How to integrate Centercode with Google Play

Integrate Centercode with Google Play to leverage Centercode's access controls and teams to automatically provide up-to-date software for your testers

1. Configuring your Google Play settings in Google Cloud Console
2. What does this integration do?
3. Enabling Google account information
4. Segmenting your users
5. Setting up the integration in Centercode
6. Using the integration within a project

Before you get started!

Try our consolidated app testing guide!

Want a more step by step guide to getting your app store distribution integrated with Centercode? Try our Guide to App Testing via Centercode!

Configuring your Google Play settings in Google Cloud Console

To fully complete setting things up on the Centercode end you'll first need to make sure you've got things properly configured on the Google Cloud Console end. Click the link below for our guide on configuring your Google Cloud Console settings and where to find the information you need to complete the Centercode side of the integration.

Configuring Google Cloud Console for Centercode

Configuring the integration

What does this integration do?

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

Membership syncing

When you configure a Centercode Release Type for Google Play automation, you select a Centercode Team and map it to a Google Group assigned to one of your Google Play Closed Testing Tracks.

Once that is set up, Centercode continuously syncs the members of its Team to your Google Group on a recurring basis (currently, every 5 minutes). This grants the Centercode testers beta access to your Google Play app.

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.

Enabling Google account information collection

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. 

Setting up the integration in Centercode

Next you will need to create and configure a new Google Play integration within Centercode. Navigate to the upper left Community menu>Community configuration>Integrations center and select the 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.

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.

Segmenting your users

Since app store integrations tie directly to Centercode teams to grant access 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. Read more here on how to set this up!

Automatically segmenting users in Centercode

Using the integration within a project

Once your integration has been fully configured on the Centercode and Google Cloud Console end, you can leverage its new functionality, release automation, within the Releases section of your project!

From within your project, navigate to Management>Releases and click on Add a release type.

Fill in the basic information for your release, and from within the Release automation section select Google Play to configure which integration and Google Play application will apply to this release type.

There will be a few different fields to configure here:

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
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: Releases in this release type will be created manually as new builds become available.
   2. Automatic creation: Releases will be automatically created (but not published) when a new build is detected
   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? 

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.

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

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