fastlane

With fastlane, you can automate beta deployments and releases for iOS and Android apps. fastlane handles all involved tasks, such as generating screenshots, code signing, and releasing the application.

Important: This document includes references to a third-party product, fastlane. The user interface and usage of third-party products are subject to change without notice. For the latest published information about fastlane, see https://docs.fastlane.tools.

Get started

To set up fastlane, follow the instructions on how to install fastlane in the fastlane documentation.

Limitations

fastlane currently only runs on macOS.

Step-by-step instructions

The fastlane plugin for Perfecto allows you to automatically upload .ipa/.apk files to the Perfecto Media repository for testing of manual, automation, and developer tools in the Perfectocloud. It is available as a ruby gem here: https://rubygems.org/gems/fastlane-plugin-perfecto

To install the plugin:

  1. Make sure Ruby and fastlane are already installed.

  2. Add the fastlane plugin to your project by running the following command:

    Copy 
    fastlane add_plugin perfecto

For information on using the fastlane plugin, see this example Fastfile. Following is a sample action that you can add to your Fastfile to utilize the plugin.

Copy 
lane :test do
  perfecto(
    perfecto_cloudurl: ENV["PERFECTO_CLOUDURL"],
    perfecto_token: ENV["PERFECTO_TOKEN"],
    perfecto_media_location: ENV["PERFECTO_MEDIA_LOCATION"],
    file_path: ENV['GRADLE_APK_OUTPUT_PATH']
  )
end

where:

  • PERFECTO_CLOUDURL is the URL of your Perfecto cloud, such as demo.perfectomobile.com
  • PERFECTO_TOKEN is your Perfecto security token
  • PERFECTO_MEDIA_LOCATION is the location of the Perfecto media repository to upload the file specified by the file_path key, such as PUBLIC:Samples/sample.ipa

  • file_path is the location of your preferred .ipa/.apk file to be uploaded to the Perfecto media repository

    ENV['GRADLE_APK_OUTPUT_PATH'] is only applicable to Android projects.

You pass the values for these keys either by means of an .env file inside the fastlane folder or through environment variables.

The following image shows a sample .env file.

Combinations with other tools and integrations

You can use fastlane in combination with other tools and integrations that Perfecto offers. The following sample project demonstrates the usage of the fastlane plugin in an end-to-end integration of an Android build life cycle: https://github.com/PerfectoMobileSA/FastlaneEspressoCircleCISlackSample.

The life cycle includes:

  1. Generating the .apk builds
  2. Testing the builds on Perfecto
  3. Running the builds in CircleCI
  4. Getting instant, suite-level reporting to Slack
  5. Verifying the test results with Perfecto Smart Reporting

For steps, expand the following scenarios.

  1. Clone the sample project.
  2. In a terminal window, navigate to the project folder.
  3. Create a file called local.properties to contain an sdk.dir key pointing to your Android SDK location.
  4. Set up the .env file (see example above).

  5. Run the following commands:

    Copy 
    fastlane install_plugins
    bundle exec fastlane android test

  1. Set up CircleCI. Use this sample CircleCI fastlane file as a reference.

    The config.yml file takes care of deploying the required installations, builds the .apk files, uploads to Perfecto, executes Espresso tests in the Perfecto cloud, and then sends the suite-level Smart Reporting link to Slack.

  2. Set up the following environment variables in CircleCI. For more information, see the CircleCI documentation on environment variables.

    • PERFECTO_CLOUDURL: The URL of your Perfecto cloud, such as demo.perfectomobile.com

    • PERFECTO_TOKEN: Your Perfecto security token

    • PERFECTO_MEDIA_LOCATION: The location of the Perfecto media repository to upload the file specified by the file_path key, such as PUBLIC:Samples/sample.apk

    • slack_webhook: The incoming webhook for the Slack integration

      For more information, see the fastlane documentation on Slack.

The following image shows the Perfecto report in the CI Dashboard view.