The Liquid State App Signing Tool
Overview
The Liquid State app signing tool allows you to quickly sign your iOS apps, so that they can be submitted to the iOS App Store.
To sign an app, you must be working on the Mac computer to which you saved your app's distribution Certificate.
App Signing Overview
You can either sign an app for Ad Hoc beta testing, or for distribution on the iOS App Store. Either way, you will require a relevant Provisioning Profile.
If you haven't already created your Provisioning Profile(s), see these pages:
- How to: Create an Ad-Hoc Profile (for information on creating an Ad Hoc Provisioning Profile)
- How to: Create an App Store Provisioning Profile (for information on creating an App Store Provisioning Profile)
You will need to access both your Provisioning Profile's .mobileprovision file, and your app's .ipa package file.
If you haven't got these files handy, follow these instructions:
To download your .mobileprovision file, navigate to the Apple Developer portal, then sign in to the Member Center.
Within the Member Center, click the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles link.
Under the iOS Apps heading, click the Provisioning Profiles link.
Your Distribution Provisioning Profile should be visible in the list.
If you do not see a Provisioning Profile, ensure that you have followed the correct procedures for creating an Ad Hoc Provisioning Profile and/or an App Store Provisioning Profile.
Select your Provisioning Profile, check it is the correct type, and click the Download Button.
Your .mobileprovision file will be downloaded to your computer.
You can always download the latest build of your app from your Liquid State account.
Your iOS app build is in .ipa format, and can be downloaded from the iOS Section of the App Publishing tab.
Information on the latest iOS build will be displayed on this page. Click the Download button to download your .ipa file to your computer.
With your .mobileprovision file and .ipa file at the ready, you can sign your app with the Liquid State App Signing Tool.
Download, install, and open the App Signing Tool.
Click the Choose buttons to select your app package's .ipa file. and your provisioning profile's .mobileprovision file.
Provisioning Profile Information
Once you have selected your .mobileprovision file, the App Signing Tool will draw out some of the key details from your Provisioning Profile.
You can check these details against the details you entered when configuring your app.
To do so, click the View provisioning profile information button.
A second App Signing Tool window will open. This window houses four tabs: Profile, Team, App, and Entitlements.
Profile
- Profile Type - the type of provisioning profile you created in the Apple Developer portal. If you're signing your app to send it to the app store, the Profile Type should be AppStore. If you're signing your app for Ad Hoc Testing, the Profile Type should be AdHoc.
- Number of devices provisioned - the amount of registered devices included within your Ad Hoc provisioning profile. For App Store provisioning profiles, this value should be zero.
Team
- Team Identifier - also referred to as the Team ID or Organisation ID. This is a unique identifier, generated by Apple, associated with your Apple Developer account. Ensure this matches the value you entered in the Identifiers section of your app's iOS Configuration Tab.
- Team Name - the name associated with your Apple Developer account,
App
- App Bundle ID - the identifier you created for your app in the Apple Developer Portal. Ensure this matches the value you entered in the Identifiers section of your app's iOS Configuration Tab.
Entitlements
- Push notifications configured - refers to if you have enabled push notifications for your app. This section should display as YES. If it displays as NO, please edit your provisioning profile to include the push notifications entitlement. This can be done in the Apple Developer portal. You must enable push notifications - even if you do not intend to use them for your app.
Sign Your App
After making sure your provisioning profile's information matches up against the details you entered in your Liquid State account, you can sign your app by clicking the Sign app button.
A few popups will appear, asking you to allow the signing to occur. Click Always Allow.
Once your app has been signed, a confirmation message will appear in the App Signing Tool window.
Continue on to uploading your .ipa file with Application Loader, or distributing it for Ad Hoc beta testing.