This guide describes how to distribute AAB builds to testers using
fastlane,
an open source platform that automates building and releasing iOS and Android
apps. It follows simple instructions defined in a Fastfile
. After you set up
fastlane and your Fastfile
, you can integrate App Distribution with your fastlane
configuration.
App Distribution integrates with Google Play’s internal app sharing service to process the AABs you upload and serve APKs that are optimized for your testers' device configurations. Distributing AABs lets you do the following:
Run optimized APKs (served by Google Play) that are optimized to your testers' devices.
Uncover and debug device-specific issues.
Test app bundle features like Play Feature Delivery and Play Asset Delivery.
Reduce the size of downloads for your testers.
Required permissions
To upload AABs to App Distribution, you must link your Firebase app to an app in Google Play. You must have the required level of access to perform these actions.
If you don't have the necessary Firebase access, you can ask a Firebase project Owner to assign you the applicable role via the Firebase console IAM settings. If you have questions about accessing your Firebase project, including finding or assigning an Owner, review the "Permissions and access to Firebase projects" FAQs.
The following table applies to linking a Firebase app to an app in Google Play, as well as uploading AABs.
Action in Firebase console | Required IAM permission | IAM role(s) that include required permissions by default | Additional required role(s) |
---|---|---|---|
Link a Firebase app to an app in Google Play | firebase.playLinks.update
|
One of the following roles: | Access to a Google Play developer account as Admin |
Upload AABs to App Distribution | firebaseappdistro.releases.update
|
One of the following roles: | –– |
Before you begin
If you haven't already, add Firebase to your Android project. At the end of this workflow, you'll have a Firebase Android App in your Firebase project.
If you aren't using any other Firebase products, you only need to create a project and register your app. If you decide to use additional products, be sure to complete all of the steps in Add Firebase to your Android project.
To create a Firebase link to Google Play and to upload AABs, make sure that your app meets the following requirements:
The app in Google Play and the Firebase Android app are both registered using the same package name.
The app in Google Play is set up on the app dashboard and is distributed to one of the Google Play tracks (Internal testing, Closed testing, Open testing, or Production).
The app's review in Google Play is complete and the app is published. Your app is published if the App status column displays one of the following statuses: Internal testing (not Draft internal testing), Closed testing, Open testing, or Production.
Link your Firebase Android App to your Google Play developer account:
In the Firebase console, go to your
, then select the Integrations tab. Project settings On the Google Play card, click Link.
If you already have links to Google Play, click Manage instead.Follow the on-screen instructions to enable the App Distribution integration and select which Firebase Android Apps to link to Google Play.
Learn more about linking to Google Play.
Step 1. Set up fastlane
To add App Distribution to your fastlane configuration, run the following command from the root of your Android project:
fastlane add_plugin firebase_app_distribution
If the command prompts you with an option, select
Option 3: RubyGems.org
.
Step 2. Authenticate with Firebase
Before you can use the fastlane plugin, you must first authenticate with your Firebase project in one of the following ways. By default, the fastlane plugin looks for credentials from the Firebase CLI if no other authentication method is used.
Authenticating with a service account allows you to flexibly use the plugin with your continuous integration (CI) system. There are two ways to provide service account credentials:
- Pass your service account key file to the
firebase_app_distribution
action. You might find this method convenient if you already have your service account key file in your build environment. - Set the environment variable
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS
to point to your service account key file. You might prefer this method if you already have Application Default Credentials (ADC) configured for another Google service (e.g., Google Cloud).
- On the Google Cloud console, select your project and create a new service account.
- Add the Firebase App Distribution Admin role.
- Create a private json key and move the key to a location accessible to your build environment. Be sure to keep this file somewhere safe, as it grants administrator access to App Distribution in your Firebase project.
- Skip this step if you created your app after September 20, 2019: In the Google APIs console, enable the Firebase App Distribution API. When prompted, select the project with the same name as your Firebase project.
Provide or locate your service account credentials:
- To pass your service account key to your lane's
firebase_app_distribution
action, set theservice_credentials_file
parameter with the path to your private key JSON file To locate your credentials with ADC, set the environment variable
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS
to the path for the private key JSON file. For example:export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/absolute/path/to/credentials/file.json
For more information on authenticating with ADC, read Providing credentials to your application.
