Preparing Devices for iPhone Development

In order to test your application on a device, you must configure your computer and your device for iPhone OS development.

Certificate signing request. A certificate signing request (CSR) contains personal information used to generate your development certificate. You submit this request to the iPhone Developer Program Portal.

 Development certificate. A development certificate identifies an iPhone application developer. After the CSR is approved, you download your developer certificate from the portal and add it to your Keychain.

When you build your iPhone application with Xcode, it looks for your development certificate in your keychain; if it finds the certificate, Xcode signs your application, otherwise, it reports a build error. If your development certificate is missing from your keychain, download it again from the Program Portal. Then, follow the instructions in \"Adding Your Development Certificate to Your Keychain\".

 Provisioning profile. A provisioning profile associates one or more development certificates, devices, and an iPhone application ID.

To be able to install iPhone applications signed with your development certificate on a device, you must install at least one provisioning profile on the device. This provisioning profile must identify you and your device. If you’re part of an iPhone developer team, other members of your team, with appropriately defined provisioning profiles, may run applications you build on their devices.

iPhone Developer Program Portal

These are the requirements your computer and your development device must meet so that you can build iPhone applications that run on your device:

Your computer must have your development certificate in your keychain.

Your device must contain at least one provisioning profile that contains your developer certificate and identifies your device.

Your development device must have iPhone OS 2.0 or later installed.