Overview

You need to publish your iOS app to the App Store so that your clients can access it. After you finish building and customizing the desired features of your app, the next step is publishing. Publishing your app is submitting it for review on the Client CMS Panel, our dedicated iOS Uploads Team will then prepare and upload your app to the App Store so that your app can be publicly available.

Prerequisites

• You have an Apple Developer Account that has not been used to publish any other apps
• In order for Uploads Team to publish your app, you need to have two-factor authentication enabled on your Apple Developer account. To enable it, please follow the instructions on Apple's Two-Factor Authentication article.
• You also need to have the following before publishing your app:
  • An App-specific password. This needs to be generated, check out the Using iOS App-Specific Password article to do this.
  • The app code of your BiznessApps application.
  • Developer account’s login credentials (username and password) and the account’s team name.
• If you are a Reseller/Partner, your client (content owner) has to set up their own Apple Developer account. This needs to be set up on the Apple side and comes with a fee imposed by Apple. Publishing has to be done through the client account and NOT the Reseller/Partner Developer Account.
• If you are a Reseller/Partner, you need to have your phone number listed as a trusted phone number in order to receive the two-factor authentication codes. Otherwise, you will need to be on the phone with your client when publishing the client's app so that they can give you the newly generated two-factor authentication secret code when required, as you should publish your client's app by using the client's account. We do this because the reseller CMS cannot publish client apps, and also one developer account should not be used to publish multiple apps.
• If you are a Reseller/Partner with your own Apple Developer account, it can be added to your Client's Developer account as an Admin with access to Certificates and Identifiers & Profiles, you will be able to preform most operations without needing to have the client on the phone.

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Solution

<supportagent>

In cases where the customer insists that they have coordinated with Apple and Apple has approved multiple apps to be submitted using the same developer account, after receiving written confirmation from the customer that they understand that Apple may ban their account for submitting multiple apps under the same developer account, follow the Bypassing Error "This Developer Team Has Already Been Used To Submit Apps" article for details on how to bypass the error message for the customer.

</supportagent>

Follow the steps outlined below to publish your iOS app:

1. Open the Publishing view:

• If you are an Individual Client (single app), you can navigate to the Publish screen after logging in.
• If you are a Reseller/Partner, navigate to the Reseller Dashboard in BiznessApps CMS, and locate the app to publish. From your dashboard, find the app and click on the "3 dots" button, and then click Republish/Publish.

2. Choose App Icon, Mobile Splash Screen, Tablet Splash Screen, and iOS screenshot.

Note: (Optional) If you wish to submit a tablet version, you will have to enable the 'Enable iPad Submission' Option too.

Screenshots

To obtain a successful screenshot:

a. Click the Take Screenshots button.

b. The Screenshot tool will appear on your screen, previewing your current application, navigate to the features you want to highlight, and press the Take Screenshot button to save the images. Then select Apply.

IMPORTANT: You have to upload a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 screenshots. If you do not plan on publishing an iPad version, you can ignore the Tablet screenshots.

Deleting, Replacing, and Downloading a Screenshot

• To delete a screenshot:

a. Hover over a screenshot and checkmark the circle that appears at the top left of the screenshot.

b. A red Delete button appears at the bottom of the screen once you select a screenshot. Click Delete to remove the selected screenshots.

• To replace a screenshot:

a. Hover over the screenshot you want to replace and click on the portrait icon. 

b. In the pop-up window, you will see the other screenshots you have uploaded for this size. Select one or click Upload Images to replace it with a new image.

c. Once you make your selection, click Submit when you are ready for our app store review.

• To download a screenshot:

a. Check the screenshot that you wish to download.

b. Click the blue download symbol, and the file will automatically download.

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 Splash Screens

A Splash Screen is the first image a user sees when they launch an app. Thus this can serve as a great marketing tool and should be used tactfully.

Splash Loading Screens are built into the app file and require an update to be changed (that is, you need to republish the iOS app if the change on the Splash Screen is implemented after publishing it).
That is why your screenshots must be exactly as you would like them when you publish your app.

Splash Loading Screen Dimensions 

Follow the dimensions as suggested in the screenshot below:

 App Icons

The App Icon appears both in the app listing and on the device's screen once installed.

