What's the best way using XCode to install multiple builds of the same iOS app to your iPhone?

Question

I frequently find that I need to have a build on my iPhone which is my 'demo-ready' version which might point to my demo server. I also want a build that is the latest and greatest debug build that I'm developing with that points to my development server. Has anyone found a really simple way for me to install two apps that perhaps are the exact same code but point to different servers? Alternately perhaps I would have an app that was a few versions behind the latest version? Preferably I would use the same XCode project to build and install onto the iPhone.

Answer 1

You can add special build configurations for them that each use a different info.plist file. So, maybe for your demo, you have an info.plist named MyApp-Info-DEMO.plist and MyApp-Info.plist for the release.

Then you could add your server variable as an info.plist variable and look it up when the app starts. Or even just create a DEFINE statement in your new configuration that's something like SERVER=demo.myserver.com for the demo and SERVER=production.myserver.com for the live.

The most important part is to change the CFBundleIdentifier in the new info.plist. So in your demo, you could name it something like com.mycompany.myapp.DEMO and the real one might just be com.mycompany.myapp.

This will allow both versions to appear on the phone at the same time (the different CFBundleIdentifiers). Just remember, if you are using in-app purchases or server push notifications, you won't be able to do this without a separate, specific profile for both your real app identifier and your demo one.