Creating a Cordova project

Begin by opening the terminal and creating a new

cordova project (use sudo only if you have permission
issues, ie. EACCESS errors):

sudo cordova create iosdemo

cd iosdemo
sudo cordova platform add ios
At the time of writing this guide the cordova iOS
platform version is 4.3.1.

We won’t modify any source code of the app – rather,

we'll simply continue with the default sample code
that is added by Cordova automatically when we run
the create command. However, it is assumed we will
add plugins modify code in the www folder during
normal development flow.
The next step is to run the Cordova build command.
This will convert our app code to an .xcodeproj file
which we will use next.

sudo cordova build ios

The generated Xcode Project file will be here:

[Your App Folder]/platforms/ios/[Your App Name].xcodeproj

Now in the case of Android the code signing is done
using the Keystore file which is in .jks format.
However in iOS it is required that you have a Apple
developer account for distributing iOS apps. This is so
that we can generate
the Certificates and Provisioning Profiles required for
distributing the app.
For pricing and other info about a Developer account
refer to this page.
Creating Development
Certificates
Once you have the account ready we can proceed
further and login to your Apple developer account.
The dashboard screen should look something like this:

Click on Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles. This

should take you to the following screen, which by
default displays Certificates issued from your account:
iOS Certficates are of mainly two types: Development
or Distribution. Click on the Plus (+) button in the top
right corner of the list which will open the following
page:
First let's create a development profile. Select iOS
App Development and click continue.
This should bring you to the following screen, where
you are asked to create and upload a Certificate
Signing Request or CSR file.

Follow the on-screen instructions to generate it, and

continue. Once the certificate is ready, download it to
your Mac, and double click it. This will add it to
Keychain Access in the Mac.
Creating Distribution
Certificates
Creating distribution certificates is similar to the
process for creating development certificates.
However here we select App Store and Ad
Hoc from Production section in the Add iOS Certifcate
Page:
Creating the App ID
Select App IDs from Identifiers section. This will open
the list of existing app IDs. Next click on the Plus
button on the top right (+). This will open
the Register iOS App IDs page.
Select Explicit App ID. The App Description can be any
related name – this is what will be displayed in the
app id list against the particular app id.

An app id is a string in the

format AB11A1ABCD.com.mycompany.myapp where
AB11A1ABCD is the app id prefix which is by default
the team ID and com.mycompany.myapp is the
bundle ID which is unique to each app.
Its recommended that the bundle id must be in a
reverse-domain name style string. For example, the
company MYCOMPANY may have two apps (App1 and
App2). So the HTTP URL for each app is usually
app1.mycompany.com and app2.mycompany.com.
Hence the bundle IDs for each app will be
com.mycompany.app1 and com.mycompany.app2

Next select any services from the checklist that you

need to use in your app, such as Push Notifications,
Wallet etc. Next click on continue and confirm the
details and finally register the app id.

Adding devices to your

developer account
Select All from the Devices section. This will open the
list of already added devices to your Apple developer
account. Only these devices are allowed to run the
app during development.
To add a new device, click on the Plus button in the
top right (+). The following screen will be displayed:
Here the name can be any easily understandable
name, for example iPhone 5s ABC Pvt Ltd. The device
UDID is the unique ID associated with each Apple
device.

To find the UDID of a device follow these steps:

1. Connect the device to your Mac.

2. Open the System Information app located in
the /Applications/Utilities folder.
3. Select USB under Hardware in the left column.
4. On the right, select the connected device under
USB Device Tree. The device ID, or “Serial
Number”, appears below.
Once you have entered the device UDID and name
click continue, then confirm the details and register.
Creating a Development
Provisioning Profile
To create a development Provisioning Profile click on
Provisioning Profiles -> All. This should show all the
profiles, development as well as distribution. Next
click on the Plus button on the top right (+) This
should show the following page:
Here select iOS App Development and click continue. In
the dropdown that is displayed select the App ID we
created previously and continue.
Next A checklist of certificates is displayed from
which we can select one or multiple. These are
development certificates and not distribution ones.
The generated provisioning profile will be linked to
these certificates.

