Glossary

• ad hoc provisioning profile  

  A type of distribution provisioning profile used for distributing iOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps for testing.



• Apple Developer Program  

  Subscription services that offer Apple developers access to technical resources and support to develop iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Mac apps for the store.



• Apple Push Notification service (APNs)  

  Apple service for propagating information to apps running on different platform devices.



• Apple ID  

  An Apple-issued developer account with a name and password. Developers use their Apple ID credentials to sign in to any of the Apple Developer Program tools. A developer or Apple ID can belong to multiple teams.



• CloudKit  

  An app service that stores structured application and user data in iCloud.



• container  

  A data store containing multiple database used by one or more apps. The default container ID matches the app’s bundle ID.



• container ID  

  A unique identifier for an app’s iCloud container.



• database  

  The portion of a container used to store records. There’s one public database for the app and multiple private databases—one private database for each user.



• development environment  

  Databases used to develop your app and evolve the schema that is not accessible by apps sold on the store.



• field  

  A property of a record type that can be set using a key-value pair.



• iOS App file  

  A type of OS X file that can be installed on iOS and tvOS devices.



• just-in-time schema  

  Development environment feature that allows an app to create a schema by saving records.



• predicate  

  An object that defines logical conditions for searching for objects conforming to key-value coding.



• private database  

  A database for storing records owned by the current user that are not readable by the app unless the user enters their iCloud credentials on the device.



• production environment  

  Databases accessed by apps sold on the store.



• public database  

  A database for storing records owned by the app that are shared between users. An iCloud account is not required to read records but is required to write records.



• push notifications  

  A notification from a provider to a device transported by APNs.



• record  

  An instance of a record type that can be created, read, and written to a database.



• record identifier  

  An identifier for the location of a record in a database. Contains a record name and zone.



• record name  

  A unique identifier for a record within a given zone. The record name is supplied by the app and can be used as a foreign key in another data source.



• record type  

  A template for a set of records that have common fields.



• record zone  

  A partition of a database to store records. Each database has a default zone and allows additional custom zones.



• relationship  

  A record type field that associates one record to another.



• schema  

  A collection of metadata that describes the organization of records, fields, and relationships in a database. In CloudKit, the schema includes record types, security roles, and subscription types.



• security role  

  Permissions for a group of users to create, read, and write records in the public database. The possible roles are world, authenticated, and creator.



• store  

  Used as a short form of the App Store, Apple TV App Store, or the Mac App Store when there’s no distinction between them.



• subscription  

  A persistent query on the server that triggers notifications when records change.



• to-many relationship  

  An association between a single record and one or more other records.



• to-one relationship  

  An association between a single record and another single record.



• tvOS  

  The operating system the runs on an Apple TV device.