Publishing and deployment

How to set up publishing and build status notifications in codemagic.yaml

All generated artifacts can be published to external services. The available integrations currently are email, Slack, Google Play and App Store Connect. It is also possible to publish elsewhere with custom scripts, see the examples below.

Integrations for publishing and notifications

Codemagic has out-of-the-box support for publishing to the services listed below. Read more about each individual integration and see the configuration examples below.

Email

If the build finishes successfully, release notes (if passed) and the generated artifacts will be published to the provided email address(es). If the build fails, an email with a link to build logs will be sent.

If you don’t want to receive an email notification on build success or failure, you can set success to false or failure to false accordingly.

publishing:
  email:
    recipients:
      - name@example.com
    notify:
      success: false     # To not receive a notification when a build succeeds
      failure: false     # To not receive a notification when a build fails

Slack

Integrate Slack publishing into your Codemagic build pipeline to get notified when a build starts and receive build artifacts or logs when the build finishes.

Connecting your Slack workspace

To set up publishing to Slack, you first need to connect your Slack workspace in User settings > Integrations > Slack for personal apps and in Teams > Your_team > Team integrations > Slack for team apps.

Click Connect next to the Slack integration. You will be then redirected to an authorization page. Review the requested permissions and click Allow to give Codemagic Slack app access to your Slack workspace and allow it post build status updates and build artifacts (see also our privacy policy).

After you have successfully authorized Codemagic and connected your workspace, you will be redirected back to Codemagic. You can disconnect your Slack workspace anytime by clicking Disconnect.

Configuring Slack publishing

The Slack channel for publishing is configured separately for each workflow in the publishing section of codemagic.yaml (refer here if you’re configuring app settings in the Flutter workflow editor).

If the build finishes successfully, release notes (if passed) and the generated artifacts will be published to the specified channel. If the build fails, a link to the build logs is published. When you set notify_on_build_start to true, the channel will be notified when a build starts.

If you don’t want to receive a Slack notification on build success or failure, you can set success to false or failure to false accordingly.

publishing:
  slack:
    channel: '#channel-name'
    notify_on_build_start: true    # To receive a notification when a build starts
    notify:
      success: false               # To not receive a notification when a build succeeds
      failure: false               # To not receive a notification when a build fails

Google Play

Codemagic enables you to automatically publish your app either to one of the predefined tracks (internal, alpha, beta and production) on Google Play, or to your custom closed testing tracks. In order to do so, you will need to set up a service account in Google Play Console and add the JSON key file to your Codemagic configuration file, see how to set up a service account. The proper way to add your keys to codemagic.yaml is to encrypt the contents of the key file and add the encrypted value into the configuration file.

If your application supports in-app updates Codemagic allows setting the update priority. Otherwise, in_app_update_priority can be omitted or set to 0.

In addition, Codemagic supports staged releases, allowing users to choose which fraction of the testers or users get access to the application. To release to everyone, omit rollout_fraction from codemagic.yaml.

publishing:
  google_play:                        # For Android app
    credentials: Encrypted(...)       # JSON key file for Google Play service account
    track: alpha                      # Name of the track: internal, alpha, beta, production, internal app sharing, or your custom track name
    in_app_update_priority: 3         # Priority of the release (only set if in-app updates are supported): integer in range [0, 5]
    rollout_fraction: 0.25            # Rollout fraction (set only if releasing to a fraction of users): value between (0, 1)
    changes_not_sent_for_review: true # To be used ONLY if your app cannot be sent for review automatically *

If you are getting a 400 error related to app being in draft status it means you need to promote your draft build to the next level up of testing tracks. Play Console will show you how to do this. You’ll need to go through the steps, fill out questionnaires, upload various screen shots and then after approval you can move to the Alpha testing track and Codemagic will publish (publishing builds on Draft status is not supported).

If you are getting an error related to permissions then it is likely an issue related to the service account that has been created. Go through the steps of creating a service account once more carefully see how to set up a service account.

