Continuous distribution for Qt applications on desktop and mobile

Nicolas Froment / @lasconic

The Qt Mantra

Qt: Code once deploy everywhere

Competitors: Fast distribution!

Qt: Tests and distribute everywhere?

MuseScore use case

MuseScore

Create sheet music on desktop

MuseScore Apps

Practice sheet music on mobile

Challenges

• Run tests for every commit
• Automate distribution to testers
• 5 targets OSes

But...

• Limited human resources
• Sysadmin is no fun!

Continuous integration software

• Hudson
• Jenkins

DIY, your own server, security, upgrades...

No thanks.

Continuous integration SaaS

For a git commit

• Launch servers
• Get the code
• Run scripts
• Store results
• Notify if failure

• Free fair use for open source project
• 129$/m for private github repo, 2 parallel builds
• Linux containers: Linux and Android builds
• MacOS virtual servers: MacOS and iOS builds
• No windows support :(

→ AppVeyor: Windows specialists

.travis.yml

language: cpp
before_install:
- "source build/travis/job1_Tests/environment.sh"
install:
- "./build/travis/job1_Tests/install.sh"
before_script:
- "./build/travis/job1_Tests/before_script.sh"
script:
- "./build/travis/job1_Tests/run_tests.sh"
after_script:
- "./build/travis/job1_Tests/upload.sh"
				

Keep it short and use scripts

Dependencies

• Use package manager (apt-get, brew, cocoapods, qpm)
• If not possible, download from official website and install

Install Qt without UI?

• It's more complicated than it should be...
• ... until you realize Qt installer is scriptable
• Amazing extract-qt-installer by @benlau
• (use a machine with a UI, install, zip, store and download)

Compilation

Limited time : 50 to 120 minutes

• Parallelize build and tests
• Precompiled header
• ccache
• Travis cache

A word about AppImage

“Linux apps that run anywhere”

• One file = one app, all depencies are bundled
• chmod u+x MuseScore*.AppImage
• ./MuseScore.AppImage

If Linux distribution packaging is a pain for your project, give it a try.

Distribution

• artefacts -- upload to S3
• FTP - SFTP
• BinTray
• Google Play Store alpha and beta channels
• App Store beta

Security

Don't put anything sensitive in your build scripts...

• Qt license
• Code signing, certificate,...
• AWS S3, BinTray, SFTP credentials, Google Play...

Use Travis encrypted variables, Travis encrypted files or project settings

Project settings

https://travis-ci.{com|org}/user/project/settings

Encrypted variables

$ travis encrypt SOMEVAR=secretvalue
					

in .travis.yml

secure: ".... encrypted data ...."
echo $SOMEVAR
					

Encrypted files

$ travis encrypt-file super_secret.txt
					

in .travis.yml

openssl aes-256-cbc -K $encrypted_0a6446eb3ae3_key -iv $encrypted_0a6446eb3ae3_key -in super_secret.txt.enc -out super_secret.txt -d
					

Multiple files? zip or tar

iOS

git:
  depth: 50000
matrix:
  fast_finish: true
  include:
    - os: linux
    - os: osx
      env:
        - "JOB=iOS"
      before_install:
        - gem install fastlane --no-ri --no-rdoc
        - openssl aes-256-cbc -K $encrypted_f137f5f_key -iv $encrypted_f137f5f_iv -in build/travis/ios/certs/dist.zip.enc -out build/travis/ios/certs/dist.zip -d
        - unzip build/travis/ios/certs/dist.zip -d build/travis/ios/certs
        - openssl aes-256-cbc -K $encrypted_ab375fd_key -iv $encrypted_ab375fd_iv -in build/travis/ios/profile/dist_player_appstore.mobileprovision.enc -out build/travis/ios/profile/dist_player_appstore.mobileprovision -d
        - ./build/travis/ios/add-key.sh
      install:
        - source ./build/travis/ios/travis_ios_dependencies.sh
      before_script:
        - python build/updateBuildNumber.py -f version.txt
        - cat version.txt
      script:
        - ./build/travis/ios/travis_ios_build.sh
          

Certificates, provisioning profiles

• Create a custom keychain
• Make it default and unlock it

security create-keychain -p travis ios-build.keychain
security default-keychain -s ios-build.keychain
security unlock-keychain -p travis ios-build.keychain
					

• Add certificates to keychain and allow codesign to access them

  
  KEYCHAIN=~/Library/Keychains/ios-build.keychain
  CODESIGN=/usr/bin/codesign
  security import apple.cer -k $KEYCHAIN -T $CODESIGN
  security import dist.cer -k $KEYCHAIN -T $CODESIGN
  security import dist.p12 -k $KEYCHAIN -P $IOS_KEY_PASSWORD -T $CODESIGN
  							

• Put the provisioning profile in place

  
  PPROFILE=~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles
  mkdir -p $PPROFILE
  cp $PROFILE_NAME_PLAYER.mobileprovision $PPROFILE
  							

iOS: build

• Run qmake to generate XCode project

  
  mkdir $PLAYER_BUILD_ROOT
  cd $PLAYER_BUILD_ROOT
  qmake -r $PLAYER_PRO_FILE -spec macx-ios-clang CONFIG+=release CONFIG+=iphoneos
  							

Fastlane: Automate app release process on iOS and Android

iOS: build

lane :beta do
  gym(xcargs: "PROVISIONING_PROFILE=<profile-uuid>")
  pilot(distribute_external: false)
end
							

mkdir fastlane
cp ../player-qt/build/travis/ios/Fastfile fastlane/
FASTLANE_ITUNES_TRANSPORTER_USE_SHELL_SCRIPT=1 fastlane beta
							

Conclusion

• CI : an important component of our development process
• Qt doesn't really help us for CI
• More tools and documentation needed
• Let's improve together and share our best practices
• You can find me @lasconic on #qtmob on Slack