How to Create a Free iOS Development Provisioning Profile

UPDATED 12/04/2016

Do you like Apple software?

How about free Apple software?

“Free” and “Apple” do not usually go hand-in-hand, but with the release of Xcode 7, things have certainly changed.

Prior to Xcode 7, if you wished to test your iOS application on any physical device, you had to pay Apple for the the privilege to do so. This is no longer the case, as you can now create free iOS development provisioning profiles via Xcode 7 and then use these to create standalone applications, which will run on your iOS devices.

Prerequisites

1. Latest release of LiveCode
2. Xcode 7.*

Okay – let’s begin!

Step 1: Create a Free Apple ID: https://appleid.apple.com/account. (This will be used within Step 3).

Step 2: Open Xcode 7.

Step 3: From within Xcode 7, navigate to “Xcode—->Preferences—->Accounts.” Press the “+”  icon (red arrow below) to add the Apple ID you created in Step 1.

After you add your account, it will show within the main account window (green arrow above). Next, you should select your account and then press the “View Details” button (purple arrow above). It may take a few seconds to load.

Step 4: This next screen allows you to create the first item needed for setting up a development provisioning profile: the development certificate. To do this, press the “Create” button next to the iOS development text (red arrow below). Once this process has completed, press “Done.”

Step 5: You will now need to connect your iOS device to your computer. With this attached, navigate to “File—->New Project” and then from within the new window, press “Game.” Then press “Next.” This will create a new Xcode project (Don’t worry, you will not need to learn any Objective-C!).

Step 6: You should now be presented with the following screen:

Here you will want to fill in the Product name, Organization Name, and  Organization Identifier sections – all others can be left in default mode. The most important one is the Organization Identifier. I would recommend using the reverse domain name notation scheme when creating this. It should auto-populate with an example.

Once this information has been entered, press “Next.”

Step 7:You will now be asked to choose a location to save your project. The directory does not matter, as we will not be working on this project except to create a profile from it.

Step 8: You should now be presented with the following screen (below), which is the “General” section of your Xcode project.

From here, you will want to do the following-

• Select your iOS device from the target selection dropdown (red arrow above).
• Take  note of the “Bundle Identifier” (blue arrow above). This is IMPORTANT, as this identifier will be used within your LiveCode stacks standalone application settings.
• Ensure the deployment target matches or is lower than your connect iOS device (green arrow above).
• VERY IMPORTANT: Press the “Fix Issue” button (black arrow above). This is the step that actually creates the provisioning profile.
• I would also recommend testing deployment from Xcode, as this will ensure everything is set-up and running as expected. To do this, press the “Play” icon (yellow arrow above) to push this test project to your iOS device.

Step 9: We are now finished with Xcode, so it can now be closed (I can hear the “Hurrahs!”). It’s now time to open up LiveCode. With LiveCode open, ensure Xcode is linked in “Mobile Support” within LiveCode’s preferences (see below). If it is not linked, then simply use the “Add Entry” button and select your Xcode instance.

Step 10: With Xcode linked, open a stack you wish to deploy to your iOS device and open its “Standalone Application Settings.”  Navigate to the the “iOS” pane and check the “build for” box. You can then change your iOS standalone setting to suit your needs.

Two very important settings that need to be set correctly are “Internal App ID” and “Profile.” The internal app ID needs to be the bundle identifier you took a note of in step 8 and the profile should be the one that Xcode generated. If you create more than one, then the profile should closely match the name of the internal app ID.

Once all these items are set, you can close the standalone application settings window.

Step 11:  The final stage to building your iOS standalone is to …..build it! 🙂 To do this, navigate to “File—->Save As Standalone Application”  and then choose a directory where you want to build your app. Then press the “Choose” button. If all is successful you will be presented with the following dialog:

Step 12: Now that you have a standalone, you will want to get it onto your device. To do this, open Xcode and navigate to “Window—>Devices.” You should be presented with a window that displays your connected devices. To install your standalone, simply drag it from its build directory into the “Installed Apps” window of your device. See below:

With the app installed, all you need to do is press the app’s icon on your iOS device and it will launch!

Do you find this tutorial useful when it comes to testing your apps on your physical iOS devices? Do you have questions or thoughts? Share in the comments below! 

**NB: If you receive a “could not find valid profile” error then the most likely cause of this is a missing intermediate certificate. This can be directly downloaded from here https://developer.apple.com/certificationauthority/AppleWWDRCA.cer. To install, double click the downloaded cer file and add it to your login keychain.**