Download and install an ipa from self hosted url on iOS

Question

I need to download and install an ipa directly from an URL.

I have tried this:

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://myWeb.com/test.ipa"];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];

The app launches Safari but then this message appears:

Is it possible?

Answer 1

To distribute your app over-the-air (OTA, this means without using TestFlight or the official App Store), you may need to create 3 different files, namely:

• The .ipa file (using an ad-hoc provisioning profile)
• index.html
• manifest.plist

See https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/deployment/depce7cefc4d/web for more information.

You can look for a service to generate them for you or you can do it manually:

index.html

<a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://myWeb.com/MY_TEST_APP/manifest.plist">Install App</a>

manifest.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>items</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>assets</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>kind</key>
                    <string>software-package</string>
                    <key>url</key>
                    <string>http://YOUR_SERVER_URL/YOUR-IPA-FILE.ipa</string>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>metadata</key>
            <dict>
                <key>bundle-identifier</key>
                <string>com.yourCompany.productName</string>
                <key>bundle-version</key>
                <string>1.0.0</string>
                <key>kind</key>
                <string>software</string>
                <key>title</key>
                <string>YOUR APP NAME</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

If the app refuses to install or run, you may need to check the following items:

• The provisioning profile you've used when compiling/archiving your app
• The URLs in both index.html and manifest.plist
• The plist file may possibly need to be hosted on an HTTPS server. You can use Dropbox for this if necessary.
• Your device UUIDs may need to be registered inside Apple Developer Center unless you have an Enterprise licence
• You may need to manually enable access to the app within Settings > Profiles

Answer 2

More simply you can utilize DropBox for this. The steps basically remain the same. You can do the following-:

1) upload your .ipa to dropBox, Share the link for this .ipa

2) Paste the shared link for .ipa in your manifest.plist file , Upload manifest file in DropBox again share the link for this .plist file

3)paste the link for this Plist in your index.html file with a suitable tag.

Share this index.html file with anybody who can tap on the URL and download. or you can directly hit the URL instead.

Answer 3

Yes, safari will detect the *.ipa and will try to install it, but the ipa needs to be correctly signed and only allowed devices would be able to install it.

http://www.diawi.com is a service that will help you with this process.

All of this is for Ad-hoc distribution, not for production apps.

More information on below link : Is there a way to install iPhone App via browser?

Answer 4

Answer for Enterprise account with Xcode8

1. Export the .ipa by checking the "with manifest plist checkbox" and provide the links requested.

2. Upload the .ipa file and .plist file to the same location of the server (which you provided when exporting .ipa/ which mentioned in the .plist file).

3. Create the Download Link as given below. url should link to your .plist file location.

   itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://yourdomainname.com/app.plist

4. Copy this link and paste it in safari browser in your iphone. It will ask to install :D

Create a html button using this full url

Answer 5

There are online tools that simplify this process of sharing, for example https://abbashare.com or https://diawi.com Create an ipa file from xcode with adhoc or inhouse profile, and upload this file on these site. I prefer abbashare because save file on your dropbox and you can delete it whenever you want

Answer 6

It won't be possible if you like to directly download and install the app from your website. There is a different way for enterprise to deploy and install app over the air. Your URL should point to a web service that hosts a manifest plist file in predefined format required by Apple. This service should return the url of manifest file which can then be used as below:

NSString *urlString = // url string where your manifest.plist is deployed on your server.
NSURL *installationURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=%@",[urlString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]]];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL];

Hope this answers your question.

Answer 7

There are now more new tools available with more new features to distribute and even manage your Projects and applications (ipa and apk), in my view https://appforshare.io is the recent new tool that does a lot apart from distributing ad-hoc or development builds.

Answer 8

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://xxxxxx.com/rest/images/apps/ipa/dev/xyz.plist"]];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];

openUrl method was deprecated.

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL: url options:@{} completionHandler:nil];

This method latest openUrl method and it will display prompt dialog.The dialog will show

xxxxxx.com would like to install "YOUR_APP_NAME"

this messages. If you click the "install" button application will close and ipa will download.

Answer 9

Create a Virtual Machine with Windows running on it and download the file to a shared folder. :-D