Publish to Google Play
Appcircle supports sending APK and AAB binaries to Google Play through the Publish module.
Prerequisites
Before uploading a binary to the store, please make sure that an application listing is created in Google Play and the initial binary is manually uploaded with the same keystore and the application ID (package name). Otherwise, the store upload process will fail. This is a known limitation of Google Play that is in place for security purposes.
You also need to have a Google Service Account and its key as a JSON file. Please refer to the following document for more information about service accounts.
Adding Google Play Service Accounts
Adding a Google Play Developer API Key
To send apps from Appcircle, you need to provide a Google Developer API key. To add a key, go to my My Organization Integration tab and press the "Add New" button (or the "Manage" button first if you have saved keys) next to the "Google Play Developer API Keys" item under the Connections section. The Add Key screen will be displayed.
Create a key in JSON format in the Google Developer Console and upload it here for API authentication. Please keep this file as it is the only copy and it will be required during every store submission for security purposes.
Adding Google Play Service Accounts
Then enter a user-friendly name to identify the key in the lists and press save. You can use this key in multiple apps without the need for key uploads at every upload process.
Deploying the Binary from the Testing Distribution
You can deploy the binaries to the Publish module from the Testing Distribution. Both directly uploaded apps and built apps deployed from the build module are supported as long as they are valid for Google Play. (e.g. in release mode and signed properly if APK - you can manage this in the build configuration for all types of development frameworks.)
Select a binary in the list and press "Send to Publish" from the three dots. The package name of the binary will be matched automatically if there is an existing publish profile. If not, you have to create a new Publish profile.
Publish Profile Details
Once deployed, the binary will be available in the related publish profile. Note that the profile name and icon are automatically fetched from the latest binary.
There are six actions available for each version in the version list.
The Details button lets you start the workflow, while App Information gives you key details about the app.
History shows logs of past actions. You can use Mark as RC to indicate the application as a release candidate.
Download allows you to get the app version easily.
Lastly, Delete helps you remove the app version easily.
Sending Apps to Google Play
To publish Android applications to Google Play, click on the Android Publish button on the left in the Publish module.
Click on Add New to create a new publish profile, Open details, and click on Publish Flow.
In Publish Flow, the default flow steps will appear. There should be Send to Google Play Store step in the default flow as a single step.
You can also add other flow steps to your flow using the Manage Flow button. For basic usage, only the Send to Google Play Store step would be sufficient.
Click on the Save button if you make any changes to your flow steps, or use the Back button without any change.
Click on Send to Google Play Store to configure the step settings.
In the step settings, select an Google Play Store API Key from the drop-down list, and change the default Track Type and Play Store App Status according to your needs.
When you complete configuring the publish flow, add an application version by configuring the build module or manually adding a version by binary upload.
Click on the three dots to open the Actions menu for the version and select Details there.
In the window that opens afterwards, you can click on the Start Flow button to start the flow that includes publish to Google Play.
You can add or remove steps, change the order of steps in the flow, and edit step settings anytime you need.
When you change the publish flow for some reason after adding an application version, you will see the Restart Flow button in the version Details. You can use the same button for either starting flow for the first time or restarting flow for a previously executed one.
After publish flow execution, if no errors occurred, that means the sending to the store was completed successfully.
Deleting Android Publish Profiles
Either for freeing up space purposes or if you wish to not use the Publish module, you can delete your Android Publish Profile. Click on the three-dot menu on the profile card:
Delete a Single Publish Version
If you want to free up space but don't want to lose your Publish profile, you can delete a submitted version from Android Publish module. Note that if the version is sent to the Google Play Store, your version will not be deleted from the Google Play.
Click on the three dot menu on the version, and click on the Delete button.
After typing the name, your version will be deleted.
In order to free up storage in your organization, you should also remove the other references pointing to the artifact. For example, if you have the same artifact on the builds, you should also delete those artifacts as well.