App Store Connect

Codemagic enables you to automatically publish your iOS or macOS app to App Store Connect for beta testing with TestFlight or distributing the app to users via App Store. Codemagic uses the App Store Connect API key for authenticating communication with Apple’s services. You can read more about generating an API key from Apple’s documentation page.

Please note that

1. for App Store Connect publishing, the provided key needs to have App Manager permission,
2. and in order to submit your iOS application to App Store Connect, it must be code signed with a distribution certificate.

publishing:
  app_store_connect:                  # For iOS or macOS app
    api_key: Encrypted(...)           # Contents of the API key, can also reference environment variable such as $APP_STORE_CONNECT_PRIVATE_KEY
    key_id: 3MD9688D9K                # Alphanumeric value that identifies the API key, can also reference environment variable such as $APP_STORE_CONNECT_KEY_IDENTIFIER
    issuer_id: 21d78e2f-b8ad-...      # Alphanumeric value that identifies who created the API key, can also reference environment variable such as $APP_STORE_CONNECT_ISSUER_ID
    submit_to_testflight: true        # Optional boolean, defaults to false. Whether or not to submit the uploaded build to TestFlight to automatically enroll your build to beta testers.  

GitHub releases

Publishing GitHub releases is available for GitHub repositories only.

Publishing happens only for successful builds triggered on tag creation and is unavailable for manual builds.

1. Create a personal access token in GitHub as described here.
2. Add the personal access token as an environment variable with the name GITHUB_TOKEN in the environment section.
3. In the triggering section, configure triggering on tag creation. Don’t forget to add a branch pattern and ensure the webhook exists.

triggering:
  events:
    - tag

4. Add the following script after the build or to publishing scripts that publishes the artifacts with tag builds. Edit the placeholders like your application name and the path to build artifacts to match your setup.

   #!/usr/bin/env zsh
   
   # Publish only for tag builds
   if [ -z ${FCI_TAG} ]; then
   echo "Not a tag build will not publish GitHub release"
   exit 0
   fi
   
   # See more options about `gh release create` usage from GitHub CLI
   # official docs at https://cli.github.com/manual/gh_release_create
   
   gh release create "${FCI_TAG}" \
       --title "<Your Application Name> ${FCI_TAG}" \
       --notes-file changelog.md \
       path/to/build-artifact.ipa \
       path/to/build-artifact.apk
   
   # Note that you don't need to include title and changelog if you do not want to.
   # Any number of artifacts can be included with the release.
   

Publishing a Flutter package to pub.dev

In order to get publishing permissions, first you will need to log in to pub.dev locally. It can be done with running pub publish --dry-run. After that credentials.json will be generated which you can use to log in without the need of Google confirmation through browser.

credentials.json can be found in the pub cache directory (~/.pub-cache/credentials.json on MacOS and Linux, %APPDATA%\Pub\Cache\credentials.json on Windows)

- echo $CREDENTIALS | base64 --decode > "$FLUTTER_ROOT/.pub-cache/credentials.json"
- flutter pub publish --dry-run
- flutter pub publish -f

Publishing an app to Firebase App Distribution

If you use a Firebase service, encrypt google-services.json as ANDROID_FIREBASE_SECRET environment variable for Android or GoogleService-Info.plist as IOS_FIREBASE_SECRET for iOS.

echo $ANDROID_FIREBASE_SECRET | base64 --decode > $FCI_BUILD_DIR/android/app/google-services.json
echo $IOS_FIREBASE_SECRET | base64 --decode > $FCI_BUILD_DIR/ios/Runner/GoogleService-Info.plist

Publishing an app using Firebase CLI

Make sure to encrypt FIREBASE_TOKEN as an environment variable. Check documentation for details.

