Question

Though we can add a pass in the pass application in iOS 6.0 programmatically given we have .pkpass file in our document directory or we get it from the server. But i have searched all the apple documentation in which steps are given to generate the .pkpass file manually.

Is this feasible to create a .pkpass file programmatically using Xcode.

Answer 1

The .pkpass file is composed of several components. The most difficult component that must be done programmatically is the signature of the manifest file. The other parts are trivial to assemble on the iPhone platform programmatically. You may note that Apple’s documentation uses a shell command to compute this value using the OpenSSL library. I had to manually write a function that signed the manifest files using the OpenSSL C library, however it is not trivial due to a lack of examples and the complexity of the library. The signing function selected by Apple for the manifest is not present in their CommonCrypto framework.

Also, in order to sign these passes on the phone, the credentials must be present in the binary’s bundle or compiled assets which is probably not a good idea to distribute if you would like to protect the integrity of your profile and signing identities.

So in summary: This is certainly possible, and is doable using the existing specifications and libraries. However, I would not recommend doing this on the phone. It is fairly difficult, and may introduce security risks if not done properly. Additionally, if you incorporate the OpenSSL library in your binary then you must report to Apple that you incorporate encryption in your device and must register for an ERN with the government. There may also be other export conditions on your code depending on your locality (but of course I am not a lawyer so this is a guess).