Isn’t it annoying when you do your Ad Hoc distributions that your pretty application icon doesn’t show up in iTunes? Well, here’s the trick — fake yourself a folder that looks like an iTunes distribution:
iPhone developer Malcolm Hall explained how he sets up his Ad Hoc applications so they’ll display the proper image. He creates a folder in which he places two items: the first is a JPEG image called iTunesArtwork, the second is a folder called Payload. He adds the app bundle (Whatever.app) into the Payload subfolder, zips up the entire thing and renames the zip file toAppname.ipa.
This ipa package (ipa stands for iPhone application) mimics the way that Apple provides applications for iTunes. When iTunes sees the iTunesArtwork file, it uses it to create the image seen in the Applications library.
The iTunesArtwork file should be added without an explicit extension. Hall suggests you use Get Info (Command-I) and remove the file extension before zipping it up. (You can also remove the extension at the command line.) Use a 512×512 image for the art.
Which describes the layout
- yourapp.ipa (zip renamed to ipa for iPhone Application)
- iTunesArtwork (512x512 JPEG with no extension)
- Payload (Folder)
- yourapp.app (as produced by Xcode)
There you go. Now you can look properly professional with your Ad Hoc distributions! And it’s all about the looks, isn’t it now?
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