April 2012

My App Store release checklist

For the longest time it seemed that releasing an update to an iOS app was a random whack-a-mole process that I’d invariably get wrong in some way.  It was maddening, especially since iTunes Connect has only recently become a decent web application.  By switching to Jenkins for continuous integration of my iOS app builds I’ve greatly improved my process, but things didn’t really improve until I created a checklist for keeping track of my releases.

Since I’ve been asked many times about this very topic recently – both at work and on Twitter – I thought I’d write a post about how I bring some sanity to my release process so my app updates are timely and predictable.
Read More »My App Store release checklist

Logging with CocoaLumberjack and TestFlight

Consider the following situation that happens far too often in mobile app development: You’ve just released an app that works perfectly for you, and you’ve tested it extensively. You’re proud of your accomplishments and submit the app to the world, only to have several emails sent to you from users who have nothing but difficulties in running the app. You send a bug fix release to the App Store, but since you’re still unable to reproduce the problem you’re at the whim of luck and end-user feedback. You can hope your users know how to send you a crash report, but what if the app isn’t actually crashing? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to access your app’s log information from that client to be able to troubleshoot the problems?
Read More »Logging with CocoaLumberjack and TestFlight