In this section, you will learn how to create the iOS development certificate that will enable us to run and test our TrackMyWalks app on the iOS device. We will begin by generating the iOS development certificate, which will be encrypted and will serve the purpose of identifying you digitally.
You will then need to sign your apps using this certificate before you can run and test any application that you develop on your iOS device. To begin, perform the following simple steps:
- Launch the Keychain Access application, which can be found in the
/Applications/Utilitiesfolder. - Next, choose the Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority... menu option from the Keychain Access | Certificate Assistant, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Then, we need to provide some information before the certificate can be generated under the Certificate Information section.
- Next, enter in the required information, as shown in the following screenshot, whilst ensuring that you have selected the Saved to disk and the Let me specify key pair information options:
- Once all the information has been filled out, click on the Continue button. You will then be asked to specify a name for the certificate. Accept the default suggested name, and click on the Save button.
- Next, accept the default of 2048 bits and RSA algorithm. We need to provide some information before the certificate can be generated under the Certificate Information section, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Click on the Continue button and then click on the Done button when the final screen appears.
Up until now, you learned how to generate a certificate request for iOS development, using the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) using the pre-installed Mac OS X Keychain Access application, so that we have the ability of code-signing our applications, which will enable us to deploy our applications to the iOS device for both development and testing.
In our next step, we will learn how to request a development certificate from Apple that will provide us with the ability of code-signing our applications using our generated certificate information file that we created in this section.
In this section, we will learn how to obtain the development certificate from Apple, to enable us to begin developing apps.
Before you can begin submitting your application to the Apple App Store, you will need to obtain your own copy of the iOS development certificate. This certificate is basically your unique identity for each of your apps that you submit for approval, so let's get started:
- Log in to the iOS developer portal website at http://developer.apple.com/ .
- Click on the Member Center link that is located right at the top of the screen.
- Sign in to your account using your Apple ID and password. This will then display the developer program resources page, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Next, click on the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles button, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot.
- Then, click on the + button, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot.
- Next, choose the iOS App Development option under the Development section, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot, and click on the Continue button to proceed to the next step, as displayed further down the page:
- Then, click on the Continue button, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot, to proceed to the next step.
- Next, click on the Choose File... button, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot.
- Then, select the
CertificateSigningRequest.certSigningRequestfile that you created in the previous sections and click on the Continue button to proceed to the next step in the wizard. - After a few seconds, the page will refresh and the certificate will be ready and you will be able to download it.
In this section, we considered the steps involved in requesting a certificate from Apple that will be used to provide us with the ability of code-signing our applications required to deploy onto the iOS device and the Apple App Store.
We then moved on to learn how to use the generated certificate request file that we created in our previous section, Creating the TrackMyWalks iOS development certificate, to generate the development certificate.
In previous sections, we have learned how to request a certificate from Apple to provide us with the ability of code-signing our applications, as well as learning how to use the generated certificate request file to generate our deployment certificate.
In this section, we will be looking at how to create the application App IDs so that we can use these to deploy our applications to test on an iOS device:
- Log in to the iOS developer portal website at http://developer.apple.com/ .
- Click on the Member Center link that is located right at the top of the screen.
- Sign in to your account using your Apple ID and password. This will then display the developer program resources page, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Next, click on the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles button, as highlighted in the preceding screenshot.
- Then, click on the App IDs item located underneath the Identifiers group at the left-hand side of the page and click on the + button to display the Register iOS App IDs section, as highlighted in the following screenshot:
- Next, provide a description for the App ID Description field that will be used to identify your app, as shown in the preceding screenshot.
- Then, provide a name for the Bundle ID field. This needs to be the same as your application's bundle identifier.
Consider the following screenshot:
- Next, choose from the list of App Services that you would like to enable for your app, and then click on the Continue button, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Then, from the Confirm your App ID screen, click on the Register button.
In this section, we covered the necessary steps required to create the App ID for our application. Creation of App IDs are required for each application that you create and must contain a unique application ID that identifies itself. The App ID is part of the provisioning profile and identifies an App or a suite of related applications.
These are used when your applications communicate with the iOS hardware accessories, the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS), and when sharing of data happens between each of your applications.