Developing, testing and submitting an application for Apple’s iPhone OS devices (the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) is a complex endeavor with many potential pitfalls and delays possible. This short guide is designed to help you avoid the most common causes for delays and the major issues present in the application development process.

DINO Interactive Studios, LLC, will be serving as your development partner. This means that we will work with you to create an application which meets your specifications and the technical requirements provided by Apple to run on the targeted iPhone OS devices. We cannot, however, enter into the required legal agreements with Apple on your behalf. You will need to apply for an Apple iPhone Developer Program account, provide information requested by Apple, and accept the necessary legal agreements before your application can be made available through the App Store.

While in most cases this process is relatively short and simple, there are occasions where the application process can be rather lengthy. We suggest that if you are not currently a member of the Apple iPhone Developer program that you apply as soon as possible.

To apply for the Apple iPhone Developer Program:

• Visit http://developer.apple.com and click on the iPhone Dev Center link
• Click the Register link in the upper-right of the page and then click the Get Started button
• You will now be prompted to create or log in with an Apple ID for use as your developer account. Please note: if you are signing up as a company, please be sure that you have thought through the ramifications of using a pre-existing personal Apple ID. You may want to consider creating an additional ID strictly for your developer account.
• Once you have signed up as an Apple Developer, you will be able to join the iPhone Developer program.
• During the iPhone Developer enrollment process, you will be asked to provide contact information and possibly documents proving the legal status of your company if you are not applying as an individual. Please be sure this information is correct. Most delays occur when this information cannot be used to contact you or other members of your company.
• Once your enrollment has been approved, which usually takes from 3-5 days, you will receive an email allowing you to complete the actual purchase of the iPhone Developer membership. Click on the link in the email to complete your purchase at the Apple online store. The price of joining the iPhone Developer program is $99 (+tax) annually. You will have the choice between signing up as an individual or as a business. Our general recommendation is to sign up as a business as this will show your business name as the developer of the app and not your personal name.

Generating Certificates

Once your iPhone Developer Program enrollment is complete, you will be able to generate the required certificates and configurations files that DINO needs in order to prepare your application for testing and eventual submission to the app store. There are two ways that you can provide these files to us – you may follow the instructions below to create the certificates for final submission and then create an account for DINO to use to create the files needed for app testing, or you may choose to provide the login information to DINO and we will take care of the entire process.

We have quite a bit of experience stepping through this complex process. Our preference with previous clients has been to accomplish the following steps on their behalf. We are happy to do this part of the work for you and consider it part of our support services.

To create the necessary accounts and certificates: (NOTE: You MUST be using a Macintosh computer to complete these steps!)

Create the account for DINO:

• First, log into the iPhone Developer site at developer.apple.com
• Next, click on the Member Center link at the right and choose People at the top of the next page
• Now, choose to invite a person to join your team and fill in the information as follows:
  • First Name: Dino
  • Last Name: Studios
  • Email Address: dino@dinostudios.com
  • Access and Roles: Choose Admin (note: Admin allows for a wide range of activities but still does not allow a member to change fundamental things about your account, create distribution certificates, or accept new legal agreements. Only the original accountholder can do these things.)

Create the required Certificate and Distribution Profile:

• Click the Home button near the top of the page, then click on the iPhone Provisioning Portal link
• Click on Certificates in the left column, then click on the How To tab. Follow the steps on this page to create a Distribution (NOT DEVELOPMENT) profile
• Download the certificate and double-click to install. An application called Keychain Access will start and you will see the certificate now installed. It will start with “iPhone Distribution:” and contain your company name. Right-click on this certificate, choose Export, and in the save dialog name the file with your company name. Be sure the File Format is set to Personal Information Exchange (.p12) and save the file. Note the save location so you can email this file later.

Create the App ID

Click on App IDs link on the left side of the iPhone Provisioning Portal. Click New App ID. Enter a description that contains your company name and the name of your application. Leave the Bundle Seed ID pulldown to “Generate New” and set the Bundle Identifier to a reverse-domain version of your company’s primary web site (or a web site devoted to this application) For instance, if your company uses “www.example.com” as your web site, and you are having DINO develop and app called “generic” then you would enter “com.example.generic” into the Bundle Identifier. Click Submit. There is nothing to download for this step.

Create Provisioning Profile

Now, click on the Provisioning link on the left side of the iPhone Provisioning Portal.Click on Distribution and then click New Profile. Choose App Store as the Distribution Method, enter a profile name that contains the name of your application. For Certificates, choose your Distribution Certificate you created above (it should be the only choice). For the App ID, choose the App ID you created above. Click Submit. You should see the new provisioning profile added to the Distribution tab. It may say “Pending” – if so, just click on the Distribution tab again to update. Once you have the option to download the profile, do so.

Provide the certificate to DINO

Email the .p12 file and associated password created from your new Distribution Certificate as well as the .mobileprovision file created in the step above to dino@dinostudios.com

Prepare app for Submission

The next step is to prepare your application entry for the application submission. From the iPhone Developer home, click on the iTunes Connect link to the right and then click on Manage Your Applications. Add a new application and complete all the necessary information. Note: while most of this information can be updated later, the application keywords can only change when a new version of your application is uploaded. Choose them carefully. Also, when you are first creating an application to upload, you will be asked to supply information about how you want your company’s name to appear in the app store. Choose this carefully as well as you cannot change it later. When asked to upload a binary, choose to upload the binary later. Notify us at dino@dinostudios.com when you have completed this step.