Guide to App Testing via Centercode

This guide will walk you step-by-step through the process of getting your Centercode implementation ready to test your Google Play or TestFlight based app!

1. What does this integration do?
2. Configuring app store settings
3. Setting up the integration within Centercode
4. Enabling app store account information collection
5. Collecting app store account information via notices
6. Segmenting your users
7. Setting up an app store release type
   1. TestFlight
   2. Google Play
8. Adding releases to your feedback forms
9. Reporting using release as a criteria

What does this integration do?

Centercode's Integration with TestFlight and Google Play has two main modes of operation, Membership syncing, and Build monitoring.

Membership syncing

When you configure a Centercode Release Type for TestFlight automation, you select a Centercode Team and map it to a TestFlight external testing group.

Once that is set up, Centercode continuously syncs the members of its Team to your group on a recurring basis (currently, every 5 minutes). This grants the Centercode testers beta access to any builds assigned to that group. Centercode only supports external testing groups.

Build monitoring

The other main operation of Centercode's integration is monitoring your external testing groups for new builds. You can configure your Centercode Release Type such that whenever a new build is detected, a corresponding Centercode Release is automatically created (in a Draft or Published state). Your admins can also receive an automatic email notification when a release is created. You are also able to trigger this functionality via manual release creation, if you don't want to fully automate your releases.

Connecting Centercode to your app host

The first step in this process will be configuring Google Play or TestFlight to connect to Centercode, and collecting the tokens required to complete the connection between Centercode and your app host.

Configuring your app store settings and acquiring tokens

This process is fairly technical, and requires that you have admin access to your chosen app store. The following guides provide step by step instructions on how to configure TestFlight and Google Play for connection with Centercode.

Configuring AppStore Connect for Centercode

Configuring Google Cloud Console for Centercode

Setting up the integration in Centercode

The next still will be using the token(s) you just gathered to connect Centercode with your app store of choice. 

First, navigate to the upper left Community menu>Community configuration>Integrations center and select the TestFlight or Google Play integration. 

If this is the first time you’re setting up either integration you’ll be taken directly to the integration setup page, if you’ve previously setup the integration you’ll be taken to a summary page with the option to review your existing authentication tokens and the ability to add new tokens.

Connecting Centercode to TestFlight

You will be presented with a few different fields to fill out:

1. Name: This name is only used within Centercode to provide clarity on which integration is being used
2. Key ID: This information is generated in the Team Keys section of the App Store Connect settings
3. Issuer ID: This information is generated in the Team Keys section of the App Store Connect settings
4. Private key (.p8): This information is generated in the Team Keys section of the App Store Connect settings

Once you have entered all of this information, use the Test configuration button to verify if the integration is able to connect properly.

If everything is working properly, hit Submit!

Connecting Centercode to Google Play

You will be presented with a few different fields to fill out:

1. Name: This name is only used within Centercode to provide clarity on which integration is being used
2. Service key (.json): This information is generated in the Service accounts section of the Google Cloud Console settings (Note: after submitting this page this information will not be displayed on future edits)

Once you have entered all of this information, use the Test configuration button to verify if the integration is able to connect properly.

If everything is working properly, hit Submit!

Editing or removing authentication tokens

Important: removing the integration will immediately cut off access to the external app store. If you’re currently using the integration within a project we recommend archiving or turning off app store automation for the relevant Release types first and waiting 10 minutes before removing the authentication tokens. This will ensure any testers are removed from accessing beta builds in your external systems before the API connection is cut.

Enabling and Collecting App Store Account Information

Enabling app store account information

App store integrations require your testers' account information in order to grant access to beta apps. In order to gather this information you need to enable their collection via the User account settings page within Community configuration.

Navigate to the upper left Community menu>Community configuration>User account settings, and scroll to the App store account settings section to modify these settings. 

The dropdown beneath each app store account type will provide you with a few different options for account information collection.

• Unavailable : This is the default setting, and means that the field to input their account information for this app store account type will never be presented to the tester
• Optional : This setting means that the option to enter this type of app store account information will be presented to testers (both when creating a new Centercode account, or editing the account details of an existing account). It will also make this information available to be collected via "Account verification" notice (explained below). This information will not be required and will not prevent users from creating accounts if left blank.
• Account verification only : This settings means that this type of app store account information collection will only occur if you configure a community or project level "Account verification" notice (explained below) to force users on certain teams to be presented with these fields. It will not be shown or available to them otherwise.

