Important concepts

The following terms are important to understand when building an iPhone application.

iPhone Dev Center site

The Apple Computer website (http://developer.apple.com/iphone/ ) where you can do the following:

• Apply to become an iPhone developer.

• Manage and create iPhone development certificates, provisioning profiles and app IDs (which are defined below).

• Submit applications for the App Store.

iPhone development certificate

Used to identify a developer for the purpose of developing applications.

You obtain this file from Apple. You convert this certificate to a P12 certificate file to sign the iPhone application you create using ActionScript 3.0. See P12 certificate file .

You do not need an iPhone development certificate to simply debug and test Flash Professional CS5 applications on the development computer. However, you need a development certificate to install and test the application on an iPhone.

The development certificate is different from a distribution certificate, which you use to build a final version of your application. You obtain a distribution certificate from Apple when you build a final version of your application.

Certificate signing request

A file that contains personal information used to generate a development certificate. Also known as a CSR file.

Provisioning profile

A file that lets you test or distribute an iPhone application. You obtain provisioning profile files from Apple. A provisioning profile is assigned to a specific development certificate, an application ID, and one or more device IDs. There are different types of provisioning profiles:

• Development provisioning profile —Used to install a test version of an application to the developer’s iPhone.

• Test provisioning profile —Also known as an ad-hoc provisioning profile. Used to distribute a test version of the application to multiple users (and iPhone units). With this provisioning profile and the test application, users can test your application without it being submitted to the App Store. Note: you can also use a development provisioning profile to distribute test applications to multiple devices.

• Distribution provisioning profile —Used to build an iPhone application to submit your application to the App Store.

App ID

A unique string that identifies an iPhone application (or multiple applications) from a specific developer. You create app IDs at the iPhone Dev Center site. Each provisioning profile has an associated app ID or app ID pattern. You use this app ID (or pattern) when developing an application. You use the app ID in the Flash Professional CS5 iPhone Settings dialog box (or in the application descriptor file).

App IDs at the iPhone Dev Center contain a bundle seed ID followed by a bundle identifier. The bundle seed ID is a string of characters, such as 5RM86Z4DJM, that Apple assigns to the App ID. The bundle identifier contains a reverse domain name string that you pick. The bundle identifier may end in an asterisk (*), indicating a wildcard app ID. Examples are:

• 5RM86Z4DJM.com.example.helloWorld

• 96LPVWEASL.com.example.* (a wildcard app ID)

There are two types of app ID at the iPhone Dev Center:

• Wildcard app IDs—At the iPhone Dev Center, these app IDs end in an asterisk (*), such as 96LPVWEASL.com.myDomain.* or 96LPVWEASL.*. With a provisioning profile that uses this kind of app ID, you can generate test applications that use an app ID that matches the pattern. For the application’s app ID, you can replace the asterisk with any string of valid characters. For example, if the iPhone Dev Center site specifies 96LPVWEASL.com.example.* as the app ID, you can use com.example.foo or com.example.bar as the application’s app ID.

• Specific app IDs—These define a unique app ID to use in an application. At the iPhone Dev Center, these app IDs do not end in an asterisk. An example is 96LPVWEASL.com.myDomain.myApp. With a provisioning profile that uses this kind of app ID, applications much match the app ID exactly. For example, if the iPhone Dev Center site specifies 96LPVWEASL.com.example.helloWorld as the app ID, you must use com.example.foo as the application’s app ID.

When developing your application, you specify the app ID in the iPhone settings dialog box in Flash Professional CS5 or in the application descriptor file. For more details on app IDs, see the “Deployment tab” section of Setting iPhone application properties in Flash Professional CS5 or see Setting iPhone application properties in the application descriptor file .

Important: When specifying the app ID, disregard the bundle seed ID portion of the app ID. For example, if Apple lists your app ID as 96LPVWEASL.com.example.bob.myApp, disregard 96LPVWEASL—use com.example.bob.myApp as the app ID. If Apple lists your app ID as 5RM86Z4DJM.*, disregard 5RM86Z4DJM—this is a wildcard app ID.

You can find the app ID (or wildcard app ID pattern) associated with a provisioning profile at the iPhone Dev Center ( http://developer.apple.com/iphone ). Go to the iPhone Developer Program Portal and then go to the Provisioning section.

P12 certificate file

A P12 file (a file with a .p12 extension) is a type of certificate file (a Personal Information Exchange file). The Packager for iPhone uses this type of certificate to build an iPhone application. You convert the developer certificate you receive from Apple into this form of certificate.

Unique Device ID

A unique code identifying a specific iPhone. Also known as a UDID or a device ID.

When developing an application for the iPhone, you follow these steps:

For ad hoc distribution, repeat this general process, but use a test provisioning profile instead of a development provisioning profile. For the final distribution of the application, repeat this process using the distribution provisioning profile. (See the Glossary for information on the different types of provisioning profiles.)

When you have built a distribution version of your application, see the instructions in Submitting your iPhone application to the App Store .

For a quick tutorial on building a basic iPhone application, see Creating a Hello World iPhone application with Flash Professional CS5 .