Best way to distribute sandboxed Mac apps to beta-testers - macos

I would like to send out beta versions of my Mac app (which solon Will be sand boxed) to testers. What's the best way to do that?
I can't use new Mac OS X server for this since I don't have an extra Mac to spare.
Normally for iOS I would use TestFlight. But how about Mac, can I use HockeyApp.com? I don't think I can upload sand boxed versions to HockeyApp, right?

You can use HockeyApp with sandboxed OS X apps. Just upload your .app.zip through the web UI or your .xcarchive with HockeyMac. HockeyApp detects the provisioning profile and asks testers do download it before the .app. You can collect the Mac UUID through HockeyApp too.
If you want to provide in-app updates, please follow this tutorial and make sure to use the Sparkle branch that supports sandboxing:
http://support.hockeyapp.net/kb/client-integration/hockeyapp-for-mac-os-x#beta-distribution

Related

Can you upload .ipa files to Testflight without Mac?

I am using Phonegap Build to quickly deploy and test my applications. For this to work, I had to go through an elaborated tutorial on creating provision files and certificates and borrow a Mac to make use of Keychain. By then however, I only registered one device UDID.
Now I want to add more devices, but I dont want to go through the whole process again, also what if I have to add other devices later?
So I was thinking to use Testflight, which only requires that you upload an .ipa file (apart from having a developers account etc). With Phonegap Build you can easily create these .ipa files.
However, since I am working with Windows, I dont see how I can upload the .ipa files on Testflight. Most tutorials online talk about using Xcode and some other Mac program.
Is there any way to upload it anyway?
Hacks might be available but since Apple integrated TestFlight into iTunes Connect - which (at this time) does not have a public API - the only official solution is to use Xcode or Application Launcher for ipa uploads. Both are only available for OS X.
An alternative solution might be to use an iOS CI/CD (continuous integration and delivery) service to do the upload. We happen to have one - bitrise.io, CTO here - but you can find a couple of other services as well.

What is the lowest OSX version for submitting to the App Store?

I have looked, but I cannot get a version of Application Loader old enough to install on OSX10.5.6 . I would hate to have to buy a mac just to upload my app to the app store. I think I can install xcode 3.1 (downloading now), but I do not see anything about application loader being a part of 3.1? Any suggestions would be helpful
Right now you should already publish app that supports iOS 7...and you need at least XCode 5 for that (which means at least Mac OS X 10.8).
You really need a Mac with recent OS X. I think this policy is not really fair but it is the way it works.

Need apple Mac developer account for distribute free app?

I'm developing Mac app for free.
In iOS , we need developer account to distribute for upload into iTunes Store.
In Mac application, Is that also need to mac developer account for free distribute.
Firefox distribute their app free , we can download that dmg file from their website , not in Mac app store.
Please let me know is that need?
You need a developer account to submit your application to any of Apple's online stores. The price you want to sell for is irrelevant (even if that price is $0).
You don't need one to distribute the program yourself.
iOS will not allow software to be installed except with the Apple online store. The exceptions are:
Web applications
Jailbroken iOS devices
OS X Lion and earlier has no restrictions on what software can be installed.
OS X Mountain Lion will have a user preference that can limit software install sources (including the strictest setting which limits it to the Apple App Store only).

Must I used my developer account when downloading Xcode from the App Store?

Regular distributions of Xcode are now available exclusively from the OS X App Store, but (like many, I expect) my App Store account and developer accounts use different Apple IDs. All my previous installations of Xcode have used my developer account, and I also wonder if there are critical parts of the Xcode configuration (e.g. provisioning profiles, etc.) that rely on Xcode having been installed using the developer Apple ID.
Are there any undesirable consequences to simply installing Xcode from the App Store using my personal account? Or, should I (can I, must I) log in to the App Store using my developer Apple ID instead?
You can use whatever Apple ID you want to download Xcode from the Mac App Store. There's nothing special about what it downloads. You'll need to log in to the developer portal though to download beta versions.
You can download Xcode (and lots of other stuff) from Apple's developer downloads website.
I very much doubt, therefore, that it matters whether you got it from the Mac App Store or not.

Is it possible to get an AIR 3.0 Captive Runtime app into the Mac App Store?

Is it possible to get an AIR 3.0 Captive Runtime app into the Mac App Store? How would you do that?
Here's a link where you can find pretty thorough article how to upload an AIR app in the Mac App-store.
There are actually a couple of steps to doing this. First, and this is what I have found to be the easiest solution, is to build an AIR Intermediate file from Flash Builder 4.5. Once that file is built, use the adt command line packager with the "-target bundle" flag to sign and package the a Mac OSX application bundle. This will result in a fully working captive runtime application bundle that you can run on OSX. When you have completed the Adobe side of things and have verified that is runs correctly you can move on to the Apple side.
I would recommend you reference Apple's developer documentation for this here: Submit Your Application using Application Loader. You will need to use both the "codesign" and "productbuild" commands on the application bundle you created from Adobe's packager. When done, you should now be able to use Apple's Application Loader to submit the package to the Mac App Store.
I have not yet tried to sign the AIRI package with my Apple certificate, so I'm not sure if that would work, since I have both an Thawte cert for Air apps and the Apple issued one. This would take further testing.

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