Using the Provisioning Portal

The iPhone Developer Program’s provisioning portal hosts all the tools needed to set up your system for iPhone development. It is found at http://developer.apple.com/ios/manage/overview/index.action, and you will not have access to it unless you have signed up for one of the two paid iOS Developer Programs. Here is where you can set up your development team, obtain your certificates, register development devices and application identifiers, and build your provisioning profiles so you can properly sign your applications.

Because the details are subject to change, this overview focuses on the big picture. Should Apple alter any of the particulars, you’ll still know what the major milestones are, so you can adjust accordingly. Figure 1-1 shows the key points of the process.