Accessing the Sandboxed Apple Store without XCode - macos

I am working on an OSX app which is created using an open source common lisp implementation called CCL. We are trying to add in app purchases to our app and I just read through the StoreKitGuide and I am wondering how will I be able to test the in app purchases without using XCode.
The documentation gives instructions about accessing the sandboxed app store using XCode:
When you launch your application from Xcode, Store Kit does not connect to the App Store. Instead, it connects
to a special sandbox store environment. The sandbox environment uses the infrastructure of the App Store,
but it does not process actual payments.
But it doesn't tell you how this could be done without xcode. What can be done test in app purchases without XCode?

Related

What defines an unknown source in Android Auto

Currently,
My team and I are developping an Android Auto enabled app. And it appears to me this app is only available in my car unit, when I enable unknown sources in the Android Auto app.
However I'm wondering what defines an unknown source and how do I make sure my app is not an unknown source. Does Android Auto communicate with the Google Play Services for this or do i need to sign the APK with specific data?
How are you deploying your app? If you are deploying with Android Studio: as I recall you won't see it on your real automotive head unit, just the emulator. To show on the head unit it needs to be deployed in the Play Store, at least in developer and pre-release mode while under development.
First of all: Android Auto runs on your own device, meaning it adapts the same permissions you granted to particular apps. If your app doesn't have an app in the normal UI or you didn't open it on your phone once, then it would usually prompt you to grant permissions the first time you open it.
An unknown source is pretty much any way of getting your app outside of the Google Play Store (and OEM-specific app stores like Samsung App Store for Samsung devices etc.).
That is especially common if you e.g. download an .apk from the internet and want to install it, but your phone thinks their own file manager is an unknown source (because it is not intended to download apps).

Is notarization necessary for Mac App store release?

Is it necessary to notarize app before uploading to Apple App Store? I come across some article says that notarization is needed for non-app store distribution, while apple will run notarization before approving an app store version.
Anyone can confirm?
The reason I ask this question is because I notarized the app for outside Mac App Store distribution and it works fine. For the Mac app store build, I can upload and distribute it and it works fine on Mac, only have issue on Catalina(beta) when user try to open, see attached pic. Wonder if it's related to notarization.
Update: the issue was not due to notarization, but due to code signing. One of the node binary is not signed before uploading to MAS, maybe Catalina has a more strict rule checking it.
No, it's not required. Apps downloaded from the app store are not notarized. You can verify it using spctl command.
spctl -a -v /Applications/Pages.app
/Applications/Pages.app: accepted
source=Mac App Store
Gatekeeper will check notarization only if the app is downloaded from outside the App Store.
From Safely open apps on your Mac
When you install Mac apps, plug-ins, and installer packages from
outside the App Store, macOS checks the Developer ID signature and
notarization status to verify that the software is from an identified
developer and that it has not been altered.
Notarization is only required for distribution outside the Mac App Store. See Distribute outside the Mac App Store (macOS), which says:
In some cases, you may want to distribute an app outside of the Mac App Store [...] Users gain additional assurance if your Developer ID-signed app is also notarized by Apple.
The macOS User Guide has this to say:
App Store: [...] All the developers of apps in the Mac App Store are identified by Apple, and each app is reviewed before it’s accepted
App Store and identified developers: [...] Identified developers are registered with Apple and can optionally upload their apps to Apple for a security check. If problems occur with an app, Apple can revoke its authorization.

Unable to install AppStore version directly to mobile device when using an iOS App Extension

At our company the process we execute normally is:
fix/implement
test ad-hoc version
create AppStore package
test that AppStore package by installing it directly through iTunes.
submit version to AppStore.
The reason why we need to test also the AppStore version is because some payment services wouldn't work if we didn't. So we need a real environment.
Previously to the inclusion of the iOS App Extension (sharing) we could do this process without issues, but now after doing the same process we can't do it anymore.
We can;
test the ad-hoc version by signing the app extension as ad-hoc.
create and submit the app store package.
However we can't install the app store version anymore, the error mentions that there are issues with the signature, more precisely:
(Entitlements found that are not permitted by provisioning profile)
Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening?.
You really shouldn't be able to install the app store version on a physical device and run it.
It can work in certain scenarios (like if you had previously installed development builds on there and there was a valid development build on the device when you try to run the app store build). Maybe the device has the old app provisioning profile (which would not have the app extensions entitlement). The new one that is embedded with the app (and has the appropriate entitlements) is an App Store provisioning profile and is not valid for running directly on the device.
I would make a new build config in your project that is a copy of the Release config, except for only the code signing settings. That would allow you to run a build that will be exactly the production App Store build, except for the code signing settings.

Is it possible to distribute an OSX app ad-hoc without UUID but with entitlements

I'm having some serious trouble signing an application for ad-hoc distribution. Is it possible to distribute an app with the following requirements?:
Does not require tester to provide UUID up front
Outside app store
Utilizes entitlements such as VPN or Keychain Sharing
I ask because exporting without signing (Organizer (select archive) > Export > Export as Mac Application) fails with "embedded provisioning profile not valid: ..." on some devices. It appears to work on others though.
Thank you!
If you're trying to use the NetworkExtension framework (which I'm assuming because you tagged your question with nevpnmanager,) unfortunately that's only available in App Store apps.
I know this because I asked Apple. I was trying to make a non App Store NEVPN app, but no dice. Quinn from Developer Tech Support told me the NEVPN stuff is only available for App Store apps, and that I should file a bug report (which I think I did.)

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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