Chapter 11: Managing Certificates, Identifiers, and Provisioning Profiles
Parts of the development process require secure access to Apple services, so Xcode includes built-in features that manage these. Security management is known as provisioning. Provisioning is simpler in Xcode 5 than it was in previous versions of Xcode, but the learning curve remains non-trivial.
Understanding Provisioning
For commercial and technical reasons, Apple needs to control what developers and users can do. The provisioning and account management system controls access to three main privileges:
- Developing iOS apps and testing them on hardware (This option includes distributing apps to beta testers.)
- Distributing Mac and iOS apps through the App Store
- Signing Mac Apps so users can install them easily even if they are not distributed through the App Store
iOS and OS X development privileges are managed separately. You can sign up for either program or for both. If you sign up for one program only, you are locked out of the other. For example, OS X program members can build iOS apps in the Simulator but cannot test them on devices. iOS program members can build Mac apps but cannot sign them for distribution.
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