- Iphone Development Requirements 2020
- Iphone Development Requirements List
- Iphone Development History
- Iphone Software Development
The design and development of iPhone is mostly done in the United States, especially in California, where the Apple headquarter is located. The first activity I want to introduce is the design and development of iPhone. Mostly done by the Apple team in the US, the design and development of iPhone is the most important part in the phone’s.
Update: The post is updated to make it compatible with Xcode 5 and iOS 7.
- If you're only planning to develop web app, your hardware requirement is lower. If instead you're planning to develop native app, a current Intel Mac Mini running 10.6 (or newer) is a good starting point. My suggestion is to invest in RAM rather than hard disk since you can always get an affordably-priCed external hard drive.
- Requirements: – You’ll need an actual iOS device. – You’re going to need to join the Apple Developer Program which costs $99/year. Yes, you read that right! You don’t need to purchase the $99/year membership to be able to transfer your own app to your own device.
Update #2: You can now refer to this sample chapter of our Beginning iOS 9 Programming with Swift book to learn what you need to start iOS programming.
So far over 600 6000 readers have signed up the free iOS tutorials. First, thanks for those joining our community. Before we begin to talk about iOS programming, let’s go through the tools you need to build your first app.
1. Get a Mac
Yes, you need a Mac. It’s the basic requirement for iOS development. To develop an iPhone (or iPad) app, you need to first get a Mac with Intel-based processor running on Mac OS X version 10.8 (or up). Probably you still own a PC, the cheapest option is to purchase the Mac Mini. The retail price of the entry model is US$599 (if you purchase via Amazon, the used model starts at US$490). You can pair it with the monitor of your PC. The basic model of Mac mini comes with 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB memory. It should be well enough to run the iOS development tool smoothly. Of course, if you have more budget, get the higher model or iMac with better processing power.
2. Register an Apple Developer Account
Don’t mix this up with the paid iOS Developer Program that we’re going to talk about in later section. Everyone can register as an Apple developer for free. By registering the developer account, you’re allowed to download Xcode, access documentation of the iOS SDK and other technical resources such as development videos.
You can go to Apple’s developer website for registration. The registration process is very straightforward. Simply create an Apple ID (if you don’t have) and fill in your personal profile.
3. Install Xcode
To start developing iPhone and iPad apps, Xcode is the only tool you need to download. Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) provided by Apple. Xcode provides everything you need to kick start your app development. It already bundles the latest version of iOS SDK (short for Software Development Kit), a built-in source code editor, graphic user interface (UI) editor, debugging tools and many more. Most importantly, Xcode comes with an iPhone (or iPad) simulator so you can test your app even without the physical devices.
To download Xcode, launch Mac App Store on your Mac. If you’re using the latest version of Mac OS, you should be able to open the Mac App Store from the icon in the dock. In case you can’t find it, you may need to upgrade the Mac OS.
In the Mac App Store, simply search “Xcode” and click “Free” button to download it.
Once you complete the installation process, you’ll find the Xcode folder in the Launchpad.
At the time of this writing, the latest version of Xcode is 5.1.1, which adds the support of iOS 7.1. For the upcoming tutorials, they’ll be based on this version. Even you’ve installed Xcode before, I suggest you to upgrade to the latest version if you’re planning to follow our tutorials.
4. Enroll in iOS Developer Program (Optional)
A common question about developing iOS app is whether you need to enroll in the iOS Developer Program. The short answer is “optional”. As mentioned earlier, Xcode already includes a built-in iPhone and iPad simulator. You can develop and test out your app right on your Mac.
Without joining the iOS Developer Program, however, the simulator is the only mean to run your apps. You can’t deploy and test the app on your device. Needless to say, you’re not permitted to submit your app to App Store. In other words, you can’t sell your app!
The simulator is powerful, however, it doesn’t simulate all features of iPhone. For instance, it doesn’t come with the camera or video capture feature. So if you’re building a camera app, the only way is to test it on a real iOS device. In other words, you have to join the iOS Developer Program!
