Google Play publishing with codemagic.yaml

How to deploy an app to Google Play using codemagic.yaml

Codemagic enables you to automatically publish your android application to Google Play.

Codemagic enables you to automatically publish your app either to one of the predefined tracks on Google Play or to your custom closed testing tracks.

In order to do so, a service account is required when setting up publishing to Google Play. The service account JSON key file must be added to Codemagic to authenticate with these services.

Configure Google Play API access

1. To allow Codemagic to publish applications to Google Play, it is necessary to set up access using Google Play API.

2. In the Google Play Console, navigate to Setup > API access and click Learn how to create service accounts.
   
   This will lead you to the Google Cloud Platform.

3. In step 1, fill in the Service account details and click Create. The name of the service account will allow you to identify it among other service accounts you may have created.

4. In step 2, click the Select a role dropdown menu and choose the role. In this example we will use Service Account User as the desired role. Start typing the name of the role that you wish to add.
   
   

5. In step 3, you can leave the fields blank and click Done.

6. In the list of created service accounts, identify the account you have just created and click on the menu in the Actions column, then click Manage keys.
   
   

7. In the Keys section, click Add Key > Create new key. Make sure that the key type is set to JSON and click Create. Save the key file in a secure location to have it available.
   
   

8. Back in Google Play Console, navigate to Setup > API access and click Manage Play Console permissions next to the created account.
   
   

9. On the App permissions tab, add the applications you wish to grant access to.
   
   

10. Go with the default settings for app permissions and click Apply (financial data permissions can be left blank).
    
    

11. On the Account permissions tab, leave everything as it is. (There is NO need to grant the service account Admin access).

12. Finally, click Invite user to finish setting up the service account on Google Play. In the Invite user window, the Email address field is pre-filled. Under Permissions, the default ones are already selected. You can go with these. Click Invite user at the bottom of the page.
    
    

Configure publishing in codemagic.yaml

Once you make all the preparations as described above and configure publishing to Google Play, Codemagic will automatically distribute the app to Google Play every time you build the workflow.

1. Save the contents of the JSON key file as a secure environment variable in application or team settings:

   1. Open your Codemagic app settings, and go to the Environment variables tab.

   2. Enter the desired Variable name, e.g. GCLOUD_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CREDENTIALS.

   3. Copy and paste the key file content as Variable value.

   4. Enter the variable group name, e.g. google_credentials. Click the button to create the group.

   5. Make sure the Secure option is selected.

   6. Click the Add button to add the variable.

   7. Add the variable group to your codemagic.yaml file

          environment:
              groups:
              - google_credentials
          

2. Configure publishing section in codemagic.yaml to publish to Google Play:

publishing:
  google_play:
    # Contents of the JSON key file for Google Play service account saved
    # as a secure environment variable
    credentials: $GCLOUD_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CREDENTIALS
    
    # Name of the track internal, alpha, beta, production, internal app sharing,
    # or your custom track name
    track: alpha
    
    # Optional Priority of the release (only set if in-app updates are supported)
    # integer in range [0, 5]
    in_app_update_priority: 3

    # Optional. Rollout fraction (set only if releasing to a fraction of users)
    # value between (0, 1)
    rollout_fraction: 0.25

    # Optional boolean To be used ONLY if your app cannot be sent for review automatically *
    changes_not_sent_for_review: true

    # Optional boolean. Publish artifacts under a draft release.
    # Can not be used together with rollout_fraction. Defaults to false
    submit_as_draft: true

3. Codemagic enables you to automatically publish your app either to one of the tracks:

   • Internal — publish for internal testing and QA
   • Alpha — publish for testing with a small group of trusted users
   • Beta — publish for testing to a wider set of users
   • Production — release the app to production
   • Custom — release the app to a custom closed testing track

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. The field changes_not_sent_for_review is required if you are getting the error Changes cannot be sent for review automatically. Please set the query parameter changesNotSentForReview to true. Once committed, the changes in this edit can be sent for review from the Google Play Console UI.

7. If your changes are sent to review automatically, but the field is still set to true, you may get the error Changes are sent for review automatically. The query parameter changesNotSentForReview must not be set.

8. If you are getting a 400 error related to the app being in draft status, either enable publishing to draft by setting the value of submit_as_draft to true or promote the draft build up by a level to one of the testing tracks. Play Console will show you how to do this. You’ll need to go through the steps, fill out questionnaires, upload various screenshots, and then after approval, you can move to the Alpha testing track, and Codemagic will successfully publish.