Apple account management
When developing a .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) iOS app it's essential to test it by deploying it to a device, prior to uploading it to the App Store for distribution. Both of these tasks require you or someone else in your organization to enroll in one of Apple's Developer Programs:
- Enrolling in Apple's AppStoreConnect Program allows you to publish your iOS applications to Apple's public AppStore.
- Enrolling in Apple's Enterprise Program allows you to publish your iOS applications to a private "AppStore" that's fully controlled by your organization.
The Apple account management interface in Visual Studio enables you to view signing certificates and provisioning profiles, create new signing certificates, and download existing provisioning profiles.
Accepting Apple's licensing agreement
Every year, Apple requires you to review and agree to their licensing agreement. To do this, sign-in to your Apple Developer Account and agree to any licensing agreement that's presented to you.
Generating an API Key
Before you can add an Apple Developer Account to Visual Studio, you'll need to generate an API Key.
Generating an AppStoreConnect API Key
If you've enrolled in Apple's AppStoreConnect Program, you'll need to:
- Sign-in to your Apple Developer Account.
- Select Users and Access.
- Select the Integrations tab.
- Select the Team Keys tab.
- Press the + button.
Note
Visual Studio currently only supports Team Keys and doesn't support Individual Keys.
Only Admin keys will be able to register new Bundle IDs and generate new provisioning profiles. Developer keys won't be able to perform these tasks.
For more information about Apple's AppStoreConnect API, visit Apple's AppStoreConnect API documentation.
Generating an Enterprise API Key
If you've enrolled in Apple's Enterprise Program, you'll need to:
- Sign-in to your Apple Developer Account.
- Select Users and Access located under the Services section.
- Select the Integrations tab.
- Press the + button.
Note
Only Admin keys will be able to register new Bundle IDs and generate new provisioning profiles. Developer keys won't be able to perform these tasks.
For more information about how to generate an Enterprise API Key, visit Apple's Enterprise Program API documentation.
Add an Apple Developer Account
To add your Apple account to Visual Studio:
In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Options > Xamarin > Apple Accounts and click on the Add button:
Provide a descriptive Name for your API Key and copy the Issuer ID and Key ID values from Apple's website into the appropriate text boxes. If you haven't already done so, download the Private Key from Apple's website to a safe location and then use the Browse... button to select the location of the downloaded private key file:
View signing certificates and provisioning profiles
When you select an Apple Developer Account and a Team name, the View Details... button becomes enabled. Clicking it opens the team details dialog that displays a list of signing identifies and provisioning profiles that are installed on your machine. This dialog organizes the signing identities by type, with the Status column advising you if the certificate is:
- Valid. The signing identity (both the certificate and the private key) is installed on your machine and has not expired.
- Not in Keychain. Apple holds a valid signing identity. To install this on your machine, it must be exported from another machine. You cannot download the signing identity from your Apple Developer Account as it doesn't contain the private key.
- Private key is missing. A certificate with no private key is installed in the keychain.
- Expired. The certificate is expired. You should remove this from your keychain.
Create a signing certificate
To create a new signing identity, in the team details dialog, click Create Certificate to open the drop-down menu and select the certificate type that you want to create. If you have the correct permissions a new signing identity will appear after a few seconds.
If an option in the drop-down is greyed out and unselected, it means that you don't have the correct team permissions to create this type of certificate.
Download provisioning profiles
The team details dialog also displays a list of all provisioning profiles associated with your Apple Developer Account. You can download all provisioning profiles to your local machine by clicking the Download all Profiles button.
