About iOS Development Team Administration

At a Glance

Team Admins Manage Team Membership and Assign Roles in the Member Center

The team admin is responsible for managing the development team by adding new members and assigning team roles. A developer can be a team agent, team admin, or a team member. Each development team has one team agent who is the primary contact for the team. A team with more than one member is required to have at least two team admins (including the team agent). The team agent and team admins are responsible for the configuration and provisioning of an app.

Relevant Chapter: Managing Your Team

Development Devices Must Be Registered in the iOS Provisioning Portal

To run an app on an iOS device during the app’s development stage, you must register the device in the iOS Provisioning Portal by adding its device ID. This device must also be specified as a development device.

Relevant Chapters: Designating iOS Devices for Development and User Testing

To Develop Apps, You Need a Development Certificate

In iOS development, apps must be cryptographically signed before they can run on an iOS device. Each team member who wants to develop an app needs to have his or her own authorized development certificate. A team member requests a development certificate using Xcode but it is not created until the team admin approve the request.

Relevant Chapter: Managing Development Certificates

To Install an App on a Development Device, You Need a Development Provisioning Profile

To install an app on a device, you need three things:

App ID that identifies the set of apps it authorizes to run.

List of devices your team wants to use for testing.

List of developers permitted to sign the app.

These three things are bundled in a development provisioning profile.

Relevant Chapters: Creating and Downloading Development Provisioning Profiles

To Distribute an App, You Need a Distribution Certificate and a Distribution Provisioning Profile

When your app is ready for distribution, the team admin creates a distribution certificate that your team uses to sign your app. This certificate must be included in a distribution provisioning profile. Similar to a development provisioning profile, a distribution provisioning profile bundles together the things you need to distribute your app: an app ID and your team’s distribution certificate. A distribution provisioning profile allows your app to run on nondevelopment iOS devices.

Relevant Chapters: Managing a Distribution Certificate and Creating and Downloading a Distribution Provisioning Profile

Publish Your App to the App Store or Distribute on Your Own

You can submit your app to the App Store or distribute it to testers through ad hoc distribution. Or, if you are enrolled in the Enterprise Program, you can distribute your app in-house. Apps published in the App Store must go through the approval process before they are available to users.

Relevant Chapter: Distributing an App

How to Use This Document

This document is intended for both developers and nondevelopers. It is required reading for team admins (which includes the team agent).

This guide does not require familiarity with Xcode or that you be involved in any of the app programming.

If you have never used the iOS Provisioning Portal before, you should read this document in its entirety, starting with Managing Your Team .

If you have previously acted as your development team’s agent or admin, use this guide as a checklist, referencing the relevant chapters to learn about specific tasks.

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you, or your company, are already registered in the iOS Developer Program. If not, you can register at http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/ . After you are registered, you have access to the Member Center and the iOS Provisioning Portal .

Before you read this guide, read Developing for the App Store to understand all the steps you must perform to develop and distribute your apps.

See Also

If you are an individual developer, who is not using any of the specialized technologies that require an explicit app ID, read this tutorial to get started:

App Store Submission Tutorial teaches you the process of provisioning devices and submitting your iOS app to the App Store.

The following guides are intended for team members responsible for writing your app’s code:

Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Retired) is the starting point for learning how to create apps. It describes fundamental app architecture, explains coding processes, and gives tips for designing your app.

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