Apple App Store Deployment

Before deploying the mobile app to the Apple App Store, the back end has to be deployed to a server — see Back End Deployment. Configure the frontend to point at that server via frontend/.env (see Installation Instructions).

WARNING

expo eject (Expo's old managed → bare workflow migration command) is deprecated. The project no longer commits a generated ios/ directory; native project files are generated on demand (e.g. via npx expo prebuild or implicitly by npx expo run:ios).

Requirements

• Apple Developer Account and an Apple device with Xcode
• A provisioning profile for bundle identifier ch.uzh.ifi.ddis-news (see app.json)

Building and Uploading the App

cd frontend
npm install --legacy-peer-deps

# Generates the native ios/ project from app.json + config plugins
npx expo prebuild --platform ios

Builds currently cannot be uploaded to App Store Connect directly from Xcode. Instead:

1. Open the generated ios/ project in Xcode.
2. Disable automatic signing and manually select the provisioning profile for ch.uzh.ifi.ddis-news.
3. Archive the build and export it as an .ipa.
4. Upload the .ipa to App Store Connect using Apple's Transporter application.

Known App Store Review Requirement: Account Deletion

Apple's App Store Review Guidelines require that any app allowing account creation also provide an in-app way to delete the account — not just a link to an external page. This has caused rejections in past submission cycles. See Mobile App → Settings Menu for the current (request-only) status of account deletion in this app, and confirm it has been fully wired up before resubmitting.