Native Apps: Releases & Testing

Apple App Store Connect - iOS

Important: These instructions are only for newly generated apps, like the NOI Community App. Older apps might work differently...

Release a Test version

1. Merge the new PR into main and wait for the pipeline to be completed

For regular Test Releases you are done! The following steps are only necessary for "External Testing":

2. Go to https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/apps
3. Open your app and then TestFlight
4. Open a group under "External Testing"
5. Click the + near "Builds"
6. Choose the newest build (if not present, wait for the review by Apple) and click "Add"
7. Repeat for all groups

Invite new External Testers (public Link)

External testers are users of the application. Not developers or there like.

We use "Public Link" as Tester Management method, that is, you can copy the link on the TestFlight page and send it to whoever you want to invite him for Beta testing. Therefore, we do not need to collect and update Email addresses for iOS application testing.

1. Go to https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/apps
2. Open your app and then TestFlight
3. Copy/paste the link under "Tester Management > Public Link"

Invite new Internal Testers

Internal testers are mostly developers or people that have an account on our Apple Store Connect.

1. Go to https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/apps
2. Open your app and then TestFlight
3. Create or open a group under "Internal Testing"
4. Add your tester's email addresses and wait for the acceptance of the invitation
5. Builds get generated automatically during a pull request merge on main

How to update your test application on your phone?

1. Open the app called TestFlight (Install it if it is missing from the Apple Store)
2. Find the update section, which should have a list of applications you are testing
3. Update the app

Version numbers

Your version is composed of 4 parts:

x.y.z.build
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | `---- build number in a date format: YYYYMMDDhhmmss
| | `---- incremented for bug fixes and minor patches
| `---- incremented for new functionality in a backwards compatible manner
`---- major changes

It follows the semver philosophy: https://semver.org

Google Play Store - Android

Release a Test version

At the moment we use only "Closed testing":

1. Merge the new PR into main and wait for the pipeline to be completed... done!
2. Optional, check latest release version:

• Open https://play.google.com/console
• Choose your app
• Go to "Testing > Closed Testing"
• "Show summary" and see if the version code (unix timestamp) has the correct date/time (https://www.epochconverter.com/)

Invite new Testers into the Closed track

1. Open https://play.google.com/console
2. Choose your app
3. Go to "Testing > Closed Testing > Testers"
4. Create or open an Email list, and add emails there
5. Send the invitation link at the bottom of this page to your testers (by email for example). There are two links depending whether you want to let them join your test app using Google Play Store on your phone or using a browser

How to update your test application on your phone?

At the moment some apps do not update automatically after a new test release. This is, probably only for applications that do not have an official release yet. Therefore, tell your testers the following:

1. Open the invitation link, that you have got initially, on your phone
2. This will open the Google Play Store
3. See if there is an Update button, click it

Please note, a test release needs some time to be visible, since Google does some reviews first. You can check the status by visiting the test track on https://play.google.com/console...

Version numbers

Your version is composed of 4 parts:

x.y.z.build
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | `---- build number in a date format: unix timestamp or epoch (See https://www.epochconverter.com)
| | `---- incremented for bug fixes and minor patches
| `---- incremented for new functionality in a backwards compatible manner
`---- major changes

It follows the semver philosophy: https://semver.org

General information

Do you need a login for the application?

See Native Apps: Authentication

... or ...

Write to [email protected]. Add your user account's email address and tell us for which application you need permissions. Thank you!