As part of the mobile ecosystem, iOS mobile system has a number of features, both from a technical point of view and in terms of organizing the deployment process.
If you are at the business planning stage of an iOS application, you face a number of questions related to technology selection nuances, creating the necessary permissions and publishing the application in the Apple Store. General information available on the Internet does not always answer all the questions related to native iOS development.
We have collected the most popular questions from customers, project managers and business analysts which refer to the process of creating iOS applications. The answers are given by Anton Tsykanov — iOS-developer with 8 years of experience in developing mobile applications.
SDH creates native and cross-platform mobile applications for iOS from scratch and enhances existing products through software integrations, custom modules and user features to enhance functionality, aesthetics and overall user experience.
In IT language, the publication of a program is called a release. To make the text readable for you without Google, we have compiled a thematic glossary; view it before reading the article:
When you are trying to develop the perfect app for iOS, one of the first things you need to determine is the language you'll need for the project. When it comes to developing native iOS mobile apps, you have two options: either to use the good old Objective-C, or to employ the next-generation Swift.
Brief description of Objective-C: "Only the oldies go to war"
Brief description of Swift: "Youngsters are willing to get power"
SWIFT has proven to be faster, easier and smarter than Objective-C. The number of applications written in SWIFT is growing.
Despite this trend, there have already been many programs written on Objective-C that require support. In some cases, Objective-C is more appropriate, especially for creating highly loaded applications. The transition from one language to another is natural, but this transformation is always smooth.
Obviously, in the future Apple will abandon Objective-C. So far, a lot of effort has been put into its promotion and development. Note that SWIFT is an open source language that always contributes to the growth of the community. In 2021, the SWIFT community already had 2.5 million developers and Objective-C had only 1.6 million.
It is still not economically feasible to rewrite the program from Objective-C to SWIFT, but new projects should be done in SWIFT. For example, Apple itself implements new iOS features
The types of architectures used to build iOS mobile applications may vary, but they can all be covered by the four basic application structures or their mixes that are widely used in the IT industry. These are MVC, MVP, MVVM and Viper. But which one is perfect for your needs?
IOS application architectures:
Each architecture has its own relevance and scope. For example, the MVC, MVP, and MVVM design models have tight connection issues, making the software update and testing process difficult.
VIPER has high degree of flexibility and testing capabilities compared to other models. VIPER allows you to distribute templates and helps test all available features, making it an ideal choice for development iOS.
The process of preparing an account for the release of the application in Apple has a number of pitfalls. What should the project manager do before publishing the application:
Apple has a complex procedure of registration, obtaining permits and certificates.
The developer’s sequence of steps is as follows:
Access to AppleDeveloper -> Team / Personal Provisioning Profile -> AppleID -> Development Certificate -> Device
You must first create a developer account to publish in the AppStore. In this account, you enter your company name and present your brand on the App Store platfrom. This is where your program will be published.
An Apple Developer account can be created for both a legal entity and an individual entrepreneur (the waiting period is 1 day for a developer / 19 days for a company). An account created for a legal entity (company) has no restrictions on the number of developers who have access to it. An account created for a sole proprietor gives access to only one developer. The value of an Apple Developer account is $ 99 / year (as of June 2022).
A digital signature is required for the App Store to identify the developer. In the future, only this developer will be able to update and change the program.
This paragraph of the instruction refers to the technical side of the development and is performed by the developer. The task of the project manager is to make sure that the program has a signature. If the build does not have the correct signature, you can get a rejection from the App Store.
When you're developing a program, you'll probably want to test it before sending it to Apple for approval. Provisioning Profile acts as a link between the device and the developer account. During development process, you choose which devices you can run your application on and which application services it will access. Provisioning Profile is downloaded from your developer account and embedded in the application package, and the entire package is signed with a code. The Provisioning Profile must be installed on each device where you would like to run the program code.
You also need to create an Apple Developer certificate. You can create one using Xcode or the Apple Developer portal. If the information in the Provisioning Profile does not meet certain criteria, your application will not start.
The following conditions must be met for a successful launch:
Each of the stages you go through (development, testing or publication), including all important components of the Apple ecosystem such as Push Notifications, requires the availability of up-to-date certifications. In other words, your program won't even be able to "sneeze" without permission from Apple Developer Center.
Additional certificates:
For example, a common problem of applications is that push notifications won’t work. In this case the developer has to go through the whole chain: check the certificates, the servers, access to the servers (sandbox and production), etc. As a rule, the problem is just in the certificates.
The specifics of the operation of the Apple software certification system is a separate vast topic. An experienced iOS developer from SDH will help put the Apple Developer Center in order.
Without extra sentiments, publishing an app in the App Store is the most exciting process in the developer's life. This is the main step for a mobile product. All the expectations and excitement about the release of the first version are concentrated here. To avoid redevelopment and frustration during the pre-project stage, get acknowledged with the main rules of the Apple Store. Pay special attention to point №4 devoted to design. When publishing the program, you must take into account all the requirements of the App Store Review Guidelines, there are many of them, and they are very diverse.
In addition to checking compliance with all these rules, Apple review and manual testing follow the publication.
Beta testing is the process by which a pre-release or beta version is distributed to a small, limited number of testers. ReadyFlight is a ready-made solution with which developers can organize testing of beta versions of programs for iOS and macOS.
The rules for publishing a build are quite tough.
Make sure you:
According to our experience, the application can be rejected even for trifles. For example, we were rejected when a test account called "test" was stored in the product code, in another case there was a slight mismatch between the interface and the loaded design layout.
Below there is a list of common reasons why you may be denied an app on the AppStore:
Native applications for iOS
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Applications for businesses
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