So should you enroll in the program now? The iOS Developer Program costs US$99 per year. If you’re a new comer and just start exploring iOS development, you can rely on the simulator to test out your app first. You can wait until you have a solid plan to distribute your apps on App Store before enrolling in the program.
That’s all for today. Take some time to register your developer account and install Xcode. Once you’re ready, check out the next post and start to build your first app.
Got a question? Leave me a comment or ask it at our AppCoda Community Forum.
This guide shows how to set up your SDK development environment todeploy Cordova apps for iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad,and how to optionally use iOS-centered command-line tools in yourdevelopment workflow. You need to install the SDK tools regardless ofwhether you want to use these platform-centered shell toolsor cross-platform Cordova CLI for development. For a comparison of the twodevelopment paths, see the Overview.For details on the CLI, see Cordova CLI Reference.
Requirements and Support
Apple® tools required to build iOS applications only run on the OS Xoperating system on Intel-based Macs. Xcode® 11.0 (the minimum requiredversion) runs only on OS X version 10.14.4 (Mojave) or greater, andincludes the iOS 13 SDK (Software Development Kit). To submit apps tothe Apple App Store℠ requires the latest versions of the Apple tools.
You can test many of the Cordova features using the iOS simulatorinstalled with the iOS SDK and Xcode, but you need an actual device tofully test all of the app's device features before submitting to theApp Store. The device must have at least iOS 11 installed, theminimum iOS version supported since the release of cordova-ios v6.0.0.
Installing the Requirements
Xcode
There are two ways to download Xcode:
- from the App Store,available by searching for 'Xcode' in the App Store application.
- from Apple Developer Downloads,which requires registration as an Apple Developer.
Once Xcode is installed, several command-line tools need to be enabledfor Cordova to run. From the command line, run:
Deployment Tools
The ios-deploy tools allow youto launch iOS apps on an iOS Device from the command-line.
Install ios-deploy via Homebrew by running:
CocoaPods
The CocoaPods tools is needed to build iOS apps. A minimum version of 1.8.0 is required but the latest release is always recommended.
To install CocoaPods, run the following from command-line terminal:
Project Configuration
Installing Xcode will mostly set everything needed to get started with the native side of things.You should now be able to create and build a cordova project.For more details on installing and using the CLI, refer to Create your first app guide.
Deploying to Simulator
To preview the app in the iOS simulator:
- Open the workspace file (
platforms/ios/HelloWorld.xcworkspace
) from Xcode, or from the command line: - Make sure the
HelloWorld
project is selected in the left panel (1).
- Select the intended device from the toolbar's Scheme menu, suchas the iPhone XR Simulator as highlighted in (2)
- Press the Run button (3) in the same toolbar to theleft of the Scheme. That builds, deploys, and runs theapplication in the simulator. A separate simulator application opensto display the app:
Only one simulator may run at a time, so if you want to test the app in a different simulator, you need to quit the simulator application and run a different target within Xcode.
Iphone Development Requirements 2020
Xcode comes bundled with simulators for the latest versions of iPhoneand iPad. Older versions may be available from the Xcode →Preferences.. → Components panel.
Deploying to Device
For details about various requirements to deploy to a device, referto the Launch Your App On Devices section ofApple'sAbout App Distribution Workflows.Briefly, you need to do the following before deploying:
- Create a Provisioning Profile within theiOS Provisioning Portal.You can use its Development Provisioning Assistant to create andinstall the profile and certificate Xcode requires.
- Verify that the Code Signing Identity setting within the Code Signing sectionwithin the build settings is set to your provisioning profilename. How to use imovie youtube.
To deploy to the device:
- Use the USB cable to plug the device into your Mac.
- Select the name of the project in the Xcode window's Schemedrop-down list.
- Select your device from the Device drop-down list. If it isplugged in via USB but still does not appear, press theOrganizer button to resolve any errors.
- Press the Run button to build, deploy and run the applicationon your device.
Signing an App
Iphone Development Requirements List
First, you should read through the Code Signing Support Pageand the App Distribution Workflows.