Collecting app store account information via notices

Now that you have enabled app store account information you may want to force users to be presented with the opportunity to enter this information. This can be done via the use of "Notices"! Notices are a way to force users on certain teams to be presented with certain resources (such as content, surveys, etc) on their next login. We will now configure a community-level "Account verification" notice that will allow users to enter their app store account information.

Take the following steps to create a community level account verification targeting all members of your community:

1. Navigate to the upper left Community menu
2. Click into Community management>Notices
3. Click Create a notice
4. This will be a "Content" notice type, so select an available content type to create this notice under
5. In Notice details choose Account verification as the notice type
6. Select the appropriate app store account info fields (Apple ID, Google Account, or both)
7. In the Team access section select all available Member teams
8. Hit Submit to proceed to the content creation page
9. Enter a title for your account verification notice page (this will be visible to testers)
10. In the Include section click the Rich text box
11. In the Add rich text section include some brief instructions to the testers asking that they provide valid app store account email addresses
12. Verify that all the settings look correct, and hit Preview then publish

You've now completed creating a notice that will force users to view a page allowing them to enter (or verify existing) app store account information! The next time users log in they will be presented with a notice similar to this (worded however you entered your title and rich text fields) :

Segmenting your users

App store integrations tie directly to Centercode teams to grant access, so you'll want to make sure your users are segmented into teams based on if they have appropriate app store account information. The easiest way to do this is to set up notice macros configuring to automatically segment your users. A notice macro can be configured to check certain information about a user (in this case if they have entered a particular app store account information field), and if so automatically place them on a specific team in your community or project.

In this example we'll be setting up a project level notice macro that will check if a user has entered an Apple ID account email, and if so move them onto a team specifically for TestFlight users.

To begin, enter the project you will be testing your app in.

Next we will create a team to hold your TestFlight users

1. In the menu, select Management>Users>Teams
2. In the upper right select Create a project team
3. Enter a team name (something like TestFlight users)
4. Select Participant as the user role
5. Copy access from an existing Participant team you've already got set up (to ensure proper access)

Now that we've created a team to move those users onto, we will configure a notice macro to check if the users have entered an AppleID email, and if so, move them onto that team!

1. In the menu, select Management>Users>Project users
2. Click User automation in the upper right
3. Locate the Notice macros section and click Create a notice macro
4. Enter a Name (and optional description) for your notice macro (not visible to testers)
5. In the Macro type dropdown select Conditional
6. In the Add a filter section select the User account data set
7. Select the AppleID data point
8. Set the Filter condition to Answered and the filter value to Yes
9. Click Add to filter
10. In the Assign macros section hit the + button next to the True macro dropdown to create a new macro
11. Enter a Name for your macro (something similar to your notice macro name)
12. In Choose macro options click the Adjust teams and Add to these teams boxes
13. Select the team you created above
14. Hit Submit
15. You will now be returned to your notice macro page to complete its setup
16. In Team access select the teams you would like this notice macro to apply to (in this case your main participant team)
17. Verify all your notice macro info is correct
18. Hit Submit

Now you've got a notice macro that will automatically move users who have entered an AppleID onto a specific team. Combined with the account verification notice we created above this should automatically collect and segment your users for you!

Using the integration within a project

Once your integration has been fully configured on the Centercode and app store end, and your users have been segmented onto app store appropriate teams, you can leverage its new functionality, release automation, within the Releases section of your project!

Releases are a special type of resource normally used to distribute new builds to users via attached files, which can then be tied in to your feedback tickets and allow users to specify which version of your software they were using when they submitted the ticket. 

Via the use of these app store integrations you will be able to automatically distribute new builds via the associated app store without having to manually upload files for users to download and install!

Configuring releases in your project

From within your project, navigate to Management>Releases and click on Add a release type, and fill in the basic information for your release type.

The next steps will depend on if you are configuring a release type for TestFlight or Google Play.

