No IPA output for Cordova build in Visual Studio

Question

I'm developing a mobile app with Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova CTP 3.1 in VS 2013. I have configured everything according to the MSDN specifications here Install Tools to Build for iOS. I am able to build the app and run the remote simulator (as described here Run Your Apache Cordova App on iOS).

My problem is there is no output from the build back on the Windows machine where I have Visual Studio. More than that, there is no .ipa file created on the Mac either. I can find the build at /Users//remote-builds/builds/ but that's all. I can open the project in XCode for instance, but that's not what I want.

I want the final package file that I can install on test devices and eventually publish to the store. How do I get that?

Also my goal is to setup a TFS build definition so I can get a build each time I commit changes. I need to get that output file to the drop location of my build.

Answer 1

From within VS, you will have to choose "Remote Device" or "Local Device" as your debug target and then "build" to get an IPA back.

Also, refer to TFS build does not copy Cordova project output for instructions on how to setup TFS for CI workflow.