Notarizing InD plugins for Catalina for CC2020

[asaxena]

Hi,

Our plugins for CC2020 are being quarnatined in Catalina. Based on my research, it appears, I will have to notarize the plugins. However, the article at https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-plugin-notarization.html mentions that one of the prerequisites is XCode 10.

We are building our plugins using XCode 9.3 (as against XCode 9.2 mentioned in the docs).

So, now, my question is if it is possible to notarize CC2020 plugins for Catalina?

Thanks,

[asaxena]

From the docs CC2020 is supported on Catalina though, but the notarization article seems to suggest some tension b/w where CC2020 is supported and where CC2020 plugins can be notarized, unless I am missing something obvious.

[asaxena]

Please suggest if I need to add to add further details to my query and I will try to provide the same.

Thanks,

[Test Screen Name]

Notarization is required for everything executable in Catalina. But you cannot do it from within the XCode 9 UI, because it's a new feature of XCode 10. There is also a command line interface ("altool" etc.; check the signing requirements, they are very specific)

[asaxena]

Ok. Thanks for the information. So, for InD Plugin certification, if I stick to the steps in the Adobe official documentation at https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-plugin-notarization.html, then it seems to me that CC2020 plugins can't be certified for Catalina (because of XCode 9.2 dependency).

Is altool or other mechanisms suggested for CC2020 plugins?

Thanks

[Dirk Becker · Accepted solution]

Code sign your plug-ins with your certificate using Xcode 9.2, straight within the build process. Be it CC 2019, be it 2020 plug-ins. As Xcode 9.2 does not run in 10.15, I keep the entire build on a 10.13 (virtual) machine.

Then use altool from a separate Xcode 10 to upload the resulting product to Apple for their notarization service. Xcode 10 does not like 10.13, so for me this is a separate virtual machine with 10.15.

Right now my choice of product is a zip file with multiple plug-ins, but it could also be an installer dmg following the kb article.

For the final step of stapling - when I last looked that was not supported for zip files. Otherwise I'd do it on the same Xcode 10 machine.

Btw, even pre 10.15 installations can benefit from code signing - while it is not required in general, some Apple frameworks actually check it and error out otherwise.

[asaxena]

Thank you for a very detailed and comprehensive advice.