iOS Enterprise Distribution Through Ota

iOS Enterprise App distribution OTA

Finally I was able to fix the issue. I see issue was with not having correct signing certificate. For anyone who want to distribute the app in-house without MDM they can follow steps in below blog post.
https://medium.com/apps-studio/distributing-enterprise-ios-app-in-house-without-mdm-3ed015009893

IOS Enterprise Distribution Through OTA

As of December 2011, these are the steps:

1. Create a provisioning profile in your Apple Enterprise account
2. Set this as the Code Signing Identity under the Build setting of your app.
3. Make sure the Bundle ID matches that of the provisioning profile.
4. Select Product > Archive to build IPA file.
5. Click Share (aka Distribute) button after selecting your Archive.
6. Set Contents radio button to iOS App Store Package (.ipa)
7. Make sure Identity in dropdown is the one used from Enterprise account.
8. Click Next
9. Select the check box "Save for Enterprise Distribution"
10. For Application URL put in the URL that points to where the ipa file will be placed (example: http://oursite.com/myApp.ipa)
11. Click Save. This will save a plist & an ipa file for you.
12. Place these files on your server with a link formated like this:
    
    <a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http:/oursite.com/myApp.plist" id="text">
13. Go to this page from your device and click the link to install the app

how exactly does ios enterprise distribution works in practice

If you are building iOs app, then
Apple Developer Enterprise Program is solution for your problem. We had similar experience, but with smaller company.

1. As the result you will get one simple link - that can be posted on web-site or send through email. And anyone can download and install it on iPhone/iPad. Please check simplest version here.

2. To make app self-downloaded (aka OTA), you have to include inside app small checking the plist (or any other file from server). Please check it here, here and here

Enterprise distribution ios app - cannot connect to server

Actually, there was an issue with plist file. I was creating .plist file by pasting above plist code (mentioned in the question) in Text app in the mac and then was saving with .plist extension. And that might be converted to some unreadable format that my server was unable to read. For the solution, While archiving my build I have checked the checkbox Include manifest for over-the-air installation (as shown in below screenshot). and then I have provided app URL (URL for .ipa file), display image URL and full-size image URL. So, that with ipa my manifest.plist file was also generated and I have put that file without opening it and that's it!

Screenshot:

iOS Enterprise App: Distribute Over the air : Untrusted Enterprise Developer

In general settings of your iphone you could see Device management. Move into the section and trust your enterprise developer account.

Security of over-the-air distribution of enterprise iPhone apps - OTA iOS

In order to use OTA iPhone app, the person who is attempting to download the app must install the proper certificate.

Enterprise Apps are limited to 1000 OTA installs, which Apple can track on their end.

For non enterprise developer accounts, you have a 100 device limit, which first have to get the device UDID up to the provisioning portal, before they can install the proper certificate to run the app.

So while you can free distribute the ipa (over HTTP or FTP or whatevs) they'll still need the proper valid certificate, and that is controlled.

Of course there are probably ways around this, but in general that's how Apple protects OTA installs.

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