iOS Ad-Hoc Distribution

Question

I am currently finished with making an iOS app and I would like to distribute the app amongst my co-workers using ad-hoc distribution. I have only two months experience with XCode and I am confused about everything about what materials I need to send an app out to my co-workers. I don't want to make an error that I cannot reverse.

1. What are the essentials I need to bundle in order to distribute an app to other people?

2. What is a provisioning profile and is it needed to distribute an app?

3. Is there a way to send people an app using ad-hoc without registering their UDID's?

4. Lastly, is there a recent tutorial on creating a web link to distribute an app?

5. Would dropbox be easier?

Answer 1

1. You will need to archive your app and then export it as Ad-Hoc. No extra work need here.
2. What is provisioning profile
3. No
4. Distribute ipa via web
5. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of more handy ways. I suggest you to look at HockeyApp or Fabric which allows you to get more than just a deployment - it allows you to gather bugreports, self-updating and many more. Of course, don't forget about Apple's TestFlight service, which seems to be greatly integrated into xcode 7.

Answer 2

Looks like the app has to be rebuild after one year when distributed this way to the users. Testing with Testflight is limited to 30 days. I did not find a way to make an app for a small company without paying 100$ to apple. Let me know if i´m wrong.