Setting up a TestFlight release type

When configuring a TestFlight release type you will have the following options:

1. Integration: Select which Centercode TestFlight integration to use (if you have set up more than one)
2. Application to test: Select the TestFlight application that will be distributed via this release (configured in App Store Connect)
3. Centercode team: Select a Centercode team that will be synced to a TestFlight group (select the TestFlight team you segmented your users into)
4. TestFlight group: Select the TestFlight group that will be updated with members from the aforementioned Centercode team
5. Release creation options: Choose  how releases will be created within this release type
   1. Manual: You will manually create a new release in Centercode when you would like to push a new build to your users
   2. Automatic creation: Releases will be automatically created (but not published) when a new build is detected. You can choose when to publish and make these available to your users.
   3. Automatic publishing: Releases are fully automated, and will be created and published when a new build is detected
6. New build notification: Enabling this option will email all members of teams with "Modify" access every time a new build is detected

What happens when a tester is synced with TestFlight? 

Once a tester team has been synced with a TestFlight group and granted access to the release TestFlight will automatically email the testers with a link to access the application. You can retrigger these invite emails via a release notification, or individually via a users User Summary page.

Setting up a Google Play release type

When configuring a Google Play release type you will have the following options:

1. Integration: Select which Centercode Google Play integration to use (if you have set up more than one)
2. Application to test: Select the Google Play application that will be distributed via this release (configured in Google Cloud Console)
3. Testing track: Select the Closed Testing Track you set up for Centercode use (configured in Google Cloud Console)
4. Centercode team: Select a Centercode team that will be synced to a Google  Group (select the team you segmented your Google Play users into)
5. Google group: Select the Google Group that will be updated with members from the aforementioned Centercode team
6. Release creation options: Choose  how releases will be created within this release type
   1. Manual: You will manually create a new release in Centercode when you would like to push a new build to your users
   2. Automatic creation: Releases will be automatically created (but not published) when a new build is detected. You can choose when to publish and make these available to your users.
   3. Automatic publishing: Releases are fully automated, and will be created and published when a new build is detected
      
      
7. New build notification: Enabling this option will email all members of teams with "Modify" access every time a new build is detected

What happens when a tester is synced with Google Play? 

Once a tester team has been added to the Google Play external group Centercode will send an email inviting the tester to opt in to beta testing in the Google Play store. You can retrigger these invite emails via a release notification, or individually via a users User Summary page.

Adding releases to your feedback forms

Now that you've configured your app store and release linkage, you'll want to add release info to your feedback forms, so that your testers can let you know which release version the ticket applies to!

In this example we'll add a release element to our existing Issues feedback form

1.  In the menu, click Management>Project configuration>Feedback types
2. Click the cell of the feedback type you'd like to add a release element to to enter the form view mode (in this case, Issues)
3. In the upper right corner click Add an element
4. In the Element type dropdown select Release
5. Enter a title and description for this element (these will be visible to testers)
6. If desired click Make this required to force testers to select a release in this element
7. In Choose release types select the release types (and the releases they contain) that you would like to make available for your testers to choose from
8. In Team access give appropriate modify/view access to teams you'd like to have enter release information
9. Use the Position dropdowns to select where on your feedback form you would like this element to appear (you can also adjust this via clicking and dragging after the element has been created)
10. If appropriate, select either of the Allow multiple releases (lets users select more than one release) or Allow archived releases (lets users select releases you have archived, in case they are using an old version for whatever reason)
11. Click Submit to create the element

Reporting using release as a criteria

Now that you've set up your releases, added them to your feedback, and have got some tester submitted feedback tickets tied to specific releases, you'll probably want a way to report on these! Centercode's Filter/View system makes gathering and viewing this information simple!

For detailed information on filters, views, and their uses read here!

Here's a quick example of how to build a report of an entire feedback type narrowed down by a specific release version.

1. In the menu navigate to Management>Project configuration>Feedback types
2. Hover over the cell of the feedback type you would like to report on and select Create report
3. Centercode will automatically configure a report containing all feedback tickets in that feedback type
4. Scroll down to Add a filter and select the + button to create a new filter item
5. Select the Feedback type data set
6.  Select the Release form element you created above
7. Select Is equal to from the Filter condition dropdown (this is the default)
8. In Filter value select the specific release (or ctrl click to select multiple) that you would like to narrow your report to
9. Your report will now only include tickets where users have selected the release(s) you specified!
10. Scroll to the bottom and click the box next to Save this to a report
11. Select an existing report to add this element to, or select New report to put it into a new report

Now you've created a full report on that feedback type, narrowed to only show the tickets related to a specific version!

FAQs

What happens if a user updates their app store account in Centercode?

Centercode will automatically update the external system with the new account information!