Deploy .ipa file in App store generated by Phonegap?

Question

I have created an iOS apps using Phonegap. I also registered with apple developer program and generated all required certificates. Now, I want to deploy this .ipa file to app store. What I have to do now to publish this .ipa file to app store?

Answer 1

Here is an overview of how to submit a PhoneGap app to the App Store aka iTunes Connect. Amazingly, PhoneGap doesn't seem to provide these instructions.

1. In the iOS Provisioning Portal, create a distribution certificate. As part of this process you will use Keychain Manager to create a Distribution Certificate. Export this certificate to Certificates.p12 by right-clicking on it and choosing Export. Record the password because you will need it every time you do a build on build.phonegap.com.

2. In the iOS Provisioning Portal create an app ID for your app.

3. Create an App Store distribution profile and make sure you use the same private key/certificate to sign it as above. Download it.

4. Now go to build.phonegap.com and go to your iOS build, and "add a key ...". Call it "App Store" and upload the .p12 file and the .mobileprovision file.

5. Rebuild and download the IPA file from PhoneGap Build.

6. Make sure that your app is set to Ready to Upload Binary in iTunes Connect.

7. Upload the app using Application Loader (see also Where to find Application Loader app in Mac?) which comes with Xcode. You will upload the IPA file.

Answer 2

Once you've got the .ipa file ready to submit, you just need to visit iTunes Connect at https://itunesconnect.apple.com, create a record for your app, and fill in the required information. From the official documentation:

The record in iTunes Connect includes a field for a bundle ID; the value you place in this field must exactly match the bundle ID for your app. Some Apple technologies, including Game Center and In-App Purchase, require that an iTunes Connect record be created earlier in the development process. For example, with In-App Purchase, you need to create the app record so that you can add the details of the items you want to sell. This content needs to be created before the development process is complete so that you can use it to test the code you added to implement In-App Purchase.

So it should mostly just be a matter of submitting your app via iTunes Connect and waiting for approval.