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?
The answer is
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.
Create a Virtual Machine with Windows running on it and download the file to a shared folder. :-D
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.
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.
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 for Enterprise account with Xcode8
Export the .ipa by checking the "with manifest plist checkbox" and provide the links requested.
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).
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
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
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?
Source: Stackoverflow.com