Help to create an installer package

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Created Mar ’22

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Hi, I'm very new to XCode and I really need some help. I've created an .app in Max8 programming language and I successfully signed and notarized it.

Now I am looking for a way to create an installer for my app, which will be distributed on my website (not Apple Store).

I need to understand the following, possibly with a step by step tutorial from experienced user:

my app must be installed in the Applications folder within a folder that will contain also the user manual
I need the installer to create an hidden folder in the Applications Support (or somewhere else) which have privileges of read and write by my app. this is just to store and check a txt file with a serial key.

I'm honestly lost in XCode and don't know where to start to create the installer (which from my understanding will need also to be signed and notarized too) I have my Developer ID and Installer ID certificates in my Keychain of course.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Mar ’22

Xcode can’t create installer packages [1]. To do that you’ll need to use command-line tools. The weapon of choice here is productbuild but, depending on your specific requirements, you may end up needing productsign, pkgbuild, and pkgutil as well.

I’m not an expert on installer package creation. My Packaging Mac Software for Distribution shows how to use productbuild to create the simplest possible installer package, one that installs a standalone app to /Application. Beyond that, I’m out of my depth.

Unfortunately the documentation for creating installer packages is in very poor shape. Each of the commands has a man page — see Reading UNIX Manual Pages for info on how to access those — and there’s some old reference material in the Documentation Archive [2] but… yeah… it’s not good.

If you get stuck, my advice is that you open a DTS tech support incident and talk to DTS’s installer specialist.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

[1] Well, it can, but only for the purposes of uploading an app to the Mac App Store, which doesn’t help you.

[2] Like Distribution Definition XML Schema Reference.

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