1

As I understand, a certificate serves the purpose of signing an app bundle and identifying that an app actually came from the developer it claims to come from.

What is the intent behind requiring registered developer to create separate certificate for each development and distribution of iOS apps? Why can't distribution be done using just one certificate.

Note: I have already searched through SO to find potential duplicates. The closest one to my question that I can find is, Difference between development and distribution certificate [duplicate], but it still doesn't answer the question.

Nimesh Neema
  • 1,528
  • 2
  • 17
  • 44

1 Answers1

0

As the term says development is for development and distribution is for distribution. One difference is sandbox environments. Development builds are using sandbox environments for different features like, InApp purchases, iCloud services, Push notifications etc. If you sign the app with distribution certificate and production provisioning profile all feature will be pointing to production environment.

Bilal
  • 18,478
  • 8
  • 57
  • 72
  • Thank you for your reply. As I understand, special app capabilities are not configured **in** the certificate. The question being, leaving aside ease of use, from a purely technical point of view, what difference does the Development and Distribution certificate entail? Assume a generic scenario where the app is not using any special capabilities like InApp purchases, iCloud Storage or Push Notifications. – Nimesh Neema Apr 24 '18 at 11:30