthe Working with Entitlements inXamarin.iOS guide, whichdescribes how to create an Entitlements.plist file and the meaning ofthe various entitlement settings it contains.
Include an App Store icon
When you submit an app to Apple, be sure that it includes an assetcatalog that contains an App Store icon. To learn how to do this, take alook at the App Store icons inXamarin.iOS guide.
Set the apps icons and launch screens
For Apple to make an iOS app available on the App Store, it must have proper icons and launch screens for all of the iOS devices on which it can run. For more information about setting up app icons and launch screens, read the following guides:
Create and install an App Store provisioning profile
iOS uses provisioning profiles to control how a particular application build can be deployed. These are files that contain information about the certificate used to sign an app, the App ID, and where the app can be installed. For development and ad hoc distribution, the provisioning profile also includes the list of allowed devices to which you can deploy the app. However, for App Store distribution, only certificate and App ID information are included since the only mechanism for public distribution is the App Store.
To create and install an App Store provisioning profile, follow these steps:
For detailed instructions, see the Creating a distribution profile and Selecting a distribution profile in a Xamarin.iOS project.
Update the Release build configuration
New Xamarin.iOS projects automatically set up Debug and Releasebuild configurations. To properly configure the Release build, follow these steps:
Configure your app in iTunes Connect
iTunes Connect is a suite of web-based tools for managing your iOS applications on the App Store. Your Xamarin.iOS application must be properly configured in iTunes Connect before it can be submitted to Apple for review and released on the App Store.
To learn how to do this, read the Configuring an app in iTunes Connect guide.
Build and submit your app
With your build settings properly configured and iTunes Connect awaiting your submission, you can now build your app and submit it to Apple.
Note
Publishing to the App Store is supported in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 and higher.
Note
Visual Studio 2017 does not support the full publishing workflow found in Visual Studio for Mac and Visual Studio 2019.
The steps below are for Xcode 10.
You can still follow the steps below to build an .IPA file, but to deploy to the App Store using Xcode 11 (which is required for iOS 13 support) you should use Visual Studio for Mac.
iTunes Connect status
To see the status of your app submission, log in to iTunes Connect andselect your app. The initial status should be Waiting For Review,though it may temporarily read Upload Received while it is being processed.
Tips and tricksCustomize the .ipa location
An MSBuild property,
IpaPackageDir , makes it possible to customize the .ipa file output location. If IpaPackageDir is set to a custom location, the .ipa file will be placed in that location instead of the default timestamped subdirectory. This can be useful when creating automated builds that rely on a specific directory path to work correctly, such as those used for Continuous Integration (CI) builds.
There are several possible ways to use the new property. Run app in mac. For example, to output the .ipa file to the old default directory (as in Xamarin.iOS 9.6 and lower), you can set the
IpaPackageDir property to $(OutputPath) using one of the following approaches. Both approaches are compatible with all Unified API Xamarin.iOS builds, including IDE builds as well as command-line builds that use msbuild or mdtool:
An alternate technique for msbuild command-line builds is to add a
/p: command line argument to set the IpaPackageDir property. In this case note that msbuild does not expand $() expressions passed in on the command line, so it is not possible to use the $(OutputPath) syntax. You must instead provide a full path name.
Or the following on Mac:
With your distribution build created and archived, you are now ready to submit your application to iTunes Connect.
Summary
This article described how to configure, build, and submit an iOS app forrelease on the App Store.
Related links
Previous: Building out your app
Now that we have a working app, we are ready to push it live to the world! Since the Ionic team already submitted the Todo app from this guide to the app store, chances are youâll want to follow this chapter with a new app that you make on your own.
So first, we need to generate a release build of our app, targeted at each platform we wish to deploy on. Before we deploy, we should take care to adjust plugins needed during development that should not be in production mode. For example, we probably donât want the debug console plugin enabled, so we should remove it before generating the release builds:
To generate a release build for Android, we can use the following cordova cli command:
This will generate a release build based on the settings in your
config.xml . Your Ionic app will have preset default values in this file, but if you need to customize how your app is built, you can edit this file to fit your preferences. Check out the config.xml file documentation for more information.
