Distribution Certificate

General
1

I have been using XOJO Pro for many years, until now only for programs on MacOS and only for my own use. Now I have developed an app for IOS on the iPad (not for IPhone at this time). This app is ready for distribution to friends. (I have a developer certificate, and the app runs happily on my two iPads.)

I have had great difficulty understanding the steps necessary to obtain the certificate(s) for distribution, in this case outside the App Store (leaving the App Store for later). I have not found a coherent list of steps needed to accomplish the signing when building. During building XOJO hangs while showing the ā€œSigning and Packaging myappname ā€ message and I have to force quit. I have downloaded the ā€˜distribution.cerā€™ program but have apparently failed at getting it into Keychain Access.

I would appreciate some stepwise guidance on how to build and sign my app for local distribution. I am also confused by several terms for distribution outside the App Store - is ā€œAd Hocā€ different from ā€œEnterpriseā€, and what is the proper target for local distribution?

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Iā€™m using:

MacOS Sequoia 15.7.4 - XOJO 2025 Release 3.1 - XCode 26.3

Many thanks in advance. Steve K.

2

Have you by any chance read Javier Menendezā€™s posts?

He wrote several publications explaining distribution details on the Apple Store.

I havenā€™t had a chance to upload an app yet. I hope to do so soon when I finish the app Iā€™m developing for iOS and Android.

So Iā€™ll read his posts carefully.

3

Thanks, Jose!

I was hoping such a (recent) post existed. I think Javierā€™s post will solve my Distribution Certificate issue.

-Steve K.

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4

The best way to install certificates is via your Apple account in Xcode. Another certificate you need is Developer ID Application. Actually, that one is the biggie.

Notarization is the next step.

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