Creating Beta Mac app for testing CloudKit under Production

Prior to macOS 10.12 it’s simply not possible for non-Mac App Store apps to use CloudKit. Needless to say, this makes beta testing hard. The best you can do is distribute a Mac App Store development-signed app to a small number of folks (as described in the Distribute Your App Using the Team Provisioning Profile (Mac) section of the CloudKit Quick Start, which you’ve already read).

We’ve relaxed this restriction in macOS 10.12 but I’m not sure of the exact mechanics.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

"The best you can do is distribute a Mac App Store development-signed app to a small number of folks (as described in the Distribute Your App Using the Team Provisioning Profile (Mac) section of the CloudKit Quick Start, which you’ve already read)."

Hi. Thanks for the reply. That is exactly what I am trying to do. Distribute a Mac App Store development signed app to myself (I am the only one who needs to run it). But after following the instructions there, it does not seem to run and I am trying to figure out why. The docs say it should work.

That is exactly what I am trying to do. Distribute a Mac App Store development signed app to myself …

But you want it to talk to the production CloudKit servers, right?

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Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

"But you want it to talk to the production CloudKit servers, right?"

Yes, which is exactly what

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/DataManagement/Conceptual/CloudKitQuickStart/TestingYourApp/TestingYourApp.html

says I should be able to do.

"Give your CloudKit app a real-world test with multiple simultaneous users by running it on multiple devices using different iCloud accounts. Initially, test your CloudKit app in the development or production environment on designated test devices."

(I added the bolding)

That says I should be able to specify specific Macs to test which are in the provisioning profile. And indeed, when I choose the Export, it asks if I want production or development CloudKit servers, with the default being production. But the app crashes as being incorrectly signed when actually being run.

Thanks

I am, alas, going to have to back away from this thread. The key issue here is how CloudKit decides whether to talk to the Production or Development container. Different frameworks do this in different ways (some use

get-task-allow

, some put it under your control, some simply have no sandbox, and so on). I thought I had a reasonable understanding of how this worked for CloudKit but, digging into it today, it’s clear to me that this is more complex than I first thought. I don’t have the time to continue this research (I don’t actually support CloudKit for DTS), and I’m reluctant to speculate, so I’m going to drop this. Sorry.

My recommendation is that you repost your question over in System Frameworks > CloudKit and iCloud Drive to see if anyone over there has direct experience with this. If you strike out there, you should open a DTS tech support incident and one of my colleagues will be able to help you out.

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—
Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

OK, thanks! I appreciate your efforts.