What's the best way using XCode to install multiple builds of the same iOS app to your iPhone?

Question

I frequently find that I need to have a build on my iPhone which is my \'demo-ready\' version which might point to my demo server. I also want a build that is the latest and

Answer 1

With the current version of Xcode, you'd achieve this by changing the app's Info.plist file to use a different bundle identifier (and possibly also change the Product Name of the app in the build settings).

The upcoming version of Xcode, from what I've read in the prerelease documentation, has a feature that may simplify what you want to do quite a bit. However, since prerelease software is covered under NDA, I can't give you any details.

Answer 2

You could create 2 different targets with 2 different info.plists and 2 different preprocessor defines (in the Build Settings for each of the 2 targets). Then ifdef on the preprocessor defines to select the server constant the compiler uses for each target.

Then make the product name and the bundle ID different in the two different target settings (so that neither the device or the Simulator will confuse the two app bundles).

Answer 3

You can add special build configurations for them that each use a different info.plist file. So, maybe for your demo, you have an info.plist named MyApp-Info-DEMO.plist and MyApp-Info.plist for the release.

Then you could add your server variable as an info.plist variable and look it up when the app starts. Or even just create a DEFINE statement in your new configuration that's something like SERVER=demo.myserver.com for the demo and SERVER=production.myserver.com for the live.

The most important part is to change the CFBundleIdentifier in the new info.plist. So in your demo, you could name it something like com.mycompany.myapp.DEMO and the real one might just be com.mycompany.myapp.

This will allow both versions to appear on the phone at the same time (the different CFBundleIdentifiers). Just remember, if you are using in-app purchases or server push notifications, you won't be able to do this without a separate, specific profile for both your real app identifier and your demo one.