IOS Enterprise Distribution Through OTA

Question

We have build an enterprise iPad App and now we want to give it to our employees. Initially when testing, we used ad-hoc distribution collecting all the test device's UDID and then creating the profile.

Now going live we want this app to be deployed in a secured web server and send the link to our employees, so that they enter the username and password before accessing the link.

There are around 500+ devices we need to install this iPad App. Do i need to collect all the UDID and then deploy the .ipa file, because Apple documentation says:

Create an enterprise distribution provisioning profile that authorizes devices to use apps you’ve signed.

If not that way, do the user needs to install the profile.mobileprovision file and then install the .ipa file?

We are still unable to decide how to deploy our app because of this issue. We would like to avoid the app approval process because it App handles a lot of sensitive data.

Can some one help me on this, how to do a OTA deployment for enterprise Apps?

Answer 1

As of December 2011, these are the steps:

1. Create a provisioning profile in your Apple Enterprise account
2. Set this as the Code Signing Identity under the Build setting of your app.
3. Make sure the Bundle ID matches that of the provisioning profile.
4. Select Product > Archive to build IPA file.
5. Click Share (aka Distribute) button after selecting your Archive.
6. Set Contents radio button to iOS App Store Package (.ipa)
7. Make sure Identity in dropdown is the one used from Enterprise account.
8. Click Next
9. Select the check box "Save for Enterprise Distribution"
10. For Application URL put in the URL that points to where the ipa file will be placed (example: http://oursite.com/myApp.ipa)
11. Click Save. This will save a plist & an ipa file for you.
12. Place these files on your server with a link formated like this:
    <a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http:/oursite.com/myApp.plist" id="text">
13. Go to this page from your device and click the link to install the app