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Setting Up Appcircle Enterprise App Store in Azure DevOps Pipeline

Appcircle Enterprise App Store serves as your private mobile app store, allowing access to in-house apps through a customizable mobile storefront. The Appcircle Enterprise App Store extension enables you to upload your app to your personalized app store within Appcircle.

System Requirements​

Compatible Azure DevOps Versions:

  • Azure DevOps Services (cloud)
  • Azure DevOps Server 2020 (on-premises)
  • Azure DevOps Server 2022 (on-premises)

Compatible Agents:

Both cloud and self-hosted agents are supported.

  • macOS 14 (arm64)
  • Ubuntu 22.04 (x86_64)

Setup Appcircle Enterprise App Store​

Refer to our comprehensive Enterprise App Store Docs for detailed information about: Enterprise App Store profiles, portal customization, portal settings, enterprise portal, portal reports, in-app updates and more.

How to Get the Appcircle Enterprise App Store Extension​

Permissions​

Before installing the extension, ensure you have the necessary permissions in your Azure DevOps organization. If you don't have permission to add extensions, you'll need to request approval from your organization administrator.

Installation​

You can discover more about this extension and install it from here:

Appcircle Enterprise App Store - Visual Studio Marketplace
Extension for Azure DevOps - Appcircle Enterprise Mobile App Store is your own mobile app store for providing access to in-house apps with a customizable mobile storefront.
marketplace.visualstudio.com
Preview of Appcircle Enterprise App Store - Visual Studio Marketplace

For details on how to install the extension, visit the Azure extension installation guide.

tip

When visiting the installation guide, ensure you select the correct version of Azure DevOps from the dropdown menu at the top of the page. The available options include "Azure DevOps Services" and "Azure DevOps Server 2022" etc.

How to Add the Appcircle Enterprise App Store Task into Your Pipeline​

1. Get a Personal API Token​

For this extension to authenticate to your Appcircle, you need to create a Personal API Token, and use it in your task configuration.

You can follow the Generating and Managing Personal API Tokens page to create a PAT.

2. Add Task to Your Pipeline​

In order to install Appcircle Enterprise App Store Extension, follow these steps;

  1. Go to your pipeline, click "Edit" button on the top right corner. Screenshot
  2. Inside your YAML file, search for "Appcircle Enterprise App Store" task. Screenshot
  3. Complete the necessary input fields and then click the "Add" button.

3. Configure the Task​

After filling out the required fields, the AppcircleEnterpriseStore@0 task will appear in your pipeline steps as shown below:

- task: AppcircleEnterpriseStore@0
  inputs:
    personalAPIToken: $(AC_PERSONAL_API_TOKEN)
    authEndpoint: $(AC_AUTH_ENDPOINT)
    apiEndpoint: $(AC_API_ENDPOINT)
    appPath: $(AC_APP_PATH)
    summary: $(AC_SUMMARY)
    releaseNotes: $(AC_RELEASE_NOTES)
    publishType: $(AC_PUBLISH_TYPE)

  • personalAPIToken: The Appcircle Personal API token used to authenticate and authorize access to Appcircle services within this extension.

  • authEndpoint (optional): Authentication endpoint URL for self-hosted Appcircle installations. If not specified, uses Appcircle Cloud by default (auth.appcircle.io).

  • apiEndpoint (optional): API endpoint URL for self-hosted Appcircle installations. If not specified, uses Appcircle Cloud by default (api.appcircle.io).

  • appPath: Indicates the file path to the application that will be uploaded to Appcircle Enterprise App Store. The path can be specified in two ways:

    When Build and Enterprise App Store tasks are in the same pipeline: Assuming you are using Enterprise App Store task after a build step, you can use the output directory of the build step. For example:

    • iOS:
      • $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/output/app.ipa or
      • ./output/app.ipa
    • Android:
      • $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk or
      • ./app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk

    When Enterprise App Store task is a separate pipeline: Assuming you have published a build artifact in your build pipeline using PublishBuildArtifacts task, you can get the artifact using DownloadBuildArtifacts task into a specified directory and use it in the Enterprise App Store pipeline. For example:

    • $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/app.ipa
    • $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/app.apk

    Make sure the path points to a valid application package file.

  • releaseNotes: Contains the details of changes, updates, and improvements made in the current version of the app being published.

  • summary: Used to provide a brief overview of the version of the app that is about to be published.

  • publishType: Specifies the publishing status as either none, beta, or live, and must be assigned the values "None", "Beta", or "Live" accordingly.

Build Steps Order

Ensure that this action is added after build steps have been completed.

caution

If two workflows start simultaneously, the last workflow to reach the publish step will be the up-to-date version on the Enterprise App Store. If these workflows building the same package version, the first publish will be successful, while later deployments with the same version will fail.

Using with Appcircle Self-Hosted​

Self-signed Certificates​

Adding custom certificates is not currently supported in this extension.

caution

If your self-hosted Appcircle server has self-signed certificates, the Azure DevOps agent that runs the pipeline must trust your Appcircle server's certificates.

Leveraging Environment Variables​

Utilize environment variables seamlessly by substituting the parameters with $(VARIABLE_NAME) in your task inputs. The extension automatically retrieves values from the specified environment variables within your pipeline.

References​