Is it possible to create a .xcarchive archive from Visual Studio?
For Xamarin 4
As of Xamarin 4.x, it is now possible to create a .xcarchive
from Windows by setting the ArchiveOnBuild
property to true
. For example, using MSBuild
on the command line:
msbuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:ServerAddress=10.211.55.2 /p:ServerUser=xamUser /p:Platform=iPhone /p:ArchiveOnBuild=true /t:"Build" MyProject.csproj
The .xcarchive
will be placed in the $HOME/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives
directory on the Mac build host that both Xcode and Xamarin Studio search to display previously built archives.
See the documentation about Xamarin.iOS command line builds on Windows for additional details about the ServerAddress
and ServerUser
properties.
For Xamarin 3 and earlier
The Xamarin 3.x Visual Studio extension does not provide a mechanism to produce .xcarchive
archives.
But it's worth noting that you don't need a .xcarchive
to submit to the App Store. You can submit an IPA file as long as it's signed with an App Store Distribution Profile (not an Ad Hoc Distribution Profile).
In fact, you can even just zip up the .app
bundle (that's signed with an App Store Distribution Profile), and submit that .zip
file to the app store.
In either case, you can use the Application Loader app to submit the app (rather than Xcode).