A PLEA FOR HELP - Getting the App to the App Store

Hi Folks.

Right, I'm throwing my hands up in the air here and admitting defeat. I have spent two weeks now trying to get my first App, !!!Incoming!!!, onto the App Store but I can't for the life of me figure it out!! I have it all set up on the App Store, it's Awaiting Upload. But where I go from there is totally knocking me off my feet.

I "THINK" I have my distribution certificate installed but I'm not sure. I've been following web links, Google links, the Apple documentation and the books I have and I can not make head nor tail of what the hell I have to do!?!?!?!?!?! As a matter of fact, I've been messing around with the configurations so much that my Xcode code now seems to be corrupted because now when I try to build the archive I get a screen load of error messages which I never got before :(.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE can someone help me!!! I need an A-B-C 1-2-3 hand-holding step-by-step guide on what it is I have to do??? I need to know what buttons to press, what I should be seeing on screen, etc. I'm sure once I've done this once I'll be all set to do it myself in the future, but I NEED someone to show me how to do it that first time!!

Calm down.

Once Connect is waiting for the binary, you need to do the following in XCode:

Step 1. Create a new "Deploy" profile.

When you click on the binary (not the target) you will see 2 profiles: debug and release. Just clone the release profile and name it "Deploy".

Step 2. Setting signatures.

Go to the config page and search for all the build profiles (debug, release, and the newly created deploy), for deploy, set its options so that it is signed with the distribution certificate you´ve just downloaded.

Step 3. Editing Schemas

When you compile and run, you are using a schema, which is shown closed to your build/run buttons. Edit the schema and select the "Archive" option. There you will see that either debug or release profiles are used for archiving binaries. Change that so that you use "Deploy", instead.

Step 4. Building and Archiving your binaries

Now, go to the build menu, and select "Build for Archive" and when it finishes, press the "Archive" option. If everything goes fine, Organizer will pop up, showing you the archive build you´ve just created.

Step 5. Validating your binary.

Click on the binary and press "Validate". You will have to sign into Connect. When the options appear for signatures, verify that you have selected the Distribution certificates you´ve used to sign in your build. If everything goes ok, you won´t receive any error messages.

Step 6. Submit your app to connect.

Sale as 5 above, but this time tou click on "Submit". Once you repeat the process you will see that this time your binary is started to be uploaded to Apple. When this finishes, if everything went ok, the state of your binary will change to "Wait for a Review".

Step 7. Wait for a Review

Good luck!

@Paul_Boland,

What version of Xcode are you using?

If you have the older version 3.2 (I think) you need to use the Application loader located in Developer/Applications/Utilities/

Launch the Application Loader.app and it will give you the instructions.

If / or rather when someone posts something that Paul can follow and get this to work correctly, perhaps it could be made into a sticky post guide for anyone else who will have difficulties in the future?

I haven't tried to submit to the app store yet, but I know it would be helpful to have some instructions as I am sure many others would find it useful. :)

BH Games, thank you for the detailed instructions. I tried to follow them but got a huge error message again, I think my currect Xcode project has been messed around with so much that it's not a runner any more. Tomorrow I will take over a clean version of the code from MMF to the Mac and start the whole process from scratch, getting it installed onto my iPad again. This isn't going to cause me any problems, is it???

Once that is done, I will follow your instructions to get it into the App Store. I'm concerned about my time limit to get the binary uploaded, I think it's 40 days and I'm already 15 or 16 days in [eek]!! I'll let you know how this goes, fingers crossed tomorrow is a day of success!! (X)

Excelent tutorial for upload App to Apple Servers. Congratulations BHGames!!!

Thanks both.

Paul: please verify that you created the correct distribution profile on Connect, downloaded both, the profile and certificate, and installed them on your Mac.

And no, a clean project is not a problem at all.

Figuring out those certificates is a pain when you do it the first time!

My iPad is being updated to iOS 5 so once that's done I'll start the whole process over. Good to know a clean version of the project file won't cause any problems. I'll keep you posted on those certs when I proceed later. I wish this was a whole lot more straight forward, something like log into my iOS Developer account and just upload my project!!

Fingers crossed today is the day...

Sigh... With my iPad now running iOS 5, it turns out Xcode won't produce the App file to run it on my iPad. I'm now downloading Xcode 4.2 for Snow Leopard as instructed to do. I'll keep you posted...
:(