Generate A Key And Keystore
In Preparing an App for Releasethe Archive Manager was used to build the app and place it in an archive forsigning and publishing. This section explains how to create an Androidsigning identity, create a new signing certificate for Androidapplications, and publish the archived app ad hoc to disk. Theresulting APK can be sideloaded into Android devices without goingthrough an app store.
- You can go to the previous article and generate the certificate and private key as we'll be needing it for creating a KeyStore. In this article, I'll be explaining how one can create a KeyStore in.
- Import a private key into a Java Key Store. OpenSSL and Java never quite seem to get along. OpenSSL, in addition to being the primary library used for SSL functionality in open source as well as commercial software products, is also a set of tools used to create all of the peripheral SSL-related artifacts such as X.509 certificates.
- Keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias intermediate -file intermediate.crt -keystore KeyStore.jks 5. Download & import your new certificate Download your new certificate; save it as mydomain.crt. Use the same alias as the private key so it associates them together. The alias here must match the alias of the private key in the first command.
- KeyStore Explorer is an open source GUI replacement for the Java command-line utilities keytool and jarsigner. KeyStore Explorer presents their functionality,.
In Archive for Publishing,the Distribution Channel dialog presented two choices fordistribution. Select Ad-Hoc:
In Archive for Publishing,the Sign and Distribute... dialog presented us with two choices fordistribution. Select Ad-Hoc and click Next:
Create a New Certificate
After Ad-Hoc is selected, Visual Studio opens the SigningIdentity page of the dialog as shown in the next screenshot. Topublish the .APK, it must first be signed with a signing key (alsoreferred to as a certificate).
An existing certificate can be used by clicking the Import button and then proceeding toSign the APK. Otherwise, click the click the+ button to create a new certificate:
The Create Android Key Store dialog is displayed; use this dialogto create a new signing certificate that can use for signingAndroid applications. Enter the required information (outlined in red)as shown in this dialog:
Generate Jks Keystore
How to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) via Java Keystore A CSR is encoded text that contains information about the certificate requester. This information includes, but is not limited to, the publisher name for the certificate (referred to as a “Common Name”), organization name (if applicable), and a contact email for the.
The following example illustrates the kind of information that must be provided. Click Create to create the new certificate:
The resulting keystore resides in the following location:
C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataLocalXamarinMono for AndroidKeystoreALIASALIAS.keystore
For example, using chimp as the alias, the above steps would create a new signingkey in the following location:
C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataLocalXamarinMono for AndroidKeystorechimpchimp.keystore
Note
Be sure to back up the resulting keystore file and password in asafe place – it is not included in the Solution. If you lose yourkeystore file (for example, because you moved to another computer orreinstalled Windows), you will be unable tosign your app with the same certificate as previous versions.
For more information about the keystore, seeFinding your Keystore's MD5 or SHA1 Signature.
After clicking Ad-Hoc, Visual Studio for Mac opens the Android SigningIdentity dialog as shown in the next screenshot. To publish the .APK,it must first be signed it with a signing key (also referred to as acertificate). If a certificate already exists, click the Import anExisting Key button to import it and then proceed toSign the APK Otherwise, click the Create a NewKey button to create a new certificate:
The Create New Certificate dialog is used to create a new signingcertificate that can be used for signing Android applications. ClickOK after entering in the necessary information:
The resulting keystore resides in the following location:
~/Library/Developer/Xamarin/Keystore/alias/alias.keystore
For example, the above steps might create a new signingkey in the following location:
~/Library/Developer/Xamarin/Keystore/chimp/chimp.keystore
Note
Be sure to back up the resulting keystore file and password in asafe place – it is not included in the Solution. If you lose yourkeystore file (for example, because you moved to another computer orreinstalled macOS), you will be unable tosign your app with the same certificate as previous versions.
For more information about the keystore, seeFinding your Keystore's MD5 or SHA1 Signature.
Sign the APK
When Create is clicked, a new key store (containing a newcertificate) will be saved and listed under Signing Identity as shownin the next screenshot. To publish an app on Google Play, clickCancel and go toPublishing to Google Play.To publish ad-hoc, select the signing identity to use for signing andclick Save As to publish the app for independent distribution. Forexample, the chimp signing identity (created earlier) is selectedin this screenshot:
Next, the Archive Manager displays the publishing progress. Whenthe publishing process completes, the Save As dialog opens to askfor a location where the generated .APK file is to bestored:
Navigate to the desired location and click Save. If the keypassword is unknown, the Signing Password dialog will appear toprompt for the password for the selected certificate:
After the signing process completes, click Open Distribution:
This causes Windows Explorer to open the folder containing thegenerated APK file. At this point, Visual Studio has compiled theXamarin.Android application into an APK that is ready for distribution.The following screenshot displays an example of the ready-to-publishapp, MyApp.MyApp.apk:
As seen here, a new certificate was added to the key store. To publishan app on Google Play, click Cancel and go toPublishing to Google Play.Otherwise click Next to publish the app ad-hoc (for independentdistribution) as shown in this example:
Openssl Generate Keystore And Truststore
The Publish as Ad Hoc dialog provides a summary of the signed appbefore it is published. If this information is correct, clickPublish.
The Output APK file dialog will save the APK to the path specified. Click Save.
Next, enter the password for the certificate (the password that wasused in the Create New Certificate dialog) and click OK:
The APK is signed with the certificate and saved to the specifiedlocation. Click Reveal in Finder:
This opens the finder to the location of the signed APK file:
The APK is ready to copy from the finder and send to its finaldestination. It's a good idea to install the APK on an Android deviceand try it out before distribution. SeePublishing Independentlyfor more information about publishing an ad-hoc APK.
Next Steps
Generate Keystore Java
After the application package has been signed for release, it must bepublished. The following sections describe several ways to publishan application.