Next, we can find our unsigned APK file in
platforms/android/build/outputs/apk . In our example, the file was platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/HelloWorld-release-unsigned.apk . Now, we need to sign the unsigned APK and run an alignment utility on it to optimize it and prepare it for the app store. If you already have a signing key, skip these steps and use that one instead.
Letâs generate our private key using the
keytool command that comes with the JDK. If this tool isnât found, refer to the installation guide:
Youâll first be prompted to create a password for the keystore. Then, answer the rest of the nice toolsâs questions and when itâs all done, you should have a file called
my-release-key.keystore created in the current directory.
Note: Make sure to save this file somewhere safe, if you lose it you wonât be able to submit updates to your app!
To sign the unsigned APK, run the
jarsigner tool which is also included in the JDK:
This signs the apk in place. Finally, we need to run the zip align tool to optimize the APK. The
zipalign tool can be found in /path/to/Android/sdk/build-tools/VERSION/zipalign . For example, on OS X with Android Studio installed, zipalign is in ~/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/VERSION/zipalign :
Now we have our final release binary called
HelloWorld.apk and we can release this on the Google Play Store for all the world to enjoy!
(There are a few other ways to sign APKs. Refer to the official Android App Signing documentation for more information.)
Google Play Store
Now that we have our release APK ready for the Google Play Store, we can create a Play Store listing and upload our APK.
To start, youâll need to visit the Google Play Store Developer Console and create a new developer account. Unfortunately, this is not free. However, the cost is only $25 compared to Appleâs $99.
Once you have a developer account, you can go ahead and click âPublish an Android App on Google Playâ as in the screenshot below:
Then, you can go ahead and click the button to edit the store listing (We will upload an APK later). Youâll want to fill out the description for the app. Here is a little preview from when we filled out the application with the Ionic Todo app:
When you are ready, upload the APK for the release build and publish the listing. Be patient and your hard work should be live in the wild!
Updating your App
As you develop your app, youâll want to update it periodically.
In order for the Google Play Store to accept updated APKs, youâll need to edit the
config.xml file to increment the version value, then rebuild the app for release.
This section is a part of the article Ionic Framework: A definitive 10,000 word guide written by our community member Nikola Brežnjak for Pluralsight.
First, you need to enroll in Apple Developer Program. As with Google, if you have a personal account with Apple, you can create an additional one for your applications.
Connecting Xcode with your developer account
After you receive your developer status, open Xcode on your Mac and go to
Preferences -> Accounts and add your account to Xcode by clicking the + button on the lower left hand side, and follow the instructions:
Signing
Now that you linked Xcode with your developer account, go to
Preferences -> Accounts , select your Apple Id on the left hand side and then click the View Details button shown on the previous image. You should see the popup similar to the one on the image below:
Click the
Create button next to the iOS Distribution option.
You can learn more about maintaining your signing identities and certificates from the official documentation.
Setting up the app identifier
Next, through the Apple Developer Member Center weâll set up the app ID identifier details. Identifiers are used to allow an app to have access to certain app services like for example Apple Pay. You can login to Apple Developer Member Center with your Apple ID and password.
Once youâre logged in you should choose
Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles option as shown on the image below:
On the next screen, shown on the image below, select the
Identifiers option under the iOS Apps.
On the next screen, shown on the image below, select the plus (+) button in order to add a new iOS App ID.
On the next screen, shown partialy on the image below, youâll have to set the name of your app, and use the
Explicit App ID option and set the Bundle ID to the value of the id in your Cordova config.xml tag.
Additionally, youâll have to choose any of the services that need to be enabled. For example, if you use Apple Pay or Wallet in your app, you need to choose those option.
Mac running c++ app. You can learn more about registering app identifiers from the official documentation.
Creating the app listing
Apple uses iTunes Connect to manage app submissions. After you login, you should see a screen similar to the one on the image below:
Apple Xcode For Mac
Here you have to select the My Apps button, and on the next screen select the + button, just below the
iTunes Conenct My Apps header, as shown on the image below:
This will show three options in a dropdown, and you should select the
New App . After this the popup appears, as shown on the image below, where you have to choose the name of the application, platform, primary language, bundle ID and SKU.
