The real challenge in Apps beta deployment is sending an app to the customer without connecting the customer device to the computer. This is a very tedious job for non-techie customers.
Test flight and its on the air build management:
Test flight is a free testing service for mobile developers, managers and testers. It is a service for distributing test builds to beta testers (customers), on live. Test flight is a free platform used to distribute beta and internal iOS/Android applications to team members over-the-air. It improves iOS Beta Testing Process and also a new tool for mobile developers for testing iOS4(iPhone,iPad) applications.
Instead, developers just upload their builds to their TestFlight account while testers download the build directly on their phones.
Developers can then manage testing and receive feedback from their team with TestFlight’s Dashboard.
TestFlight follows Apple’s beta and internal distribution guidelines which includes the following:
1) When building an app for distribution to multiple devices, developers must construct it with a distribution provisioning profile (Ad Hoc or Enterprise).
2)Once the binary has been compiled with a valid distribution provisioning profile and packaged as an IPA, it is ready to distribute.
Getting Started with Test Flight: (as a Tester /Customers to beta test the build)
- When using TestFlight as a tester, the development company can either invite you or recruit you.
- Once you sign up with TestFlight and log in to the dashboard for the first time, TestFlight will prompt you to connect your device, enabling developers to access the device’s Unique Device Identifier (UDID) or install Android apps on your device.
- After successfully connecting the device to your account and being accepted to a team, the developer must add the UDID to the application for you to install it on your device.
- Once the developer uploads a build you will receive an email through TestFlight, from the developer, with a link to install the build.
- Follow the instructions in the email, click on the link, download the build to your device, and you will be ready to begin using the app.
Testflight SDK
Developers can integrate the TestFlight SDK into iOS apps for analytics during testing and production. Users gain insights into testers’ actions, enhancing app testing experiences.
The SDK works for both beta versions and live versions available in the App Store.
It allows you to track how beta testers are testing your application. It requires iOS 4.3 or above, the Apple LLVM compiler, and the libz library to run. The SDK also offers a remote logging solution. Find out more about our logging system in the “Remote Logging” section.