Android

- name: Publish the app to Firebase App Distribution
  script: |
    apkPath=$(find build -name "*.apk" | head -1)
    if [[ -z ${apkPath} ]]
    then
      echo "No apks were found, skip publishing to Firebase App Distribution"
    else
      echo "Publishing $apkPath to Firebase App Distribution"
      firebase appdistribution:distribute --app <your_android_application_firebase_id> --groups <your_android_testers_group> $apkPath
    fi    

iOS

- name: Publish the app to Firebase App Distribution
  script: |
    ipaPath=$(find build -name "*.ipa" | head -1)
    if [[ -z ${ipaPath} ]]
    then
      echo "No ipas were found, skip publishing to Firebase App Distribution"
    else
      echo "Publishing $ipaPath to Firebase App Distribution"
      firebase appdistribution:distribute --app <your_ios_application_firebase_id> --groups <your_ios_testers_group> $ipaPath
    fi    

Publishing an app with Fastlane

Make sure to encrypt FIREBASE_TOKEN as an environment variable. Check documentation for details.

Before running a lane, you should install Fastlane Firebase app distribution plugin

- name: Install fastlane-plugin-firebase_app_distribution
  script: |
    gem install bundler
    sudo gem install fastlane-plugin-firebase_app_distribution --user-install    

Then you need to call a lane. This code is similar for Android and iOS.

Android

- name: Execute fastlane android publishing task
  script: |
    cd android
    bundle install
    bundle exec fastlane <your_android_lane>    

iOS

- name: Execute fastlane ios publishing task
  script: |
    cd ios
    bundle install
    bundle exec fastlane <your_ios_lane>    

Publishing an Android app with Gradle

To authorize an application for Firebase App Distribution, use Google service account. Encrypt and add to environment variables these credentials (the file is named something like yourappname-6e632def9ad4.json) as GOOGLE_APP_CREDENTIALS. Specify the filepath in your build.gradle in firebaseAppDistribution as serviceCredentialsFile="your/file/path.json".

buildTypes {
    ...
    release {
        ...
        firebaseAppDistribution {
            ...
            serviceCredentialsFile="<your/file/path.json>"
        }
    }

Note that in case the credentials file is not specified in firebaseAppDistribution build type, it will search the filepath in GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable.

Decode application credentials for Firebase authorization:

echo $GOOGLE_APP_CREDENTIALS | base64 --decode > $FCI_BUILD_DIR/your/file/path.json

Build the application:

- echo "flutter.sdk=$HOME/programs/flutter" > "$FCI_BUILD_DIR/android/local.properties"
- flutter packages pub get
- flutter build apk --release

Call the gradlew task for distribution

- name: Distribute app to firebase with gradle plugin
  script: cd android && ./gradlew appDistributionUploadRelease

echo $GOOGLE_APP_CREDENTIALS | base64 --decode > /tmp/google-application-credentials.json

- name: Distribute app to firebase with gradle plugin
  script: |
    export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/tmp/google-application-credentials.json
    cd android && ./gradlew appDistributionUploadRelease    

Publishing web applications to Firebase Hosting

Publishing web applications to Firebase Hosting With Codemagic publishing to Firebase Hosting is a straight-forward process as the Firebase CLI is already pre-installed on our virtual machines. Please note that before trying to publish to Firebase Hosting, you will have to set it up for your project locally. You can find more information in the official documentation for Firebase.

1. To get started with adding Firebase Hosting to Codemagic, you will need to obtain your Firebase token. In order to do that, run firebase login:ci in your local terminal.
2. After running the command, your default browser should prompt for authorization to your Firebase project - when access is granted, the necessary token will appear in your terminal.
3. Copy and encrypt the token using the Codemagic UI.
4. Add your encrypted token to your .yaml file by setting it under your environment variables with the name FIREBASE_TOKEN.
5. Create a new script for publishing to Firebase Hosting in your scripts section of the .yaml file and add it right after the build step

- name: Publish to Firebase Hosting
  script: |
        firebase deploy --token "$FIREBASE_TOKEN"

When the build is successful, you can see your application published to Firebase Hosting. You can find the direct URL to the deployed build also from the log output in Codemagic UI:

✔  Deploy complete!

Project Console: https://console.firebase.google.com/project/your-project/overview
Hosting URL: https://your-project.web.app