How best to beta test an IOS App with TestFlight (or AppPreview?)

[David_K_6]

My first XDK app is well on its way, and I will shortly want to send it out to beta testers outside my organisation, without having the whole faff with including UDIDs in their IOS provisioning profiles.

Apple provide TestFlight to do this, which still looks fairly clumsy. Does anyone have experience of using TestFlight with an XDK app, or (better still) has anyone written a crib sheet for how to make it work?

Alternatively, is there anything straightforward that can be done with AppPreview? At the moment, AppPreview works fine with my own login to the Intel developer site, but I don't know how to make my app available to lots of other users. If this is possible, I'd be grateful for any pointers to the relevant documentation.

Thanks all

[Vladislav_F_ · Accepted solution]

I just have finished my quest with certificates, itunes connect, testflight and all that jazz.

Testflight part is easiest :) 

1. Build IPA file with IntelXDK 

2. Go to Apple Developer - Member Center - Itunes Connect

2. Add new app though Itunes Connect interface (use same App ID as in IntelXDK like com.website.superapp)

3. Upload your IPA using Application Loader from XCode (you need Mac OS here)

4. Go to your app settings in Itunes Connect. Find Testflight tab - External Testing - External Testers - Plus button. And add your testers emails. Press start testing.

All your testers will get invitation to testflight and will be able to install your app and future updates.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

@David, for account security reasons there is no way to do what you're asking for with App Preview. Sorry.

[David_K_6]

@Vladislav I'm running into trouble with certificates here. When I try to upload my app using Application Loader, it complains that my certificate isn't a production certificate.

Fair enough, so I've been through all the steps in the walkthrough to create a production certificate and use it to create a production provisioning profile. But XDK now refuses to build the app, because:

Code Sign error: No codesigning identities found: No codesigning identities (i.e. certificate and private key pairs) that match the provisioning profile specified in your build settings (“MbtkDistributionProvisioningProfile”) were found.
CodeSign error: code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 8.0'

Uploading the new certificate to XDK doesn't work, because it complains that:

The certificate was not created with the Certificate Signing Request.

Any ideas?

[David_K_6]

@Vladislav And now sorted, thank you. I had to make sure that I had the right certificate picked in the build tab, and then create a P12 file from the certificate in Keychain Manager (as opposed to uploading the certificate file). Everything then burst into life.

Thanks for your help.