New to fastlane? Click here to open the installation & setup instructions first

1) Install the latest Xcode command line tools

xcode-select --install

2) Install fastlane

# Using RubyGems
sudo gem install fastlane -NV

# Alternatively using Homebrew
brew install fastlane

3) Navigate to your project and run

fastlane init

More Details

Deploy to Beta distribution services using fastlane

If you would like to distribute your beta builds to Google Play, please make sure you've done the steps from Setting up supply before continuing.

Building your app

fastlane takes care of building your app by delegating to your existing Gradle build. Just add the following to your Fastfile:

lane :beta do
  # Adjust the `build_type` and `flavor` params as needed to build the right APK for your setup
  gradle(
    task: 'assemble',
    build_type: 'Release'
  )

  # ...
end

Try running the lane with:

fastlane beta

When that completes you should have the appropriate APK ready to go in the standard output directory.

To get a list of all available parameters for the gradle action, run:

fastlane action gradle

Uploading your app

After building your app, it's ready to be uploaded to a beta testing service of your choice. The beauty of fastlane is that you can easily switch beta providers, or even upload to multiple at once, with a minimum of configuration. Follow that with a notification posted to the group messaging service of your choice to let the team know that you've shipped.

lane :beta do
  gradle(task: 'assemble', build_type: 'Release')
  upload_to_play_store(track: 'beta')
  slack(message: 'Successfully distributed a new beta build')
end

Supported beta testing services

Google Play

In order to distribute to Google Play with upload_to_play_store you will need to have your Google credentials set up. Make sure you've gone through Setting up supply before continuing!

lane :beta do
  # ...
  gradle(
    task: 'assemble',
    build_type: 'Release'
  )
  upload_to_play_store(track: 'beta')
  # ...
end

To get a list of all available options, run:

fastlane action upload_to_play_store

Firebase App Distribution

Install the Firebase App Distribution plugin:

fastlane add_plugin firebase_app_distribution

Authenticate with Firebase by running the firebase_app_distribution_login action (or using one of the other authentication methods):

fastlane run firebase_app_distribution_login

Then add the firebase_app_distribution action to your lane:

lane :beta do
  # ...
  gradle(
    task: 'assemble',
    build_type: 'Release'
  )

  firebase_app_distribution(
    app: "1:123456789:android:abcd1234",
    groups: "qa-team, trusted-testers"
  )
  # ...
end

For more information and options (such as adding release notes) see the full Getting Started guide.

More information about additional supported beta testing services can be found in the list of "Beta" actions

Release Notes

Generate based on Git commits

You take the time to write great Git commit messages, right? Why not take advantage of them to automatically summarize the work done for your latest beta release?

lane :beta do
  # ...

  # Generate the changelog based on commit messages since your last tag
  changelog_from_git_commits

  # The crashlytics action knows how to use the generated changelog automatically
  crashlytics(
    api_token: '[insert_key_here]',
    build_secret: '[insert_secret_here]'
  )
end

You can get a list of all available options by running fastlane action changelog_from_git_commits, but here are some examples:

changelog_from_git_commits(
  between: ['7b092b3', 'HEAD'], # Optional, lets you specify a revision/tag range between which to collect commit info
  merge_commit_filtering: 'exclude_merges' # Optional, lets you filter out merge commits
)

Prompt for changelog

You can automatically be asked for the changelog in your terminal using the prompt action:

lane :beta do
  # Variant 1: Ask for a one line input
  changelog = prompt(text: "Changelog: ")

  # Variant 2: Ask for a multi-line input
  #   The user confirms their input by typing `END` and Enter
  changelog = prompt(
    text: "Changelog: ",
    multi_line_end_keyword: "END"
  )

  crashlytics(
    api_token: '[insert_key_here]',
    build_secret: '[insert_secret_here]',
    notes: changelog
  )
end

Fetch the changelog from the file system or remote server

You can fetch values from anywhere, including the file system and remote server, by writing code in your Fastfile

lane :beta do
  # Variant 1: Read from file system
  #   note the `..`, since fastlane runs in the _fastlane_ directory
  changelog = File.read("../Changelog.txt")

  # Variant 2: Fetch data from a remote web server
  changelog = download(url: "https://lookatmycms.com/changelog.txt")

  crashlytics(
    api_token: '[insert_key_here]',
    build_secret: '[insert_secret_here]',
    notes: changelog
  )
end