iOS Cordova/PhoneGap App Store rejection due to 'Unauthorized'

Question

We have written a Cordova / PhoneGap 2.2 application for Android and iOS 6 (XCode 4.5). It utilizes AJAX calls using public APIs to our private site with authentication built into the AJAX calls. Android submission went without issue.

When trying to submit the application to Apple, however, is when all went downhill.

We keep getting rejected because the application returns an Unauthorized message. This is not an error message returned from our application, as the call never gets to our servers (audit logs show this). This error never showed during our development, testing, or QA phases and we cannot recreate it.

• We have the '*' in the ExternalHosts array in the Cordova.plist.
• The application is signed with our Provisioning/Distribution account.
• The application validates and submits without issue.

We have reached out to Apple's DTS team and their response offered no insight.

Does anyone have any idea of how to resolve this problem?

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

I want to thank all that have reviewed my question and responded.

The issue was due to Apple's overzealous caching of the Cordova.plist file when building the application.

The simulator and our development iPhone worked flawlessly, but the Apple group could not determine why they could not log into the application.

It took building a new ad-hoc development and distribution profile and a totally new iOS device to figure out that the Cordova.plist file was no longer up-to-date with the current configuration. Only after running a CLEAN, BUILD, and INSTALL on this separate device were we able to determine it was a cache issue. The application has been validated by Apple's DTS team and we should be able to launch after the new year.

Thank you all again.