When you click Continue, a checklist of devices is

displayed. Select one, multiple, or all. Only selected
devices will be allowed to run the app using this
provisioning profile.

Next, after clicking continue, enter the name for the

provisioning profile, and download the
generated .mobileprovision file.

Notes: it's the same process to create your Adhoc

Distribution Provisioning Profile. It's also very similar
to create your AppStore Distribution Provisioning
Profile, except for that one we don't select devices, as
the app will be available publicly through the
AppStore.
Now that we have all that we need we can continue
generating the actual ipa using Xcode.

Cordova build command converts our app code to an

xcode project. Using Xcode we create an .ipa file
which is the actual app to be installed.
Before moving forward double tap on both
Certificates to add them to your keychain.
Continuing in Xcode
Next, double tap the .xcodeproj file which should
open it in Xcode. (Please use the latest version of
Xcode – I have used Xcode 8.3.2.)

The Xcode screen should look something like the

above.

Click on the App Name on the top left corner fo the

window. This will open the detailed view on the right
side.
Then click on Targets-> App Name:

This will display the following details tab:

Click on general, which should display this:

Uncheck the Automatically Manage Signing Checkbox.

This should display the following error, stating

AppNAme requires a provisioning profile:

Next, under Signing (Debug), click the Provisioning

Profile Dropdown and select the import profile option.
In the file selection dialog that pops up, navigate to
the path where the development provisioning profile
is downloaded, and select it. It will have an extension
of .mobileprovision.
After you select that, the error should be gone, and it
should show Team as the Team Name in your Apple
developer account and Signing Certificate Name.

Do the same thing for the Signing (Release) section –

but in the file selection dialog select the Ad Hoc
distribution Profile.

Now that the Code signing steps are done we either

 run the app directly on device

 run the app on a simulator
 generate an ipa file for distribution
 upload app to appstore

Running the app directly on

device
To run the app on a device connect the device to the
Mac via USB. Then in the top left corner in the list of
devices select the connected device, and click the run
or play button (black triangular button):
The build status will be displayed in the status bar on
the top of the window. If all goes fine, the app should
be installed on the device, and it should automatically
load in a while.

Note: the steps are the same for running the app on
a simulator. But instead of an actual device we use
the available iPhone and iPad simulators from the
device list.
Generate an ipa file for
distribution
This approach can be done in case you need to
distribute the app to the testing team, etc. However
the device used by them must have a UDID present in
the provisioning profile.

From the Xcode menu select Product -> Clean,

then Product -> Archive. The Archives organizer
appears and displays the new archive.

In the righthand side panel select the Export option

and a list of options will appear.

To distribute your app to users with designated

devices, select “Save for Ad Hoc Deployment.” The
app will be code signed with the distribution
certificate.

To distribute your app for internal testing, select

“Save for Development Deployment.” The app will be
code signed with your development certificate.
In the dialog that appears, choose a team from the
pop-up menu and click Choose.

Next the device selection dialog pops up. Select

either All devices or specific devices and click next.
Next the review dialog is displayed. Here it will show
the signing certificate and provisioning profile used
for generating the build. Review and click next. Finally
the file save as a popup is displayed to select the
location in the file system to store the exported app
file.

The app is exported as .ipa` file .

To run this file on device simply double tap it which

will open it in iTunes.

Then connect your device (this should show a small

device icon on the top left corner of the iTunes
window). Tapping on it will show the device summary
such as apps, music etc on the device. Select the
apps tab, and in the left pane select the app to be
installed and click install. Wait for the process to
complete and click apply. This should install the ipa
file on your device.

To debug the app:

1. open Safari
2. open the app on the device
3. in the Safari menu bar select Develop --> Your
Device Name --> Your App.

Thats all folks!