Guide to Xamarin IOS App Certificate Provisioning and Profile Setup

Posted on by Editor

Xamarin

Microsoft’s Xamarin programming platform is provides an excellent tool for cross-platform mobile application development. A key part of successful development for iOS is understanding how to provision certificates properly.

The iOS distribution certificate ensures that the code of the app originates from the organization that signed the app and has not been altered. So basically its a way of registering your xamarin.ios app to apple and ensure the uniqueness of your app. Here are the steps to create a certificate and profile on Apple’s website to develop an iOS app.

Here are the steps to create a production certificate:

  1. Log into your Apple Developer account and navigate to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles.
  2. Add a new certificate.
  3. “Under Create a New Certificate” section select “Apple Distribution”. if you are using Xcode which has version less than 11 then you should select “iOS Distribution (App Store and Ad Hoc)”
  4. Click On continue
  5. To proceed with the next step you need a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). You leave the Apple Developer interface as is now and come back later when you have created a CSR.

Steps to create a development certificate:

  1. Log into your Apple Developer account and navigate to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles.
  2. Add a new certificate.
  3. “Under Create a New Certificate” section select “Apple Development”. if you are using Xcode which has version less than 11 then you should select “iOS Distribution (iOS App Development)”
  4. Click On continue
  5. To proceed with the next step you need a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). You leave the Apple Developer interface as is now and come back later when you have created a CSR.

Preparing the Signing of the Certificate:

You need a Mac for the next steps. In case you work on another operating system contact your Customer Success Manager to get further support.

  1. On a Mac, open the Keychain Access program.
  2. In the menu bar, navigate to Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority.
  3. The Certificate Assistant opens and creates a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) that is submitted to a certificate authority that verifies the information in the request.
  4. Enter your Apple ID and email address in the dialog.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. Select a folder for saving the CSR file.
  7. Click Done.

Finalizing the iOS Distribution Certificate:

  1. Go back to the Apple Developer account where you started to create a certificate.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. Select the CSR file you just generated.
  4. Click Continue. The certificate is created and signed.
  5. Download the newly created certificate.
  6. Click Done. The certificates overview with your new certificate is displayed.
  7. Double click the certificate, it will be embedded in the key-chain access.

Steps to create a production provisioning profile:

  1. Log into your Apple Developer account and navigate to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles -> Profiles
  2. Add a new certificate.
  3. Under the “Register a New Provisioning Profile” section select “App Store” from the “Distribution” section.
  4. Click On continue
  5. From the drop down menu, select your app ID.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Select the certificate you just created.
  8. Click Continue.
  9. Fill in the name of your choice. The name is not visible to end-users.
  10. Click Generate.
  11. Download the provisioning profile.
  12. Click Done. The provisioning profiles overview with your new provisioning profile is displayed.
  13. Double click the downloaded profile, it will be embedded in the key-chain access.

Creating the Provisioning Profile of Type Ad Hoc:

  1. In your Apple Developer account navigate to Certificates, IDs & Profiles > Identifiers > Provisioning Profiles.
  2. Add a new provisioning profile.
  3. Activate Ad Hoc.
  4. Click Continue.
  5. From the drop down menu, select the app ID you just created.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Select the certificate you just created.
  8. Click Continue.
  9. Fill in the name of your choice. The name is not visible to end-users.
  10. Click Generate.
  11. Download the provisioning profile.
  12. Click Done. The provisioning profiles overview with your new provisioning profile is displayed.
  13. Double click the downloaded profile, it will be embedded in the key-chain access.

Reference Links:

We hope you found this tutorial helpful.  Feel free to contact us if you have questions.