Test a PR manually before merging it

Test a pull request for an Android app manually before merging it to avoid superfluous rounds of testing and deploying.

Test a pull request for an Android app manually before merging it to avoid superfluous rounds of testing and deploying.

If you add a native Android app to Bitrise, you'll have two workflows:

  • deploy
  • primary

The one called deploy will generate a debug apk with the Gradle step.

If you have the trigger map set to build with a pull request (this is the default setting), you'll have a chance to download the app and test it on your device.

If you use GitHub, you'll see a status of your app there and you can click on it to get to the app on Bitrise.

On your mobile device, open Bitrise.io and then your app from your dashboard. Choose the artifacts tab and download the apk. 📲 (To be able to test this apk, you have to set your device to allow apps from unknown sources.) Manual testing will be a great time saver because you'll know if it has any bugs or not in advance.

Danger, Slack, email et co.

You can configure Danger to comment the public install page to GitHub, so then it's not a problem if you are not a member of the Bitrise team as it is a public page. (Read how to use Danger here.)

Public install pages are generated by Deploy to Bitrise.io step, and these can be found on the build page under the artifacts tab. Select an artifact and you can access its public install page from its details.

If you'd like to send the URL of the public install page, add a Slack or an Email step after the Deploy to Bitrise.io step. Then set The message you want to send by clicking Insert variable.

Filter for public, and tada! the env var is there: $BITRISE_PUBLIC_INSTALL_PAGE_URL

Set it, configure the other inputs of the step, save the workflow and you are done. 🙂

Read more about inserting environment variables into step inputs here.

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