Sharing Apps

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1

Hi All,

So ive exported my first app. I tried to share with a friend but he just gets a message saying you do not have permission to use.

How do i export an app that i can use on another computer please. At the moment im on community edition.

Thanks

2

I’m guessing the message your friend is seeing is that the application “can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software”. If so, they can bypass that message by opening the app in a different way — instead of double-clicking on the app, right-click and select Open.

macOS Gatekeeper shows this error message for any application that hasn’t been signed and notarized with a paid Apple developer account, including any app exported from Vuo. Fortunately, there is the workaround that I mentioned above. Unfortunately, the only way you’d be able to share apps without triggering Gatekeeper would be to purchase an Apple developer account and sign and notarize them yourself (which would be made significantly easier with this open feature request, but would still require the developer account).

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3

@jstrecker I remember an old post of yours where you mentioned code-signing a Vuo app until the implemantion of Code sign and notarize exported apps.
Do you have a link to an article describing how that would work with an App exported from Vuo ?
Any idea if that would work with exported screensavers too ?
Thanks

4

Thanks… yes… it turned out to be exactly this. I’d tried to talk them through it but they swore blind it just wouldn’t open. I went over and it did. As you say… gatekeeper. Happens all the time with non app store stuff.

Long term would be interested in a developer account if it means you can potentially sell apps. Is it easy to get stuff on the app store? Not a developer, but finding vuo pretty intuitive really so can see potential for stuff.

5

There are quite a few hoops you have to jump through to be able to submit an app to Apple’s App Store, so no, I would not say it’s easy.

Just to give you a sense of the process, here’s basically how you’d prepare an exported app/plugin for distribution in a way that won’t be blocked by Gatekeeper:

  1. Pay for an Apple Developer account and wait for Apple to approve it.
  2. On the Apple Developer website, create a “Developer ID Application” certificate.
  3. Download the certificate and install it in the local keychain.
  4. Install Xcode to get the necessary command-line tools.
  5. Run some commands to code-sign the app/plugin (and dylibs within it) using your keychain and certificate. This adds some data to the files so that later Apple can verify that they haven’t been altered after signing.
  6. Run a command to notarize the app/plugin, which means sending it to Apple so they can give it their stamp of approval once their system deems it not malware.
  7. Run a command to attach the notarization data to the app/plugin.

It gets somewhat more complicated if the exported app/plugin uses system resources like the microphone or camera, because then you get into “entitlements” that have to be specified in a plist file within the bundle.

And it gets significantly more complicated if you want to submit an app to the App Store.

Disclaimer: The process described above is a general guideline, not a proper list of instructions. It may not work for all exported apps/plugins. It may not work in the future, since Apple changes the process almost every year. If you’re interested in more detailed and up-to-date instructions, I’d recommend looking at Apple’s documentation and some of the detailed tutorials made by app developers.

6

Or include this script … the solution used by a few developers, like krpano.
They will need to know the admin password.

fixinstall.command.zip (922 Bytes)

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