- To pass your service account key to your lane's
See Log in with the Firebase CLI for instructions on how to authenticate your project.
Step 3. Set up your Fastfile and distribute your app
- In a
./fastlane/Fastfile
lane, add afirebase_app_distribution
block. Use the following parameters to configure the distribution:firebase_app_distribution parameters app
Required: Your app's Firebase App ID. You can find the App ID in the Firebase console, on the General Settings page.
app: "1:1234567890:android:0a1b2c3d4e5f67890"
firebase_cli_token
A refresh token that's printed when you authenticate your CI environment with the Firebase CLI (read Use the CLI with CI systems for more information).
service_credentials_file
The path to your Google service account json file. See above for how to authenticate using service account credentials.
android_artifact_type
Specifies the Android file type (APK or AAB).
android_artifact_path
Replaces
apk_path
(deprecated). Absolute path to the APK or AAB file you want to upload. If unspecified, fastlane determines the file's location from the lane in which the file was generated.release_notes
release_notes_file
Release notes for this build.
You can either specify the release notes directly:
release_notes: "Text of release notes"
Or, specify the path to a plain text file:
release_notes_file: "/path/to/release-notes.txt"
testers
testers_file
The email addresses of the testers you want to invite.
You can specify the testers as a comma-separated list of email addresses:
testers: "[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]"
Or, you can specify the path to a plain text file containing a comma-separated list of email addresses:
testers_file: "/path/to/testers.txt"
groups
groups_file
The tester groups you want to invite (refer to Manage testers). Groups are specified using
group aliases , which you can look up in the Firebase console.You can specify the groups as a comma-separated list:
groups: "qa-team, trusted-testers"
Or, you can specify the path to a plain text file containing a comma-separated list of group names:
groups_file: "/path/to/groups.txt"
test_devices
test_devices_file
The following distribution types are part of the Automated tester beta feature.
The test devices you want to distribute builds to (refer to Automated tests).
You can specify the test devices as a semicolon-separated list of test devices:
test_devices: "model=shiba,version=34,locale=en,orientation=portrait;model=b0q,version=33,locale=en,orientation=portrait"
Or, you can specify the path to a plain text file containing a semicolon-separated list of test devices:
test_devices_file: "/path/to/test-devices.txt"
test_username
The username for automatic login to be used during automated tests.
test_password
test_password_file
The password for automatic login to be used during automated tests.
Or, you can specify the path to a plain text file containing a password:
test_password_file: "/path/to/test-password.txt"
test_username_resource
Resource name for the username field for automatic login to be used during automated tests.
test_password_resource
Resource name for the password field for automatic login to be used during automated tests.
test_non_blocking
Run automated tests asynchronously. Visit the Firebase console for the automatic test results.
debug
A boolean flag. You can set this to
true
to print verbose debug output.
platform :android do desc "My awesome app" lane :distribute do build_android_app(task: "bundle", ...) # build_android_app is a built-in fastlane action. release = firebase_app_distribution( app: "1:123456789:android:abcd1234", testers: "[email protected], [email protected]", release_notes: "Lots of amazing new features to test out!", android_artifact_type: "AAB" ) end end
To make the build available to testers, run your lane:
fastlane <lane>
The return value of the action is a hash representing the uploaded release.
This hash is also available using lane_context[SharedValues::FIREBASE_APP_DISTRO_RELEASE]
.
For more information about the available fields in this hash, see the
REST API documentation.
The fastlane plugin outputs the following links after the release upload. These links help you manage binaries and ensure that testers and other developers have the right release:
- A link to the Firebase console displaying a single release. You can share this link with other developers in your org.
- A link to the release in the tester experience (Android native app) that lets testers view release notes and install the app onto their device. The tester needs access to the release in order to use the link.
- A signed link that directly downloads and installs the app binary (APK or AAB file). The link expires after one hour.
After you distribute your build, it is available in the App Distribution dashboard of the Firebase console for 150 days. When the build is 30 days from expiring, an expiration notice appears in the console and in the tester's list of builds on their test device.
