Hi Everybody!
I would like to develop an iOS app with MDM features and distribute it on App Store. The problem I got stuck with is how to QA-test the MDM features of such an app.
The app is not yet on App Store, it's under development. I can upload builds to App Store Connect, invite testers, they can test the app using TestFlight, all fine. But features that require an MDM configuration don't work since the app is not deployed via an MDM solution. It cannot be deployed via MDM since it's not an enterprise app and it's not on App Store yet. There are ways to work around this only for dev-testing (like a hardcoded configuration) but I need to give this to QA engineers.
AI answers suggest that Custom Apps in ASM/ABM might be the way out of this. Apple docs say I need to have the app reviewed by Apple first, only then can I assign it to organizations. But again, I need this for internal testing the app before releasing it. And before having to submit the build to Apple for approval.
I am quite sure it's possible to do this, there are apps on App Store with such features (Jamf Self Service), and other platforms provide a way (private store on Android) for internal testing, but I haven't been able to find the Apple solution yet. Any help would be appreciated.
Best regards, Balazs
It took some time to figure this out because it's so obvious :)
My mistake was that I was trying to test with an IPA exported for App Store submission. There is a different method in the export options called release-testing, and with that method the exported IPA can be deployed via MDM.
(The devices need to be registered for development on the account, the provisioning profile needs to include those devices, and developer mode needs to be turned on.)
Yay!