CI/CD for Android

With Buddy, you can create a pipeline that builds, tests, and deploys Android applications on a push to Git. The configuration is super simple and takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Image loading...[画像:Example Android delivery pipeline]

1. Create a new project

Go to Projects and click Create new project. Select your Git hosting provider (Buddy, GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or Private Server) and enter your project name.

Image loading...[画像:Create new project]

Here's how the project looks in the Code tab:

Image loading...[画像:Repository preview in Buddy]

2. Add a new pipeline

Navigate to Pipelines and click New pipeline. In the form, configure the following:

• Name - Enter a descriptive name for your pipeline (e.g., "Deploy to production")
• ID - Optional identifier for the pipeline
• CPU - Select architecture: x64 or ARM64
• Resources per pipeline run - Choose resource allocation (default: Workspace default)
• Definition Location - Optionally check "Store configuration in a Git repository" to use YAML files

Click Add pipeline to create it.

Image loading...[画像:Add new pipeline]

3. Configure workflow: contexts and triggers

After creating the pipeline, go to the Workflow tab to configure:

Image loading...[画像:Configure Workflow]

• Contexts - Click + to add Git branch/tag context or Environment. See Contexts.

• Triggers - Click + to add Git events, Schedule, or Webhook. See Workflow Configuration.

4. Add actions

In this example, we'll add 4 actions that will perform the following tasks:

• Build your Android application
• Sign app with your key
• Upload APK to Google Play
• (Optional) Send notification to Slack

4.1 Build your Android application

Look up and click Build APK on the action list to add it to the pipeline:

Image loading...[画像:APK Build on action list]

The Run tab lets you determine the commands to execute. The default commands are:

bash
export ANDROID_HOME="/opt/android/sdk"
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/android/sdk/cmdline-tools/tools/bin
if [ ! -d "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools" ]; then
 curl -o sdk.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-7583922_latest.zip
 unzip sdk.zip
 rm sdk.zip
 mkdir "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools"
 mv cmdline-tools "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/tools"
 yes | "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/tools/bin/sdkmanager" --licenses
fi
chmod +x gradlew
#./gradlew assembleDebug
./gradlew assembleRelease
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Image loading...[画像:APK Build action configuration]

Once you add the action, you can run the pipeline and check the logs if everything has passed in order:

Image loading...[画像:Android build logs]

4.2 Sign your application (APK)

To save the upload key in Buddy, switch to the Variables tab and click Add variable → Asset:

Image loading...[画像:Adding new asset]

Configure the asset details:

• enter the name – you will use it in the signing action as the $ASSET_ID
• upload the key from your disk
• make sure that the asset is allowed to be copied to action containers

Image loading...[画像:Asset configuration]

With the key safely stored, you can now look up the Sign APK on the action list:

Image loading...[画像:Sign APK on action list]

Add the action to the pipeline and fill the main tab with required data:

• APK to sign path: the path in the pipeline filesystem with your APK build
• Key store path: the $ASSET_ID of the key that you saved in Buddy
• Key store password: the password that you provided when creating the key

Image loading...[画像:Sign APK action configuration]

4.3 Deploy APK to Google Play

Now, we can deploy the signed package to the Google store. Before adding the publishing action, however, you need to configure a few things in Google:

1. Enable Google Play Android Developer API in your gcloud project:

   Image loading...[画像:Google Play Android Developer API]

2. Create a service account in Google Cloud with a private key in the .json format:

   Image loading...[画像:Creating service account in Google]

   Image loading...[画像:Saving key as JSON]

3. Invite the created user to your Google Play account and grant them Releases permissions to allow publishing to Google Play:

   Image loading...[画像:Granting permissions to Google Play]

With everything prepared, you can finally add the Google Play Publish APK action to the pipeline:

Image loading...[画像:Google Play Publish APK]

The action requires an integration with Google Play Store. When adding the integration, upload the key generated in the associated service account:

Image loading...[画像:Adding Google Play Store integration]

In the action details, select the signed package in the pipeline filesystem, define the development track (alpha, beta, production, etc.), and enter the app ID:

Image loading...[画像:Google Play Publish APK action configuration]

4.4 (Optional) Send notification to Slack

You can configure Buddy to send your team a message after a new package is released. In this example we'll use Slack:

Image loading...[画像:Notification actions]