How can I test my signed app on an unjailbroken iOS device

Question

As part of our software development life cycle, we want to make sure that the binary we test in house before pushing to iTunes, is the same as the binary that we push to iTunes. I know that sounds really silly, but it's a matter of checks and balances in a mid size company, so that the testers can be sure the coders didn't add in anything after testing occurred.

So is there a way to run a signed/certed app on a device that's not jail broken? Or is there a way to verify that an IPW is the exact identical code in the zip that gets pushed to iTunes?

Or possibly a way to accomplish my goals with a different way?

We have a valid developer account and around 15 different devices that are not jail broken. Would prefer to test with them left stock and not jail broken.

Answer 1

A binary signed to go to the App Store cannot be run on devices via the normal ways. You can test the code by having the developers create an Ad Hoc build. This will have the same functionality as the App Store version, but you can test it.

Unfortunately, when the app is recompiled for the App Store, more code can be added.

Do you not have access to the code to test? If you must, you can have them create an adhoc in front of you, test it, and then recompile for the app store all in front of you. Seems a bit overkill, however.

Answer 2

There is with another trick:

first test you code for functionality's, buggs in normal way.

Than push the code to AppStore, but set the release date farther with 3 weeks, while your testers are validating it is that what they tested last time or not. Somewhere here, I have read that possibility forgot where. Never tried!

Answer 3

If you compile your app for distribution using an ad-hoc profile you can later take that archive and resign it with the appstore profile and upload it.

You can't however upload an application that was compiled with an development certificate.