LiveCode Forums.

It's been quite a while since I built a standalone, and the reason is 99 (.999) % because of the weird and complex hoop-jumping required to get these things working on macOS (and then Windows, etc.) I know it's because of security restrictions in modern computing life and I accept this, but actually DOING it is the problem.

What IS the current advice? Is there still a LC stack that helps walk through this? Is the process documented somewhere? Help?

k

Keith

May I assume your question is all about Mobile? I do not develop for mobile, rather I develop on a Mac and distribute to both Mac and Windows desktops.

Know that there is almost no issue with what I do. The process is a total of a couple of mouse clicks and waiting about 40 seconds.

Craig

Or is the question more to do with certifying, notarising and "stapling?" (not sure about the terminology) so that the OS recognises the app as a secure and safe approved app for general distribution?

Yes, certifying etc. is exactly what I'm confused about. I've built apps with LiveCode for many (many) years, but for a long time getting my output into a state that random other people can download and use has been... challenging. I have done it, but it was some years back and I honestly can't remember the steps (they were convoluted) and don't know where to look.

I am somewhat surprised that there isn't an official detailed 'how to' for this – but maybe I just haven't found it?

I think the main problem is that the rules change, and change differently on different platforms.
There are (maybe?) relatively few LiveCode developers whose market works this way so little info out there.
I think the biggest hurdle (apart from knowing what hurdles there are) is getting a valid certificate from a recognised certification authority - these are pretty expensive. Not sure who the best provider is currently.
Maybe jwack has more first hand experience?

I do hope things haven't changed THAT much! I'm fine with renewing my Apple Dev account, and codesigning etc. didn't have an additional expense that I remember.

This is exactly why LiveCode Towers should keep an up-to-date set of guides for this stuff. When there this much uncertainty about a vital part of deploying something built in LiveCode it should be addressed. It's a significant barrier to LC users and could be putting people off from buying into or staying bought into the LiveCode way of creating.

Check out the following Livecode lesson on-line. I think this is what you are looking for. It explains in excruciating detail what you need to do in order to authorize a Mac app so it can be distributed from a source other than the Appstore.

Much more importantly, however, it includes a stack which does all that for you. Since Laziness is a cardinal virtue of a programmer (https://thethreevirtues.com/), I've never done the long manual process. The stack has always worked for me.

https://lessons.livecode.com/a/1653720- ... -13-and-up

Thanks, this is really helpful! And I'm delighted to see that the info IS provided by LC themselves – and that there's a helper stack to simplify things.

(I couldn't agree more about the virtues of programmer laziness! It's a big reason why I made Exif Fixer, my most widely-used utility. )

That help article, and the included utility stack, was written by Matthias Rebbe and I thank him every time I use it.

The certificate that SparkOut mentioned is only required on Windows.,and yes, they are expensive. For Mac you just need notarization.

As I develop standalones for, amongst other things, MacOS 15 (the latest offering from Apple) using LCC 9.6.3 with no stapling, hammering, drilling, certifying, or anything else, yet they work "just like that" I am curious to know why anyone else is having any problems.

richmond62 wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 06, 2025 11:13 pm

As I develop standalones for, amongst other things, MacOS 15 (the latest offering from Apple) using LCC 9.6.3 with no stapling, hammering, drilling, certifying, or anything else, yet they work "just like that" I am curious to know why anyone else is having any problems.

It will work fine on the machine it was built on. Not so much anywhere else.