iOS app Enterprise Provisioning Profile distribution via secure external link

Question

Is it possible to include the Provisioning Profile for an Apple Enterprise Developer app in the .ipa similar to how iOS ad hoc wireless distribution works? So basically can you create a self-installing Enterprise app .ipa file that you can provide a link to for users to install the app? The apple documentation is a little vague about the limitations of the enterprise provisioning profile……Could users could just install the app themselves without having to manually copy the Enterprise Provisioning Profile to their devices via iTunes.

If that is possible, is it acceptable to distribute an Enterprise app via an external link (not internally)? The link would be secure so only employees of a company will have access to it via a secured external web portal...

Also, do Enterprise Developer Provisioning Profiles expire? If so would users be able to get a new provisioning profile if they clicked on a link with a new ipa file (with a new embedded Enterprise Provisioning Profile)? Are there any potential issues to replacing an outdated provisioning profile with a current one using this distribution method?

Answer 1

Yes, you can do what you want. In xcode4 when you share the archive, you check the '...as enterprise...' checkbox and fill in the top two entries (the link and the name), then put the resulting ipa only at the position you said it'd be in the link entry. It's pretty anal about everything being exactly what you described it as. Make a web page that has a download link that looks something like this:

<a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=PUT THE FULL URL TO YOUR PLIST HERE"> blab blah blah</a>

Then upload the ipa and plist to where you said they'd be (probably right next to each other).