React Native Cookbook

Chapter 5. Lift Off! Sharing Your App

If you are just beginning to deploy native applications, plan for unexpected delays! For example, the deployment process with the Apple App Store requires several administrative hurdles that fall outside the scope of this cookbook, but are worth keeping in mind. Expect to deploy several iterations of your app before it’s ready for primetime.

Navigating each platform marketplace means acquainting yourself with new terminology and user interface particularities. The sections that follow include some tools and lessons learned for making this process as smooth as possible. I will also walk you through the testing model with the Apple App Store and then finish the chapter with some tips for dealing with platform-specific code that might surface as you deal with cross-platform delivery.

5.1 Automate Publishing Your App

You find yourself clicking through the Apple and Google stores over and over again to get through to beta or production. These user interfaces are error prone and mean that you can’t keep your store description in lock step with your app.

Problem

How can we keep as much of our App Store configuration versioned like any other source code if we want to send our build to a continuous integration service like bitrise? The answer is scripting our deployments. My personal favorite is fastlane.

Solution

fastlane is a powerful tool for simplifying the deployment of your application to the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. ...