Broadersheet - News that matters. To you.
Re: The Pains (and now solutions) of iPhone Ad Hoc Beta Testing
View Comments 5 months, 11 days ago.Maybe you saw our previous post about how we're struggling with the Ad Hoc beta testing. Well, we've had some awesome suggestions we want to share with you guys.
Tupil left a great comment with some fantastic remedies to ad hoc woes:
1. Create an .IPA file instead of sending a (zipped) app. The process has been described at several places, e.g., http://www.idotcom.us/2009/05/how-to-build-a-ip...
2. Learn about versioning and avgtool. This prevent you (and users) from having to remove the application before being able to update. Tutorial here:http://www.blog.montgomerie.net/easy-iphone-app...
3. Use a form for users to submit UDID's (so they won't send you screenshots and you can check validity). Make sure to stress that they can actually copy the number to the clipboard in iTunes, that's really bad UI design on Apple's part.
4. Provide your users with a simple applescript/bash/batch/python/ruby/whatever script that copies the crashlogs to their desktop for easy emailing
5. (Shameless plug) Something I think is really annoying is going through all the steps at the developer portal to add new beta testers, I created a script to do all the steps with one command from the command line: http://github.com/tupil/mopropro
Issue: .app directory is browsable, don't use Vista to decompress.
Solution: Package your app as an .ipa. It is now no longer a directory, and your use can drag and drop this into iTunes. iTunes will handle the decompression. I usually send the following link to the users to help them through the install: http://www.innerfence.com/howto/install-iphone-application-a...
Issue: user needs to delete old version in order install new version. Can't test upgrades.
Solution: Increment your Bundle Version for each version.
And to echo a comment from patio11:
Interesting. This problem is tractable with better software, and it seems to be well within the capability of a single developer to solve. (Make a dedicated beta client which automates all the stupidity for the end-user, including sniffing GUIDs, downloading your distribution, and reporting errors to you, and a web service for the beta clients to connect to to grab apps, report errors, and cough ensure that your customers succeed in paying for your application.)
Unfortunately, while it is software that saves people pain (a plus) and helps make people money (a big plus), it is also sold to developers (ouch), most of whom are hobbyists (double ouch), would have to cost an awful lot in comparison to what they charge for software (triple ouch), and requires Apple to remain clueless or else your investment gets vaporized with a patch.
Anyone interested in helping us fix these problems? get in touch.
