iOS Renewal Process

You would think that renewing your development membership would be all that you need to do on a yearly basis to keep working as an Apple developer.
It should be just: pay the fee and keep on developing. Unfortunately it is not that simple.

Your certificates and provisioning profiles need to be renewed, regenerated, and installed before you can continue. As I have not found a reasonable walk-through for this process, either from Apple or on their forums, I will quickly sketch it out here:


1) Clear out your old Provisioning profiles in Xcode

Open the XCode Organizer. Select "Provisioning Profiles," go through the list and delete all the expired certificates.


2) Remove your existing certificates in Keychain Access

Open the Utilities fold in your Mac's Applications. Open Keychain Access and then select "My Certificates." You will see your expired certificates (Dev and Dist) listed. Remove them both.


3) Create new certificates

Keeping Keychain Access open, click:
Keychain Access>Certificate Assistant>Request a Certifcate From a Certificate Authority.
Choose "Save to Disk" and save the request file.

Open the Certificates section of the iOS Provisioning Portal.

Delete the existing Development Certificate.
Click the "+" Symbol to create a new development certificate.
Select the top option "iOS App Development"
Click Continue.
Upload the certificate request file you created and finish.

Click "+" again to create a distribution certificate.
Choose the "App Store and Ad Hoc" option and continue.
Upload the certificate request file and finish.


 4) Regenerate the Provisioning Profiles

Click the "Provisioning Profiles" in the iOS Provisioning Portal.
Go through each of your development and distribution profiles and edit them.
When you edit them you will see an option to select the new certificate that you generated. Once selected the "Generate" button will become active, click to generate and download the new profiles.


 5) Install the Certificates and Provisioning Profiles
 
Install the downloaded certificates and provisioning profiles by dragging them into Keychain Access and XCode respectively.

You can now test your development apps and distribute them to the app store just like before you renewed. Just remember to select the correct profile when you are building your app.

Publishing Apps in the Lucky Country

I am in the process of developing a number of Titanium mobile apps for iOS that will have in-app payment processing. For which it turns out that the programming part is relatively easy, it is the administration that makes it difficult.

I was merrily coding away, and discovered only when I went to test the in-app payments that Apple would not allow me to do that until all my banking and tax info was sorted out. I can't finish the product until I have all the the admin done. Ok, fair enough.

I start jumping through the hoops, and I discover that as an app developer with a business based in Australia I am forced to register for GST before I can sell content. Again, this seems a little stupid, but I will have to do it eventually, unless the product is a complete flop. So I start to register my business for GST.

Apple redirects me to the ABR website. However, the ABR page indicates that it can no longer be done there. https://abr.gov.au/ABRWeb/Homepage.aspx?NavGraph=Home&View=Home&pid=71

That page directs me to http://help.abr.gov.au/BC/Index/Apply_for_PAYG/How_do_I_apply_for_GST_or_PAYG_withholding_/

Which tells me I need to register for the new Australian Business Security Creditial Software AUSkey.

I went through the ridiculous processing of installing their AUSkey software into firefox on my Ubuntu machine (after their instructions for both Firefox and Safari on a Mac failed to work).

To get it running I need to install the Orcale JRE, which I discovered (post-installation) has a serious outstanding security problem. So much for Australia's cutting edge business security.

Eventually I get the Auskey installation to work and log in.

I then try and log into the Business Portal so I can register for GST, lo and behold, error pages.

For the next half and hour whenever I try and login I get presented with :
--------------------------------------------
The system is temporarily unavailable. (Error Number: A918.18)
The system has encountered an unexpected error.
If the problem persists, please contact the ATO Technical Helpdesk on:
Phone 1300 139 373
E-mail technical.help@ato.gov.au
--------------------------------------------

Eventually I am allowed in.

What do I find ?

Nowhere in the Business Portal is there a menu item or option for "Register for GST" or "PAYG." Absolutely nothing. So I have to send an email asking for help. Now I wait until they decide to reply.

Ahhh Australia, the lucky country!

On days like to today I want to register a business in a tax haven country and forget about where I came from. The Australian government is like DRM for media, every time you come up against it nothing works properly and you wonder why you bother paying for things.