13 Preparing an iOS app for distribution

 

This chapter covers:

  • Finalizing your app with a custom icon, launch images, and name
  • Using the NativeScript CLI to create an Xcode project

In the last chapter, you learned how to get your app ready for publishing to the Google Play store. Because NativeScript is a platform-agnostic framework, much of what you learned in the last chapter applies to getting iOS apps ready for distribution through Apple’s App Store. In fact, the core concepts are the same: you still need to work in the App_Resources folder to customize app icons, create a splash screen, and rename and version your app. But, you just do it differently for iOS. 

Over the next two chapters, you’ll learn how to prepare your app for publishing on Apple’s App Store.

NOTE

Whoa! Two chapters for iOS deployment? Yep. But, please don’t panic. There is a lot to learn about iOS app security and deployment. When we started developing mobile apps, we felt lost in iOS, and these two chapters are what we wish we had.

In this chapter, we’ll focus on using features of the NativeScript platform and CLI to get your app ready. We’ll follow-up in chapter 14 with a look at the core elements of iOS app security that you’ll need to understand before publishing to the App Store. We’ll also cover the fundamentals of Xcode that every NativeScript app developer should know.

DEFINITION

Xcode is Apple’s IDE (or integrated development environment) used to create, build, and submit iOS apps to the App Store.

13.1   Transforming your app code into an iOS app

13.1.1   The prepare phase

13.1.2   The build phase

13.1.3   Using the CLI to prepare and build your app

13.2   Finalizing your app

13.2.1   Naming your app

13.2.2   Versioning

13.2.3   Adding icons

13.2.4   Launch screens

13.2.5   Supporting device orientations

13.3   Summary

13.4   Exercises

13.5   Solutions