This is a beta course, so its structure, chapters, and examples may continue to change.
Certificates and Profiles
Certificates, identifiers, devices, and profiles are the four pieces of signing. Get their relationships straight and signing becomes easy.
In This Chapter
- Certificates: Requesting and renewing development/distribution certificates
- Identifiers: App IDs and capabilities (Push, APNs, Sign In with Apple, etc.)
- Devices: Add tester UDIDs
- Provisioning Profiles: Bind certificate + App ID + devices into usable signing configs
Read This Picture First
- Certificate: Who is signing (dev/distribution issued to person/company)
- App ID: Which app is being signed (wildcard or explicit Bundle ID)
- Device: Test devices needed for Development/Ad Hoc
- Profile: Package the three above so Xcode/CI can sign and build
Tips
- For internal testing, prefer TestFlight; Ad Hoc has device limits and UDID upkeep.
- Distribution cert + App Store profile are often best managed automatically by CI/Xcode and renewed yearly.