Jonathan Cusick

When developing an application for the iPhone you will have to register for the iPhone development program ($99 for non-enterprise developers) in order for your applications to be published on the app store or to test them locally on your own device.

Once you have registered for the iPhone development program you can follow these steps in order create your own provisioning profile, developer certificate and test applications on your device:

Development Provisioning Assistant

In order to launch the iPhone Development Provisioning Assistant you will first have to log in to the iPhone developer site . Once logged in you will have to select the option ‘iPhone Developer Program Portal’ and then simply click the ‘Launch Assistant’ icon.

From here simply follow the assistant prompts and provide the following information:

Application ID – To start the configuration all you have to do is to enter an App ID which is used to validate your applications access to the Keychain.

Assign Device – In order to assign a device you will be required to enter two pieces of information a device description and a device ID.

To establish what your device ID is, you will have to connect your device to your Mac, then select ‘Window -> Organizer’ within Xcode and this will provide you with the identifier for the device you have connected.

Development Certificate – At this stage a development certificate has to be submitted, this certificate is used to enable apps to run on the device for testing. In order to create a certificate you will have to use the ‘Keychain Access’ application which can be found under the utilities folder on your Mac.

Using the Keychain Access application now select ‘Keychain Access -> Certificate Assistant -> Request a Certificate From A Certificate Authority…’

Now all you have to do is ensure the information here is correct and save it to disk, you can then submit this certificate by going back to the provisioning assistant.

Profile Name – As the App ID, Device description and Certificate have been established you now just have to enter a profile name/description in the field provided within the provisioning assistant.

Provisioning Profile Download And Install – On the provisioning profile download and install screen, you simply have to click download in order to obtain your development profile. Now to install the profile ensure that your device is connected, that Xcode is open and then drag the profile into the ‘Organizer’ window. This is all that is required to install the profile, now head back to the provisioning assistant.

Development Certificate Download And Install – On the development certificate download and install screen, click download just like before to download the certificate. To install the development certificate is extremely easy all you have to do is double-click it and the Keychain Access application will open to confirm you want to install it, at this prompt click ‘OK’.

Get An App On Your Device – Now that you have configured your development certificate and provisioning profile, all you have to do is ensure that your device is connected to your Mac and go back into Xcode. Next open a project you have been working on, but this time before you click ‘Build and Run’ look at the top left hand side of the screen, click on the ‘Overview’ drop down list and select ‘iPhone Device 3.X.X (Base SDK). Now when you click ‘Build and Run’ your app will be installed on the device, and you will be able to properly test it. To remove the app you can do this as normal by tapping and holding the icon until it shakes and finally hit the ‘X’ to remove it.