Install iOS app into xcode simulator?

Question

We're iOS (and other mobile platform) developers and our sales folks routinely need to provide demos of our apps for clients. What we're trying to do is automate a process so sales people can go to a self-serve website and feed the app into their simulator.

Using xcodebuild we can kick off the build process and then present it as a secure download link (via our intranet) but all that lets them do is install it to their iOS device. This is OK except not everyone on the road has an iOS device (or some have old iPod touches, and that's super slow). So, I was thinking that there's gotta be a way to get it installed in their simulator.

I see that others have hacked it in there by zipping up a simulator directory and placing it on another: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7680994

Set target to simulator, release. deploy. stop iphone simulator. zip your app from ~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Applications/ send it to someone else, and let that person know to unzip it in that folder, than start iphone simulator - and you're done.

I guess we can do this, but it doesn't seem deterministic (or at least, a lot harder to script). I'd prefer to work with the .app but if the only way to do it is with this hacky copy and paste operation, that'll be what we have to do.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

This could work: https://github.com/landonf/simlaunch/

I have not tried it yet by myself, but from video looks like the application converts .app compiled for simulator to a launcher, which can be used to run the app in simulator without installing it through xcode.

It probably uses the same kind of approach for simulating the app without installing it first that is described here: How to install iPhone application in iPhone Simulator