💡
BETA mode. Your feedback is highly appreciated!

Circle CI pipeline allows you to build and upload both Android & iOS apps to TestApp.io to notify your testers for testing and feedback.

Configuration

Key Description Env Var(s) Default
api_token You can get it from https://portal.testapp.io/settings/api-credentials TESTAPPIO_API_TOKEN
app_id You can get it from your app page at https://portal.testapp.io/apps TESTAPPIO_APP_ID
release It can be either both or Android or iOS TESTAPPIO_RELEASE
apk Path to the Android APK file TESTAPPIO_ANDROID_PATH
ipa Path to the iOS IPA file TESTAPPIO_IOS_PATH
release_notes Manually add the release notes to be displayed for the testers TESTAPPIO_RELEASE_NOTES
git_release_notes Collect release notes from the latest git commit message to be displayed for the testers: true or false TESTAPPIO_GIT_RELEASE_NOTES true
git_commit_id Include the last commit ID in the release notes (works with both release notes options): true or false TESTAPPIO_GIT_COMMIT_ID false
notify Send notifications to your team members about this release: true or false TESTAPPIO_NOTIFY false

Check TA-CLI for more info


iOS

Circle CI provides macOS executors to CI/CD pipeline, and it has Fastlane installed already, which means we don't need to install Fastlane in our pipeline.

We will use the testappio-ios-sample-app project to demonstrate how to use our ta-cli tool to upload your IPA file to TestApp.io

Setup Circle CI project

Setup two project environment variables as below.

Project Settings->Environment Variables->Add Environment Variable

TESTAPPIO_API_TOKEN=
TESTAPPIO_APP_ID=

Check the configuration for more info

Configure iOS project for Fastlane

  1. Install Fastlane
    The below command works for most cases, however, if not, please see Setup Fastlane
bundle install fastlane
  1. Init Fastlane

In the iOS project folder

bundle exec fastlane init

And follow the wizard, it will create ./fastlane/Appfile with your Apple ID and team etc.

  1. Init Match

Fastlane match is a tool for generating all necessary certificates and provisioning profiles and storing them in a Git repository encrypted.

Create a private empty Github repository for storing certificates and provisioning profiles.

bundle exec fastlane match init

Follow the instruction, give the new empty Git repository when asked, and it will create the Matchfile

💡
NOTE: Please use the Git address if integrating with Circle CI
  1. Generate the certificate and provision profile
bundle exec fastlane match adhoc

You can use adhoc, development, and enterprise

Following the instruction, it will generate certificates/profiles and store them in the Git repository specified in the previous step.

💡
Note: you will be asked to provide a matching password which is used for encrypting the certificates and profiles on the Git repository.
  1. Select provisioning profiles in Xcode

The newly created certificates and profiles should now be possible to select inside our project.

Open up Xcode and go to Signing & Capabilities.

⚠️
Note: Please don't choose Automatically manage signing
  1. Using testappio plugin for Fastlane
    In our project folder:
bundle exec fastlane add_plugin testappio
  1. Upload IPA file to TestApp.io
    Add an action, upload_to_testappio the lane looks like below:
# fastlane/fastfile
default_platform :ios

platform :ios do

  before_all do
    setup_circle_ci
  end

  ...

  desc "Build the adhoc and upload to TestApp.io"
  lane :beta do
    match(type: "adhoc")
    gym(export_method: "ad-hoc")
    upload_to_testappio(
      release_notes: "My release notes here...", #TESTAPPIO_RELEASE_NOTES
      git_release_notes: true, #TESTAPPIO_GIT_RELEASE_NOTES
      git_commit_id: false, #TESTAPPIO_GIT_COMMIT_ID
      notify: true #TESTAPPIO_NOTIFY
    )
  end
end

More info for Fastlane plugin: https://help.testapp.io/fastlane-plugin/#testappio-actions

  1. Add one step in the pipeline to install the plugin
    In Circle CI's config.yml, add bundle install, e.g.
# ...
adhoc:
    macos:
      xcode: 12.5.1
    steps:
      # ...
      - run: bundle install
      - run: bundle exec fastlane adhoc
# ...
  1. Make sure that the codesign is configured to "manual" or the gym step of the Circle CI pipeline would fail with the error "no provisioning profile found"

  2. Push all the changes to the Git repository

Circle CI will build your project and upload your IPA file to TestApp.io for distribution 🎉


Android Project

We will use the testappio-android-sample project to demonstrate how to use our ta-cli tool to upload your APK file to TestApp.io

Setup Circle CI project

Setup two project environment variables as below.

Project Settings->Environment Variables->Add Environment Variable

TESTAPPIO_API_TOKEN=
TESTAPPIO_APP_ID=

Check the configuration for more info

Create the Circle CI pipeline

Create .circleci/config.yml file under to project directory and copy the below snippet.

version: 2.1

orbs:
  android: circleci/[email protected]

jobs:
  build-and-upload:
    executor:
      name: android/android-machine
    environment:  #You can change the following
      release_notes: "My release notes here..."
      git_release_notes: false
      git_commit_id: false
      notify: true
    steps:
      # Checkout the code as the first step.
      - checkout
      
      # And next run the debug build
      - run:
          name: Assemble debug build
          command: |
            ./gradlew assembleDebug
      - run:
          name: upload to TestApp.io
          command: |
            export INSTALL_DIR=/tmp
            curl -Ls https://github.com/testappio/cli/releases/latest/download/install | bash
            $INSTALL_DIR/ta-cli publish --api_token=$TESTAPPIO_API_TOKEN --app_id=$TESTAPPIO_APP_ID --release="android" --apk=./app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk --release_notes=$release_notes --notify=$notify --git_release_notes=$git_release_notes --git_commit_id=$git_commit_id --source="Circle CI"   
            
workflows:
  default: 
    jobs:
      - build-and-upload

If you already have the .circleci/config.yml file, you could copy the build-and-upload job to your pipeline.


If you want to choose the release version job:

      # And next run the release build
      - run:
          name: Assemble release build
          command: |
            ./gradlew assembleRelease
      - run:
          name: upload to TestApp.io
          command: |
            export INSTALL_DIR=/tmp
            curl -Ls https://github.com/testappio/cli/releases/latest/download/install | bash
            $INSTALL_DIR/ta-cli publish --api_token=$TESTAPPIO_API_TOKEN --app_id=$TESTAPPIO_APP_ID --release="android" --apk=./app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk --release_notes=$release_notes --notify=$notify --git_release_notes=$git_release_notes --git_commit_id=$git_commit_id --source="Circle CI" 

Feedback & Support

Developers built TestApp.io to solve the pain of app distribution for mobile app development teams.

Join our community for feedback and support.

Happy releasing 🎉