About Your First App Store Submission

At a Glance

This tutorial teaches you the process of testing an iOS app on a device, and submitting it to the App Store. You can use the same HelloWorld app you created in Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Retired) or you can follow the steps using your own app. This tutorial is about the process , not about how you design your user interface or write your code.

Enroll in the Program

Before you can access any of the tools that you need to run your app on a device or begin the submission process, you must join the iOS Developer Program as either an individual or a company.

Relevant chapter: Enrolling in the iOS Developer Program

Provision Devices

The first step after creating a working app is to run it on a device. Xcode simplifies this process by creating default signing certificates and provisioning profiles for you.

Relevant chapters: Provisioning Your Devices for Development , Testing Your App on Many Devices and iOS Versions

Create an App Record in iTunes Connect

Before you can submit an app for approval, you need to provide information to set up your iTunes Connect account. iTunes Connect is the marketing and business tool you use to check the status of your contracts, set up tax and banking information, obtain sales and finance reports, manage developers on your team, and manage metadata about your app. At a minimum, you need to create an app record and complete forms to validate and submit your app.

Relevant chapter: Creating Your App Record in iTunes Connect

Submit the App

Submitting your app to the App Store is a multistep process involving several tools. First, create a distribution provisioning profile using the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles section of Member Center. Then create an archive, validate it, and submit it to the App Store using Xcode. When your app is approved, set the date when the app will be available to customers using iTunes Connect. Finally, respond to user issues after you ship your first version.

Relevant chapter: Submitting Your App

Solve Problems and Choose Your Next Steps

As you complete the tasks in this tutorial, you may encounter problems that you don’t know how to solve. In this book, you’ll learn some troubleshooting steps that every developer should know about provisioning devices.

After you finish this tutorial, consider using some of the specialized technologies—for example, iCloud storage and push notifications—that require additional configuration and provisioning. And if your development team grows, you need to learn how to manage your team.

Relevant chapters: Review and Troubleshooting , Next Steps

Prerequisites

To benefit from this tutorial, you should read and work through the tutorial in Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Retired) to learn the basics of app development before reading this tutorial. This tutorial uses the HelloWorld app you created in Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Retired) , but you can use your own app to follow along.

See Also

Provisioning your devices and submitting your app to the App Store is more complicated if you have a team of developers and use specialized technologies, such as iCloud storage and push notifications. There are also numerous administrative tasks not covered in this tutorial that you need to perform to market and maintain your app on the App Store. Your app also needs to follow the guidelines in order to be approved by Apple. Read these books next:

To learn more about using Xcode to provision your devices and submit your app, see <!--a target="_self" -->App Distribution Guide<!--/a--> .

To learn more about using iTunes Connect to manage your app, see <!--a target="_self" -->iTunes Connect Developer Guide<!--/a--> .

To learn more about the user interface guidelines and to get your app approved, see <!--a target="_self" -->iOS Human Interface Guidelines<!--/a--> and App Store Review Guidelines .

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