Submitting to the OSX app store without Xcode

Question

I am trying to submit my app to the OSX app store but it is not created using XCode and therefore there is no XCode project so all of Apple's documentation is not helpful. I found a somewhat similar post on here about submitting in IOS app to the app store:

How to submit an iOS app WITHOUT XCode?

but this doesn't really help me that much with submitting an OSX app to the store. The link I referenced suggests creating a .ipa file but I am not submitting to the IOS app store so that doesn't seem to be what I want to do, I thought maybe I could just submit my .app file. So I moved on and fired up the Application Loader, clicked Deliver Your App, Selected my Mac OSx App I created with ITunes connect, and then tried to choose my .app file but it was greyed out. Is there a similar kind of zip file (like a .ipa file) that I need to create for app? How would I do this for an OSX app?

Answer 1

Generate a .pkg file from the .app file and upload it with Application Loader. Run this command from Terminal:

productbuild \
    --component build/Release/YourApp.app /Applications \
    --sign "Your certificate" \
    --product product_definition.plist YourApp.pkg

YourApp.pkg can be uploaded to the App Store using Application Loader.