Deploying Android Apps Using GitHub Actions
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Generating a release build on a remote system is quite different from doing it locally. One of the main aspects is to make sure that the signing data remains secret.
Generate a Keystore
To sign your release build, you first need a keystore.
keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-app-release-key.keystore -alias alias_name -keypass hello123 -storepass hello123 -keyalg RSA -sigalg SHA256withRSA -keysize 2048 -validity 7500
[Storing my-app-release-key.keystore]
Store Secrets
For security’s sake, it’s important not to hard code secrets inside the codebase. A good way to avoid this is by using environment variables to refer to the secrets. GitHub Actions provides a similar mechanism.
openssl base64 < path_to_signing_key | tr -d '\n' | tee some_signing_key.jks.base64.txt
Write a Job to Generate a Signed Build
Add a new job named build to the workflow:
build:
needs: [unit_tests, android_tests]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout code
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: set up JDK
uses: actions/setup-java@v3
with:
distribution: 'zulu'
java-version: 11
- name: Generate Release APK
run: ./gradlew assembleRelease
- name: Sign APK
uses: ilharp/sign-android-release@v1
# ID used to access action output
id: sign_app
with:
releaseDir: app/build/outputs/apk/release
signingKey: ${{ secrets.SIGNING_KEY }}
keykeyAlias: ${{ secrets.ALIAS }}
keyStorePassword: ${{ secrets.KEY_STORE_PASSWORD }}
keyPassword: ${{ secrets.KEY_PASSWORD }}
buildToolsVersion: 33.0.0
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
with:
name: release.apk
path: ${{steps.sign_app.outputs.signedFile}}
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
with:
name: mapping.txt
path: app/build/outputs/mapping/release/mapping.txt
git commit -m "Add build job"
git push origin master