The App Icon is built into an app file which is sent to Apple

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 3. Scroll down and fill in the required information. Ensure all metadata has the correct values.

• This section covers the app listing information:

  App Name	This is the name that appears in the App Store and Google Play. Users will search for this name to locate the app.
  App Description	This field represents a short description, which typically covers a bit about the business, but this should primarily focus on how useful the app will be to the users. It is good to list a few features offered by the app.
  What's new in this version	If the customer is updating an app, they will detail what is available in the new version — for instance, performance improvements and new features.
  Default Language	This should be set to the language the app description is in. Keep in mind, the text you provide (like all the other fields in the Publish step) will display as-is. Therefore, if you want the listing to be available in multiple languages, you will need to add localizations before your app goes live. (Localizations cannot be added after an app is released.)
  App Icon Name	This field indicates the name that appears below the icon after an app is installed on a device. It can be up to 12 characters and is typically just a shortened version of the App Name.
  App Keywords	This field indicates the search terms that are relevant to your app. These will help the users to locate your app if they plug keywords into the search bar. It is usually best to use industry-based keywords and the business name as well.
  Official Website	The website URL for the business (must include the http:// prefix)
  Copyright	This field shows the copyright you would like to see in the App Store listing. Usually, this is the customer’s business name (whether they are a Reseller or a Single Client).
  App Category	Select the best industry fit from the drop-down menu. This will help you to categorize the app properly so that the users searching within that category are more likely to find it.
  Contact Email	The email address for the business
  Phone Number	The phone number for the business
  Industry Type	Industry Type
  Business Type	Business Type
  App Price	Though the majority of our clients produce free apps, they can also opt to charge for it. The customer will have to select the price from the drop-down to do so. Keep in mind, both Apple and Google Play take 30% of the profit from app sales, and priced apps tend to discourage users from downloading.

4. Fill in the Apple Store Rating questions 

Apple Store Rating

Customers should ensure that each drop-down rating is filled out correctly. This is because an improper rating can lead to a Metadata Rejection from Apple. Therefore, it is necessary to elevate the rating when necessary.

Note: Common reasons for rejections are mature/sexual content, drug/alcohol content, and violence.

5. Click Submit. 

6. The first time you submit an app you may see the following two screens.

• You can check the box so the 'Submit for Review' window won't show again

• You have to accept the fee for the first time submission

7. Enter a valid email address, you will receive a confirmation message with publishing information in that mail. Note: If you are a Partner/Reseller, you should not use your client's email in this field, as the confirmation message can mention our company instead of your white-labeled platform, we suggest you use your own email for this field.

<supportagent>This note also applies to publishes made by our Agents acting on behalf of Partners/Resellers, in this field you should put the reseller's email, and never their client's email.</supportagent>

8. Enter the Apple Developer account’s username and password and the two-factor authentication code generated on the client’s trusted device. Since you will be on the phone with the client, the client will be able to send them the code. You need to enter the code in the next step and then proceed to the next step

Note: If it is not the first time you submit the app, the above picture may contain extra fields depending on the 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) settings on your Apple Account. See below:

9. Under the Special Instructions form, select the Apple and iTunes Team from the corresponding dropdowns. In the ‘App specific password’ field, enter the App specific password that the client had sent you, and in the Special Instructions field enter “Manual publish” and then Submit the app. This process may take up to 2 minutes.

• If the Submit button is disabled, generate an app-specific password by following the article Submit button disabled in the Last iOS Publishing Process Step.

Please note that the resubmission fee has recently changed to $50 for iOS.

Note: If you have the sign-up/login option enabled, you will need to add a Demo Account for Apple's review as mentioned in the article App Rejection from Apple on Guideline 2.1

Testing

Once the app is submitted and if the submission goes through successfully, you will receive an email confirmation of the request. In addition to that, the app is added to the iOS upload pipeline queue for our Uploads Team to make the submission to Apple Store. 

Once the submission to Apple is complete, you will receive a notification. Resellers or Individual Clients can check the upload status by following the steps outlined in the Checking the iOS App Status article.

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