FileMaker iOS SDK - Part 2

Building an iOS App from a FileMaker Database

Welcome to Part 2 of the FileMaker iOS App SDK series, in this article I will take you through setting up Xcode and creating a provisioning profile for an iOS device. In part 1 I highlighted some of the considerations that need to be made when turning a custom FileMaker solution into an iOS App.

Register in the Apple developer program

First things first, we need to register in the Apple Developer program. Head over to the Apple Developer Program page and click the "Enroll" button on the top right of the page. Log in with your Apple ID and follow through the prompts to enroll.

Download Xcode

We will need to download and install the latest version of Xcode, which is available from the Apple Developer website.

Setting up Xcode

Now that we're enrolled in the developer program we can start registering our App ID.

1. Launch Xcode, click on the 'Xcode' menu and open the preferences dialog.
2. Click on the 'Accounts' tab. In the bottom left hand corner of the window click the plus icon and select 'Add Apple ID...'
3. Sign into your Apple Developer account
4. Once signed in select the 'Team Name' and click on the 'View Details...' button
5. In the Signing Identities section click the 'Create' button next to iOS Development.

Registering our App ID

Registering our App ID with Apple will allow us to create a provisioning profile which will be used in building, testing and distribution of our iOS App.

1. Log into the Apple Developer Member Centre
2. Click on 'Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles'
3. Under the iOS Apps heading click on 'Identifiers'
4. Click the plus button to register a new app ID, enter the App ID Description, Prefix and Suffix.
5. In the App Services section tick 'Data Protection' and ensure 'Complete Protection' is selected
6. Tick the box to enable iCloud.
7. Click continue to review our App ID, finally click the 'Submit' button to create the App ID.

Registering our Device for testing

If we want to use an actual iOS device for testing we need to register the UDID (Unique Device Identifier) with Apple.

1. Under Devices click on 'All' and then click the plus button in the top right corner
2. Enter the device name and UDID. We can copy and paste the UDID from Xcode.
3. Ensure your device is plugged in to your Mac
4. Click on the Window menu and select 'Devices'.
5. Select iOS device and copy the Identifier, paste this into the UDID field on the Apple Developer site.
6. Click continue and then register to add your device

Create and download the Provisioning Profile

Now that we’ve created our App ID we need to create and download our provisioning profile.

1. Under Provisioning profiles click 'All' then click the plus button in the top right corner
2. Select 'iOS App Development' and select the 'Distribution' method required. Click continue.
3. Select the 'App ID, Certificate and Devices'. We’ll give our provisioning profile a name and finally click the generate button.
4. Switch back to Xcode and open the preferences dialog
5. Click on 'Accounts' then click on 'View Details'
6. Click the 'Download' button next to our newly created provisioning profile

Continue reading on to Part 3