iOS Provisioning profile process

[MickeyT]

Hello

I signed up to the Apple Developer Programme last night.

I think I obtained a digital certificate successfully, but I am not sure whether I have completed the provisioning profile part correctly. I have been able to deploy something to my iPhone, so it must have worked, but I have two profiles visible in the organiser.

The first one is the one I created by going through the provisioning assistant on the developer centre website. I following the instructions and, when I was told to download and drag the profile into the Library area, I did so and it appeared.

I then assumed I would be able to run apps on my iPhone, but I received a message saying that my device didn't have an appropriate version of iOS on it. When I clicked on my iPhone in the explorer tree, the button saying something like "Make developer device" (can't remember exactly what it said now), seemed like it would do what I wanted, so I clicked it.

That seemed to do the trick because I could run apps on my phone, but I now have a second provisioning profile. The App identifier is the same, the name is "iOS Team Provisioning Profile", and every other field is the same other than the "Team" field which just reads "Unknown".

Is this anything to be bothered about or should I just forget about it because everything works? In a potentially related point; when I had to type in an App ID in the provisioning profile process, my book tells me the convention is normally something like "com.myname.appname", but the box turned red whenever I typed in a full stop and I wasn't able to click the continue button, so I just went with my surname in the end. Is this wrong and could it have caused the above?

Many thanks

Michael

 

[dejo]

That seemed to do the trick because I could run apps on my phone, but I now have a second provisioning profile. The App identifier is the same, the name is "iOS Team Provisioning Profile", and every other field is the same other than the "Team" field which just reads "Unknown".

This is normal. It is just a recent addition to Xcode that automatically defines a wildcard profile for you to use so that you don't need to setup a separate App ID, etc. for each app you wish to deploy.

In a potentially related point; when I had to type in an App ID in the provisioning profile process, my book tells me the convention is normally something like "com.myname.appname", but the box turned red whenever I typed in a full stop and I wasn't able to click the continue button, so I just went with my surname in the end. Is this wrong and could it have caused the above?

It's not great since your App ID should be unique across apps and your surname won't be. Are you saying the box turned red when you typed the period in after the "com"? You should definitely be able to use the "com.myname.appname" format to create an App ID. Could you provide a screenshot where you get this red box?

 

[MickeyT]

My book (Big Nerd Ranch - you recommended this and its a great book, by the way), said I should use the same text as the bundle identifier for the app. The bundle identifier for the app I was going to install onto my phone first was surname.appname.

When I typed in the "." after my surname, the box turned red. When I tried again and typed "com" first, it turned red on typing the "." after "com". The footer to the input box does say you cannot use certain characters, but a "." isn't one of them.

If I go through the provisioning process again to get to the appropriate screen for the screenshot, will that have any unintended consequences (presumably not as long as I don't actually create/download the profile)?

It's not great since your App ID should be unique across apps and your surname won't be.

So does this mean all is not lost in creating my first profile incorrectly? If they are app specific then, once I solve the full stop issue, could I just delete the profile I've created and make another one? In fact, as I am only looking to deploy on to my own iPhone at present as part of studying the book, do I even need to create an app ID if it can work off the wildcard profile?

 

[dejo]

If I go through the provisioning process again to get to the appropriate screen for the screenshot, will that have any unintended consequences (presumably not as long as I don't actually create/download the profile)?

No, you should be fine, taking into account the caveat to follow...

So does this mean all is not lost in creating my first profile incorrectly? If they are app specific then, once I solve the full stop issue, could I just delete the profile I've created and make another one? In fact, as I am only looking to deploy on to my own iPhone at present as part of studying the book, do I even need to create an app ID if it can work off the wildcard profile?

If you can use the wildcard and avoid creating profiles for now, DO IT!

Caveat: Once you create an App ID, you cannot delete it. This can make a bit of a mess in the App ID page, if you are "trying things out", as it were. Some features (e.g. push-notifications) require a non-wildcard-App-ID provisioning profile, so that's what can lead to the mess.

 

[MickeyT]

Once you create an App ID, you cannot delete it.

If I remember correctly (I don't have my Mac with me just now), I'm sure there was a delete button. So when you say you can't delete them, do you mean that they will always exist in my main library (and that I can only delete them from the device's library), or that they always exist with Apple, but I can completely remove them from my computer if I so wished?

Also, if the app identifier in this profile is essentially rubbish (unless I made an app that was just called my surname!) I presume this profile is pretty useless then and everything that has worked so far has done so because of the wildcard profile?

I will also obtain the screenshot when I get home - thank you.

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If I remember correctly (I don't have my Mac with me just now), I'm sure there was a delete button. So when you say you can't delete them, do you mean that they will always exist in my main library (and that I can only delete them from the device's library), or that they always exist with Apple, but I can completely remove them from my computer if I so wished?

Or, indeed, I was seeing things when I saw the delete button.

 

[dejo]

Provisioning Profiles are deletable; App IDs aren't.

 

[MickeyT]

This is the screenshot:

 

[dejo]

Ah!

Your "Profile Description" shouldn't follow the "com.myname.appname" format. It's just a descriptor of your provisioning profile. One example is "iOS Team Provisioning Profile". Another might be "appname Dev Profile" or "appname Distribution Profile". It's used mostly for informational purposes.

 

[MickeyT]

So is where the word "Test" is in the screenshot the App ID? If so, how do I check to see what on earth I typed in there last night? I don't see anything in the organiser in Xcode.

 

[MickeyT]

Actually, I think I've given you the wrong screenshot. This happens on the App ID screen too, which is where, in this case, I typed "Test".

 

[dejo]

Again, that's just a description, for informational purposes. It's when you specify the Bundle Identifier that you will want to use the "com.domainname.appname" format.

 

[MickeyT]

Ah.

I take it this is screen where that matters.

On that basis I think all I have actually done is create a provisioning profile. I haven't actually created the App ID and specified any bundle identifiers. All I have done is created the Bundle Seed ID, I think.

I will perhaps delve into that when I need to - the wildcard one will do for now.

And one final possibly extremely silly question - once I'm done in Organiser, can I just yank my iPhone cable out of the Mac? I was looking for an "eject" button of some kind, but couldn't find one. Just don't want to break my phone given that its my personal one and not a development device.

 

[MickeyT]

I think right clicking and choosing Remove Device from Organiser does the job.

Thank you for you help.