[OT] First Mobile App Released

[Sarah Reichelt]

On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 3:28 AM, Scott Rossi <scott at tactilemedia.com> wrote:
> Hello List:>
> Just sharing a little excitement on the release of my first mobile app:
> PLEXXR -- a stylish puzzle game for Apple's iPad.  As mentioned previously,
> this app was about 7 months in the making, and I got some helpful feedback
> from folks here on the list -- thanks guys!
>
> Site with trailer (no gameplay vid yet but it's coming):
> <http://www.plexxr.com>
>
> App Store link:
> <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plexxr/id397208452?mt=8>
>
> For folks that don't have an iPad, there's also a desktop version available
> on the PLEXXR site.


As one of those who tested Scott's app (I was the annoying one whose
iPad kept crashing), I would like to recommend this app to you all.
If anything, the graphics are even better than we expect from Scott,
and the music & sound effects are also great. The puzzles are varied
and interesting and having to work out what each puzzle is about makes
it even more fun.

I too have recently had an app accepted in the App Store, and as
revMobile (or whatever it is called now) is approaching that stage, I
thought people might be interested in hearing some more details of the
process. My app was an Xcode app, not a LiveCode app, but all lot of
the administration will be the same.

Firstly, as you all probably know by now, you have to pay your $99 to
Apple to get a developer's license. Then you can create a developer
certificate and a provisioning profile for your app. Use the wizard on
Apple's Provisioning Portal page for this.

You need to download the Apple developer tools, so that you get the
simulators and the Xcode app which includes the Organizer for
installing stuff on your iPad/iPhone.

Now you can create your stack and run it in the Simulator. If you link
in your Provisioning Profile, then you can run it on your iP* devices.
If you want to send the app to anyone else for testing, you need to
get the ID of their device (this appears in iTunes if you click the
serial number of the device - then Command-C to copy it) and add them
to your Provisioning Profile. Send then the app and the profile and
they can drag both into iTunes and install it that way.

Once the app is ready, you have to get a deployment certificate and a
deployment provisioning profile. There are several steps to this, but
the documentation on the Apple site is very good, so just follow
along. Then re-build the app with this new profile. For me the
freakiest thing was that this gives you the app to submit, but you
cannot run this app on your device, so you are sending Apple an app
that you haven't seen run.

Anyway, once you submit, there is an immediate "binary check". I
presume this is an automated test for non-approved APIs etc, but when
using revMobile, that's all RunRev's responsibility and I am sure they
wouldn't include any of those.

Then it only took about 5 days for us to get approval. We got an email
saying it was approved and would appear in the App Store within 24
hours, but actually, it was there in just under an hour. So it appears
that Apple has really streamlined the process.

Basic advice: read all the instructions in the Provisioning Portal,
and follow all the steps. And since you can't test the final
distribution app, make sure the app is thoroughly tested using your
development profile.

Cheers,
Sarah