Testers who weren't previously invited to test the app receive email invitations to get started. Existing testers receive email notifications that a new build is ready to test. To learn how to install the test app, see tester set up guide. You can monitor the status of each tester to determine whether they accepted the invitation and whether they downloaded the app in the Firebase console.
(Optional) To automatically increment your build number every time you create
a new release in App Distribution, you can use the
firebase_app_distribution_get_latest_release
action
and, for example, the increment_version_code
fastlane plugin.
The following code provides an example of how to automatically increment your
build number:
lane :increment_version do
latest_release = firebase_app_distribution_get_latest_release(
app: "<your Firebase app ID>"
)
increment_version_code({ version_code: latest_release[:buildVersion].to_i 1 })
end
To learn more about the firebase_app_distribution_get_latest_release
action,
see Get information about your app's latest release.
Step 4 (Optional). Managing testers for the distribution
You can add and remove testers from your project or group using your Fastfile
file or by directly running fastlane actions. Running actions directly
overrides the values set in your Fastfile
.
Once a tester is added to your Firebase project, you can add them to individual releases. Testers who are removed from your Firebase project no longer have access to releases in your project, but they might retain access to your releases for a window of time.
If you have a large number of testers you should consider using groups.
Use Fastfile
# Use lanes to add or remove testers from a project. lane(:add_testers) do firebase_app_distribution_add_testers( emails: "[email protected],[email protected]" # or file: "/path/to/testers.txt" group_alias: "qa-team" # (Optional) add testers to this group ) end lane(:remove_testers) do firebase_app_distribution_remove_testers( emails: "[email protected],[email protected]" # or file: "/path/to/testers.txt" group_alias: "qa-team" # (Optional) remove testers from this group only ) end
# Add or remove testers with the terminal $ fastlane add_testers $ fastlane remove_testers
Run fastlane actions
fastlane run firebase_app_distribution_create_group display_name:"QA Team" alias:"qa-team"
fastlane run firebase_app_distribution_add_testers group_alias:"qa-team" emails:"[email protected],[email protected]"
fastlane run firebase_app_distribution_remove_testers group_alias:"qa-team" emails:"[email protected],[email protected]"
fastlane run firebase_app_distribution_delete_group alias:"qa-team"
You can also specify testers using --file="/path/to/testers.txt
instead of
--emails
.
The firebase_app_distribution_add_testers
and
firebase_app_distribution_remove_testers
tasks also accept the following
arguments:
project_name
: Your Firebase project number.group_alias
(optional): If specified, the testers are added to (or removed from) specified group.service_credentials_file
: The path to your Google service credentials file.firebase_cli_token
: Auth token for Firebase CLI.
The service_credentials_file
and the firebase_cli_token
are the same
arguments used by the upload action.
Step 5 (Optional). Get information about your app's latest release
You can use the firebase_app_distribution_get_latest_release
action
to fetch information about your app's latest release in App Distribution,
including app version information, release notes, and creation time. Use cases
include automatically increasing the version and carrying over the release
notes from the previous release.
The return value of the action is a hash representing the latest release.
This hash is also available using lane_context[SharedValues::FIREBASE_APP_DISTRO_LATEST_RELEASE]
.
For more information about the available fields in this hash, see the
REST API documentation.
Parameters
firebase_app_distribution_get_latest_release parameters | |
---|---|
app
|
Required: Your app's Firebase App ID. You can find the App ID in the Firebase console, on the General Settings page. app: "1:1234567890:android:0a1b2c3d4e5f67890" |
firebase_cli_token
|
A refresh token that's printed when you authenticate your CI environment with the Firebase CLI (read Use the CLI with CI systems for more information). |
service_credentials_file
|
The path to your Google service account json file. See above for how to authenticate using service account credentials. |
debug
|
A boolean flag. You can set this to |
Next steps
Implement in-app feedback to make it easy for testers to send feedback about your app (including screenshots).
Learn how to display in-app alerts to your testers when new builds of your app are available to install.
Learn best practices for distributing Android apps to QA testers using CI/CD.