Once youâre done, click on the
Create button and youâll be presented with the following screen where youâll have to set some basic options like Privacy Policy URL, category and sub category.
Now, before we fill out everything in the listing, weâll build our app and get it uploaded with Xcode. Then youâll come back to finish the listing.
You can learn more about managing your app in iTunes Connect from the official documentation.
Building the app for production
In the root directory of your application execute the following command:
ionic cordova build ios --release
If everything went well youâll see the BUILD SUCCEEDED output in the console.
Opening the project in Xcode
Now, open the
platforms/ios/SuperSimpleCalculator.xcodeproj file in Xcode (of course you would change SuperSimpleCalculator with your own name).
Once the Xcode opens up the project, you should see the details about your app in the general view, as shown on the image below:
You should just check that the bundle identifier is set up correctly, so that itâs the same as the value you specified earlier in the app ID. Also, make sure that the version and build numbers are correct. Team option should be set to your Apple developer account. Under the deployment target you can choose which devices your application will support.
Creating an archive of the application
In Xcode, select
Product -> Scheme -> Edit Scheme to open the scheme editor. Next, select the Archive from the list on the left hand side. Make sure that the Build configuration is set to Release as shown on the image below:
To create an archive choose a
Generic iOS Device , or your device if itâs connected to your Mac (you canât create an archive if simulator is selected), from the Scheme toolbar menu in the project editor, as shown on the image below:
Next, select
Product -> Archive , and the Archive organizer appears and displays the new archive.
At this point you can click the
Upload to App Store.. button, and if everything goes fine youâll have an uploaded app, and the only thing thatâs left to do is to complete the iTunes Connect listing and submit it for review!
If you get an email from iTunes Connect shortly after you uploaded the archive with the content similar to this:
Finishing the app list process
Now you should head back to the iTunes Connect portal and login. Next, click on the
Pricing and Availability on the left hand side under APP STORE INFORMATION .
You donât have to worry about forgetting to insert any crucial and required information about your application, since youâll be notified about whatâs missing and what needs to be added/changed if you try to submit the app for review before all details are filled in.
Next, click on the
1.0 Prepare for Submission button on the left hand side, as shown on the image below. When we uploaded our archive, iTunes Connect automatically determined which device sizes are supported. As you can also see on the image below, youâll need to upload at least one screenshot image for each of the various app sizes that were detected by iTunes Connect.
Next youâll have to insert Description, Keywords, Support URL and Marketing URL (optionally), as shown on the image below:
In the
Build section you have to click on the + button and select the build that was uploaded through Xcode in the previous steps, as shown on the image below:
Next youâll have to upload the icon, edit the rating, and set some additional info like copyright and your information. Note that the size of the icon that youâll have to upload here will have to be 1024 by 1024 pixels. Thankfully, you can use the splash.png from the second tutorial. If youâre the sole developer then the data in the
App Review Information should be your own. Finally, as the last option, you can leave the default checked option that once your app is approved that it is automatically released to the App Store.
Now that weâre finished with adding all of the details to the app listing, we can press
Save and then Submit for Review . Finally, youâll be presented with the last form that youâll have to fill out:
After you submit your app for review youâll see the status of it in the My Apps as
Waiting for review , as shown on the image below. Also, shortly after you submit your app for review youâll get a confirmation email from iTunes Connect that your app is in review.
Apple prides itself with a manual review process, which basically means it can take several days for your app to be reviewed. Youâll be notified of any issues or updates to your app status.
Updating the appHow To Download Xcode
Since youâll probably want to update your app at some point youâll first have to update the build and version numbers in the Cordova
config.xml file and then rebuild the application and open it up from the Xcode and follow the same steps all over again.
How To Publish App Xcode For Mac Windows 10
Once you submit for the review, youâll have to wait for the review process again. Itâs pivotal to note that if your changes arenât too big you could use Ionic Deploy to update your application without going through the review process.
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