fastlane-android.md

Fastlane Android

To start using fastlane in android, we need a couple of steps. in this document we shall discuss them and explain the fastfile in full details.

Installing Fastlane

To do so, first we need to download ruby, the large one ruby-dev

Then we download Bundler using gem install bundler

we need to create a new Gemfile

in it we write

source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "fastlane"

Now we install fastlane using

bundle install

Now we have fastlane installed. to configure it we start by creating a folder named fastlane. in this folder we create a file named Fastfile and inside we write:

default_platform(:android)
platform :android do
  desc "Submit a new build to alpha Track on Play"
  lane :alpha do
    gradle(
      gradle_path: "/usr/bin/gradle",
      task: "assemble",
      build_type: 'Debug'
    )
    gradle(
      gradle_path: "/usr/bin/gradle",
      task: "assemble",
      build_type: 'Profile'
    )
    gradle(
      gradle_path: "/usr/bin/gradle",
      task: "assemble",
      build_type: 'Release'
    )
  end
end

Notice that all these pipes are gradle pipes. and that we repeated the build 3 times using debug, profile and release. this is because of a bug in flutter build apk where when it can't find the debug files it returns an error.

This might be fixed in future updates, I haven't tested them though!

In case we wanted build an aab or and app bundle we can use the appropriate pipeline using:

default_platform(:android)
platform :android do
  desc "Submit a new build to alpha Track on Play"
  lane :alpha do
    gradle(
      gradle_path: "/usr/bin/gradle",
      task: "bundle",
      build_type: 'Release'
    )
  end
end

The error with APKs doesn't show here, so using this simple script is enough.

NOTE: we can use fastlane plugins like supply. but the app should be created manually before sending the app. and we need an additional values here.

Appfile

in this simple config file named appfile located in the fastlane folder, we can use this script:

json_key_file("play-store-credentials.json")
package_name("my.package.name")

Note that play-store-credentials.json can be supplied to the CI system from a GitHub secret and that this secret is actually a service account credential created from Google Cloud Console and granted access to the play publish console by the admin!