Using Flags
To sign an app, you need the following parameters:
Parameter | Flag | Description |
---|---|---|
Code Sign Identity | --codeSignIdentity | Code signing identity to use for signing. It can be created with Xcode and added to your keychain. Starting with Xcode 8 you should use --codeSignIdentity='iPhone Developer' both for debug and release . |
Development Team | --developmentTeam | The development team (Team ID) to use for code signing. You would use this setting and a simplified Code Sign Identity (i.e. just 'iPhone Developer') to sign your apps, you do not need to provide a Provisioning Profile. |
Packaging Type | --packageType | This will determine what type of build is generated by Xcode. Valid options are development (the default), enterprise , ad-hoc , and app-store . |
Provisioning Profile | --provisioningProfile | (Optional) GUID of the provisioning profile to be used for manual signing. It is copied here on your Mac: ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/ . Opening it in a text editor, you can find the GUID which needs to be specified here if using manual signing. |
Code Sign Resource Rules | --codesignResourceRules | (Optional) Used to control which files in a bundle should be sealed by a code signature. For more details, read The OS X Code Signing In Depth article |
Automatic Provisioning | --automaticProvisioning | (Optional) Enable to allow Xcode to automatically manage provisioning profiles. Valid options are false (the default) and true . |
Using build.json
Alternatively, you could specify them in a build configuration file (
build.json
)using the --buildConfig
argument to the same commands. Here's a sample of abuild configuration file:Iphone Development History
For automatic signing, where provisioning profiles are managed automatically by Xcode (recommended):
For manual signing, specifying the provisioning profiles by UUID:
Xcode Build Flags
If you have a custom situation where you need to pass additional build flags to Xcode you would use one or more
--buildFlag
options to pass these flags to xcodebuild
. If you use an xcodebuild
built-in flag, it will show a warning.You can also specify a
buildFlag
option in build.json
above (the value for the buildFlag
key is a string or an array of strings).Debugging
For details on the debugging tools that come with Xcode, see this articleand this video.
Open a Project within Xcode
Cordova for iOS projects can be opened in Xcode. This can be useful ifyou wish to use Xcode built in debugging/profiling tools or if you aredeveloping iOS plugins. Please note that when opening your project in Xcode,it is recommended that you do NOT edit your code in the IDE. This will edit the codein the
platforms
folder of your project (not www
), and changes are liable to be overwritten.Instead, edit the www
folder and copy over your changes by running cordova build
.Plugin developers wishing to edit their native code in the IDE should use the
--link
flag when adding theirplugin to the project via cordova plugin add. This will link the files so that changes to the plugin files in theplatforms folder are reflected in your plugin's source folder (and vice versa).Once the ios platform is added to your project and built using
cordova build
, you can open it fromwithin Xcode. Double-click to open the ${PROJECT_NAME}/platforms/ios/${PROJECT_NAME}.xcworkspace
file or open Xcode from your terminal:The screen should look like this:
Platform Centered Workflow
cordova-ios includes a number of scripts that allow the platform to be usedwithout the full Cordova CLI. This development path may offer you a greaterrange of development options in certain situations than the cross-platform cordova CLI.For example, you need to use shell tools when deploying a customCordova WebView alongside native components. Before using thisdevelopment path, you must still configure the SDK environmentas described in Requirements and Supportabove.
For each of the scripts discussed below, refer to Cordova CLI Reference for more information on theirarguments and usage. Each script has a name that matches the corresponding CLIcommand. For example,
cordova-ios/bin/create
is equivalent tocordova create
.To get started, either download the cordova-ios package fromnpm orGithub.
To run the app, use the
run
script in the bin
folder:The created project will have a folder named
cordova
inside that containsscripts for the project-specific Cordova commands (e.g. run
, build
, etc.).To install plugins in this project, use the Cordova Plugman Utility.
Upgrading
Refer to this article for instructions to upgrade your
cordova-ios
version.Iphone Software Development
(Mac®, OS X®, Apple®, Xcode®, App Store℠, iPad®, iPhone®, iPod® and Finder® are Trademarks of Apple Inc.)