Building and Deploying apps using VSTS and HockeyApp - Part 2 : Android

This post talks about building and deploying Android apps using Visual Studio team services. This is part 2 of series of posts. To see how to build iOS apps using VSTS, please see part 1 of this series.

Build Variables

Variable Name	Variable Value
system.debug	false
BuildConfiguration	release
BuildPlatform	any cpu

Develop Branch

dev build steps

Step 1: Nuget restore

Field Name	Field Value
Path to Solution	Locate the Android only solution that has the Android project and the shared code.
Path to Nuget	Locate path of any custom nuget config files. See part 1 for more details
Installation Type	restore

Step 2: Build Android

Field Name	Field Value
Project	Path to Droid.csproj file
Output Directory	`$(build.binariesdirectory)/$(BuildConfiguration)`
Configuration	`$(BuildConfiguration)`

Note: $(build.binariesdirectory) is a system variable. For a list of all system variables see this link

Beta Branch

beta build steps

Step 1: Nuget restore

Same as develop branch

Step 2: Version AndroidManifest.xml

Field Name	Field Value
Source Path	Path to properties folder in the Droid folder
File Pattern	AndroidManifest.xml
Build Regex Pattern	`\d+`

Advanced Tab

Field Name	Field Value
Build Regex Group Index	0
Regex Replace Pattern	`versionCode="\d+`
Prefix for Replacements	`versionCode="`
Fail If No Target Match Found	true

Step 3: Apply Google Maps Release Key

With google maps there are 2 keys for GMaps

debug maps key
release maps key

The debug key is used during the application development. I typically share my debug.keystore with other team members so the maps work for everyone. I also put the debug and release keystore files in a folder ‘AndroidKeys’ and check that along with the solution. The developers can copy the debug.keystore from the solution and put that in a directory on their development machine.

Note: The location for debug.keystore on my machine is C:\Users\Raghu\AppData\Local\Xamarin\Mono for Android

To create a release keystore file follow this link on Xamarin’s website.

After both keys are created, we need to get a google maps api key. This can be achieved by following information here. When we build and debug the android app using Visual studio, it uses the debug.keystore file to sign the app, but when we build for production we sign the app with a release.keystore (that is our company’s private key).

The AndroidManifest.xml file contains the debug google api key.

<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.geo.API_KEY" android:value="My Debug Key" />

This build step changes this debug key to the one related to the release.keystore file, with the following configuration.

Field Name	Field Value
Tool	perl
Arguments	`-pi -e 's/Old debug Key/New Release Key-s/g' AndroidManifest.xml`

Advanced Tab

Field Name	Field Value
Working Folder	Android Project properties folder
Fail on standard error	true

Step 4: Print AndroidManifest.xml

This step is optional to make sure the contents of the AndroidManifest.xml are updated correctly from the last build step

Field Name	Field Value
Tool	cat
Arguments	Path to AndroidManifest.xml

Step 5: Build Android

Field Name	Field Value
Project	Path to droid.csproj file
Output Directory	`$(build.binariesdirectory)/$(BuildConfiguration)`
Build Configuration	`$(BuildConfiguration)`

JDK Options Tab

Field Name	Field Value
Select JDK to use for the build	JDK Version
JDK Version	default
JDK Architecture	x86

Step 6: Signing and Zipalign apk

Field Name	Field Value
APK Files	`[Path to Droid Project Folder]/*/.apk`

Jarsigner Options

Field Name	Field Value
Sign the APK	true
Keystore File	`$(Agent.BuildDirectory)\s\Path to KeyStore files\release.keystore`
Keystore Password	password or a secure build variable
Alias	The alias we created at the time of creating the release.keystore file
Key Password	Same as Keystore Password but once again
Jarsigner Arguments	-verbose -sigalg MD5withRSA -digestalg SHA1

Zipalign Options

Field Name	Field Value
Zipalign	true

Step 7: Deploy Android to HockeyApp

Field Name	Field Value
HockeyApp Connection	Choose from the Dropdown
App ID	The Guid app id of the hockey app where the apk needs to land
Binary File Path	`[Path to Droid Folder]/*/droid.apk`
Publish	true

Master Branch

master build

With the master branch all builds steps are identical to the beta branch with the exception of the following three.

Step 6: Copy Files to Staging directory

Field Name	Field Value
Source Folder	`[Path To Droid project folder]/obj/release/android/bin`
Contents	`*droid.apk`
Target Folder	`$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)`

Advanced Tab

Field Name	Field Value
Clean Target Folder	true

Step 7: Publish Artifacts

Field Name	Field Value
Path To Publish	`$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)`
Artifact Name	MyApp-PlayStore-Build
Artifact Type	Server

Step 8: Deploy to HockeyApp

Same configuration as the beta Deploy to hockey step except a different App ID for a new hockey bucket.