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Building Flutter iOS on AppVeyor

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Feodor Fitsner edited this page Jun 8, 2023 · 2 revisions

Building and publishing iOS Flutter app on AppVeyor

XCode

Open Runner.xcworkspace, not Runner.xcodeproj - otherwise audioplayers_darwin won't be found.

Enable iproxy.

If you get "invalid signature" error while trying to run on a connected iPhone device try re-connecting the cable.

Renewing certificates and profiles: https://stackoverflow.com/a/56180645/1435891

Ruby

Ensure you have a proper Ruby installed:

ruby --version

Install latest Ruby

brew install ruby
echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Restart terminal.

Installing Fastlane

Switch to <flutter-app-root>/ios directory:

cd ios

Create Gemfile with the following contents:

source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "cocoapods"
gem "fastlane"

Create .bundle/config with the following contents:

---
BUNDLE_PATH: "vendor/bundle"

Append the following line to .gitignore:

vendor/

Run the following command to install Fastlane and Cocoapods:

bundle install --path vendor/bundle

Run this in case of JSON native compilation error:

xcode-select --install

Gemfile.lock must be checked into repository - that will ensure you have the same versions in CD environment.

Always run Fastlane with bundle exec fastlane <args> command. Let's check the version of installed Fastlane:

bundle exec fastlane --version

Every time you need to update Fastlane to the latest version run:

bundle update fastlane

Init Fastlane by running:

bundle exec fastlane init

A new fastlane directory will be create with two files in it:

  • Appfile - the information about your app, such as app_identifier.
  • Fastfile - file with build targets or "lanes".

Update Appfile and change app_identifier with your App's ID, e.g. com.{your-company}.{your-product}.

Leave the contents of Fastfile as is for now.

Configuring Match on your machine

Match is Fastlane action for synchronizing iOS/macOS certificates and provisioning profiles between development environments.

With Match you maintain just the details to access configured Match storage and Match passphrase used to encrypt the contents of that storage. At the time of writing Match supports the following storages:

  • Git repo
  • GitHub repo
  • Amazon S3
  • Google Cloud Storage

In this guide we use GitHub repository to store certificates and provisioning profiles.

Create a new PRIVATE GitHub (or your favorite source control provider) repository named fastlane-match (or choose your name).

To init Match run:

bundle exec fastlane match init

and follow the wizard. You'll be asked for "passphrase" to encrypt/decrypt the contents of Git repo. Make sure you remember that passphrase - you'll need it later for setting up CD process.

A new Matchfile will be created inside Fastlane directory.

Generate "development" (used to test the app on your machine only) certificates and provisioning profiles by running:

bundle exec fastlane match development

Generate "ad-hoc" (for internal testing within your team without using XCode) certificates and profiles:

bundle exec fastlane match adhoc

More about internal distribution here.

Finally, generate "appstore" (for distributing via TestFlight and App Store) certificates and profiles:

bundle exec fastlane match appstore

Check the contents of Git repo - you should see two folders there: certs and profiles.

Open "Keychain access" application, choose "login" keychain and click "My certificates" tab - those certificates were installed by Match. This is, if you ever need that, the place where you can export your signing certificates in .p12 format (including private key).

Syncing Match on your machine

Run:

bundle exec fastlane match

Configuring iOS project

You are still in ios directory.

Open XCode project by running:

open Runner.xcodeproj

Select "Runner" in the left project tree, then "Signing and Capabilities" tab.

Uncheck "Automatically mamage signing".

Update "Bundle identifier" and choose "match Development {identifier}" as "Provisioning profile":

[SCREENSHOT]

Ensure you can build a project without signing with:

flutter build ios --release --no-codesign

Complying with Encryption Export Regulations

If your app is compliant with US cryptography export laws you can avoid a warning in App Store by adding the following lines at the bottom of <dict> section in Runner/Info.plist file:

<key>ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption</key>
<false/>

Open "Runner -> Runner -> Info.plist" in the left tree and make sure "App Uses Non-Exempt Encryption" contains "NO" value:

[SCREENSHOT]

Configuring CI/CD

Testing Fastlane locally

export FLET_PACKAGE_VERSION=0.0.1
bundle exec fastlane build_ipa

Encoding GitHub token to clone match repo:

echo -n "<username>:<personal-access-token>" | base64

Configuring connection to App Store Connect

To allow CI process accessing App Store Connect we have to set three environment variables:

  • APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_ISSUER_ID
  • APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_KEY_ID
  • APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_KEY

Articles:

Troubleshooting

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