Finally, let's look at how to publish applications on the various supported distribution platforms: Apple Store, Google Play, and Windows Store.
1) Be registered with one of Apple's developer programs.
2) Have a Mac computer and the latest version of XCode available.
3) Not using the Express version of Instant Developer.
4) Be familiar with the process of publishing on the App Store. The latter is not de-scribed in this guide as there is sufficient reference material both on-line as well as on the Apple website dedicated to developers.
5) Having completely tested the application you want to publish, as automatic updates are not possible via the Internet as this is prohibited by Apple policies. Each change must be submitted to Apple and requires approx. one week before being published.
To prepare the installation package, simply compile the project from inside Instant De-veloper with the Change – compile project command in the main menu. When the compiling options form appears, set the Create Installation Package flag as shown in the following image.
In order to set the flag, you must first set the Generate source code, Compile applica-tion and Run applicaapplica-tion flags. The Enable debug flag must be deselected.
After pressing OK, the application is recompiled and executed, and after a few moments Instant Developer finishes preparing the installation packages for iOS,
An-droid, and Windows RT, each of which consists of a single zipped file stored in the same project directory.
At this point, simply transfer the file to the Mac computer, extract the content and open the XCode project it contains. This project is already ready to be compiled, however before proceeding a compilation key must be set that is obtained from the Apple devel-oper site. Based on the type of compilation, keys are available for the test, for ad hoc distribution and for distribution on the App Store.
After entering the required key, the application can be tested or distributed directly by XCode.
Finally, consider that Instant Developer prepares all the necessary icons, starting from the appiconm.png file, applying a normal resizing mechanism. It is recommended to replace the icons prepared by In.de with professional graphics before uploading to the App Store.
6.5.1 Installing the application on an Android device
You can also install applications on an Android 4 device directly from your develop-ment workstation. To do this, you must first configure the workstation using the follow-ing steps.
1) If not already installed on your workstation, download and install a version of JDK 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7. It can be downloaded from Oracle at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html.
2) Download and install the Android SDK from the site http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html.
3) Launch the Android SDK Manager from the Windows Start menu and install all the packages offered.
4) Download and extract Eclipse in the programs folder. The recommended version is Eclipse Classic, which can be downloaded from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads.
5) Install the ADT plugin for Eclipse by following the instructions provided in article http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html, and then restart Eclipse.
6) Configure the Android SDK using the wizard that appears when Eclipse is restart-ed, specifying the folder where you previously installed the SDK.
All of these steps are explained in this article:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html.
At this point you can install the installation package generated for Android, using the following steps:
3) For the source of the import, select the item General -> Existing Projects into Workspace.
4) Set the Select Root Directory option and select the folder where you extracted the contents of the package.
5) Connect your Android device to the PC. If this is the first time, wait for driver in-stallation.
6) Start the application by clicking the Eclipse toolbar button with the bug icon. After a few seconds the application will start on the device.
To send the installation package to Google Play, you can perform the necessary opera-tions directly from Eclipse. We recommend taking a closer look at the specific ways by consulting the documentation provided with registration or accessing one of the numer-ous tutorials present on the Internet.
6.5.2 Installing the application on a Windows RT device
You can install applications on a Windows RT device directly from your development workstation. To do this, you must first configure the workstation using the following steps.
1) Use a Windows 8 PC and install Visual Studio 2012. The Express version is availa-ble from the Microsoft website.
2) Install the extension SQLite for Windows Runtime from the Tools -> Extensions and Updates menu.
3) When you first start Visual Studio 2012, you will be prompted to obtain a PC de-veloper license. Follow the directions in the article: Get a dede-veloper license.
4) Configure the device to perform remote debugging of the application by following the directions in the article: Running Windows Store apps on a remote machine.
At this point, the workstation is ready to compile and run the application by performing the following steps:
1) Unzip the contents of the package generated by Instant Developer in a folder on the Windows 8 workstation.
2) Open the Visual Studio project contained inside the installation package.
3) Double-click the Package.appxmanifest file in the project tree, and from the Pack-ager page, create a temporary certificate for the application by following the direc-tions in the article: How to: Sign Application and Deployment Manifests.
4) Connect your Windows RT device to your PC. If this is the first time connecting the device, wait for driver installation.
5) Launch the application by pressing F5. After a few seconds the application will start on the device.
Warning: if compiling in Visual Studio 2012 is done in debug mode, the execution speed of the application decreases drastically, to as little as one-fifth normal speed.
Therefore, compiling in Release mode is recommended.