Posted by Eric Mills on Sun, Nov 01, 2009 @ 11:32 PM
In the spirit of Halloween, I want to provide some tips on one of the most horrifying and scary parts of iPhone development: Ad hoc distribution. Generally, ad hoc distribution is used to allow other people to install applications onto their device during development. We typically use it as a way to let clients test out an application before it reaches the app store.
The biggest problem we ran into with this method was actually getting it to work. We would send the client an email with some files and we would constantly hear back from them "It didn't work". Since our job was to make sure that it did work, we became pretty familiar with the errors that would arise and how to fix them. Here are few common errors and reasons why you might see them.
If you are installing via iTunes and the end message is this:
This could mean a few things. The device you are installing the application to doesn't have the provisioning profile on it. Check the phone under "Settings" -> "General" -> "Profile" to see if the provisioning profile is there. If it is not there, you need to make sure you dragged the profile into iTunes.
Another reason the profile could be missing is because the device you are installing to isn't included in the profile. You will need to double check the program portal and verify that you have included the device. If you make these checks you will likely find the problem and can resolve it.
If the end message is this:
This usually means the Entitlemints.plist file is missing. This file is included for ad hoc builds and is necessary for everything to work right. If you are a developer, make sure you have included this file in the project and unchecked the "get-task-allow" option. Also check the project settings and make sure that you have included this file as a "Code Signing Entitlements" entry for the build type you are using.
Another thing we recommend for this process is to take email out of the equation. While we develop applications on a Mac OS, we still use Exchange email, and our clients use various operating systems and email clients. There are a lot of opportunities for file corruption if you use email. We have started putting the files on a public server and linking clients to the files. If you make these checks each time you create an ad hoc build you will have a much better success rate with ad hoc distribution. Or, in Halloween terms, it will turn a trick into a treat.