iOS Enterprise Development - TestFlight

Question

I just received an email this morning that testflightapp.com will no longer be active as of 2/26/2015, and that I should be using the iTunes Connect TestFlight service instead. This is fine and dandy for app store apps, but most of my projects are enterprise apps, and that is not supported in iTunes Connect. On top of that, iTunes Connect TestFlight requires iOS 8, and a good chunk of Enterprise users are still on iOS 7.

Does anyone have a solution outside of TestFlight for deploying Enterprise iOS apps to a set of registered users? I am hoping there is an easier solution than setting up my own MDM, but at this point I think that may be the only option.

Answer 1

Tesflight is not available for iOS Enterprise development. See "If you're distributing your app outside the store, you follow a slightly different process. You don't have access to iTunes Connect and some app services so can skip those steps." at https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html

Also see Apple discussion at https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/9229 where it says "Enterprise apps can be tested internally using Ad-hoc distribution" if one wants to only have the app available to registered test devices.

Answer 2

From Apple's beta testing site:

Internal Testers Get feedback quickly by sharing your beta builds with up to 25 members of your team who have been assigned the Technical or Admin role in iTunes Connect. Each member can test on up to 10 devices.

External Testers Once you're ready, you can invite up to 1,000 users who are not part of your development organization to beta test an app that you intend for public release on the App Store. Apps made available to external testers require a Beta App Review and must comply with the full App Store Review Guidelines before testing can begin. A review is required for new versions of your app that contain significant changes. Up to 10 apps can be tested at a time, internally or externally.

Only external testers are subject to the app store review and guidelines. TestFlight Beta Testing

Answer 3

You can use the "download over the air" functionality that TestFlight uses. Apps like BetaBuilder ( http://www.hanchorllc.com/betabuilder-for-ios/ ) will generate the HTML and manifest file for you, you just then need to upload it to some web space of your choosing and then provide a URL to your clients. There is a requirement of the app being hosted on HTTPS now.

Answer 4

I'm in the same situation as you. Multiple apps that need to be distributed with the enterprise cert so that QA and the like can access them.

Guess might have to update/check hockeyapp to see if it works fine with IPA's. We use that for our Android apps and it works well, so, ...

TestFlight was very convenient. OTA isn't hard, but access (ie internet access vs. intranet access) is what we need and getting another service ok'ed might be a fun thing.

It will be interesting to see the different answers here.