I recently picked up a third generation iPod Touch with the intention of also using it as a test device for iOS 4. Now that Xcode 3.2.3 is out I thought I would test the “instant setup” feature as an alternative to manually entering device details and downloading profiles from the provisioning portal.

Team Provisioning Profiles

The whole process is driven from the Xocde organizer window which now has an additional option on the provisioning profiles page for Automatic Device Provisioning:

This option was already enabled in my case so I guess that is the default when you install Xcode 3.2.3. When you plug in a new device it shows up under the list of devices in the organizer with a Use for Development button which after providing your iPhone developer account details automatically adds the device to the portal for you.

As well as adding the device it also creates a new provisioning profile named “Team Provisioning Profile” which has a wild card App ID and assigns the new device (and it seems any existing devices registered in the portal) to the profile. The profile shows up in the provisioning portal along with your other development provisioning profiles but unlike the other profiles you cannot edit it directly as it is “Managed by Xcode”:

Specialized Development

Unfortunately the team provisioning profile is not going to be enough if you are engaging in what Apple refers to as “specialized” development. Since it is using a wildcard App ID you cannot use it if you require push notifications, in-app purchase or the upcoming game center integration. These features require a specific App ID so you cannot provision them with the generic team profile.

What this means is that you still have to go to the provisioning profile and manually add the device to the specific provisioning profile you created for the app. Once you have done that you will probably need to refresh the Provisioning Profiles page in organizer to get it to show up. One thing I noticed is that this seems to actually create a new profile so I ended up with two profiles with the same name in the organizer. I deleted the old one and dragged the new one onto the icon for the device. At that point it showed up on the physical device (General -> Profiles in the Settings app).

So, in summary, it is not a totally seamless process, especially if you need to use specific App ID’s but it is still a big step forward and relieves some of the pain inflicted on us by the provisioning portal.