[HOLD for payment 22/08/23] [$1000] Enable developers to install multiple app variants simultaneously

[Julesssss]

P/S from @mczernek

Problem

As a developer when working on mobile applications I cannot have two versions of the App being installed at the same time, even when one of them is staging and the other is a production app.
I want to be able to have a production app installed at all times and simultaneously install new versions of the app I am working on. I want to be able to easily distinguish between both installed apps.

Solution

Both iOS and Android prevent users from having the same app installed twice on the device. This is determined by bundleID on iOS and applicationID on Android. In order to have multiple apps we need to alter their ids.

• Agree on the environments which will be split into separate apps @mczernek @Julesssss
• Set up new internal Firebase apps @Julesssss
• Configure the Android app package ID, name, and app icon @mczernek
• Configure the iOS app buildSchemes, bundleID, name, and app icon @mczernek
• [Android only] The Main page icon shows Dev for the AdHoc builds:
• Figure out the dev build pipeline, do contributors need to change their workflow? @Julesssss
• Document the various Android build flavours to make this clearer to the team @Julesssss
• Share this change with the internal engineers and wider contributor team @Julesssss
• Deprecate the old AdHoc provisioning profile and identifier @Julesssss
• Confirm we should point to staging envfor the AdHoc build @Julesssss
• Question about the type of iOS profile I used for AdHoc builds
• Create follow-up issue for installing AdHoc Desktop apps side-by-side

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01a69dd286c1e8c009
• Upwork Job ID: 1689297187278802944
• Last Price Increase: 2023-08-09

[MelvinBot]

Triggered auto assignment to @NicMendonca (NewFeature), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/14418#:~:text=BugZero%20process%20steps%20for%20feature%20requests for more details.

[Julesssss]

Hey @NicMendonca, SWM are going to work on this, so no UpWork issue is required.

[mczernek]

As agreed on Slack we're gonna start with adding two build types (or flavors) with different applicationId than staging and production (they share the same one).

[staszekscp]

Hey, I'd like to inform that I'll be working on this issue :)

[Julesssss]

Hey @staszekscp, that's great! Nice to meet you.

[Julesssss]

So, starting with the environment mapping, I believe this is our current build env config:

Android build variants

release: production app
e2eRelease: clear traffic build for automated performance testing
internalRelease: internal testing for beta channels, Applause testing, and browserstack(?)
debug: local dev builds

iOS packaging(?)
I'm not exactly sure how this works today, I can't see any buildScheme configured 😕

production: production app/testflight
staging|internal: dev builds

---

I think we're aligned on allowing these three variants to be installed simultaneously. This would be consistent for Android, iOS, and Desktop:

• Expensify Chat: [production|staging] PlayStore/App Store/Testflight/Production Desktop builds
  • signed with production key, only available via the PlayStore/AppStore/Testflight
  • A single app for official both production and staging builds, depending if the user is on the official app store beta testers list
  • iOS: com.chat.expensify.chat, Android: com.expensify.chat
• Expensify Chat AdHoc: [internal|ad-hoc] Internal testing via ReadyToBuild browserstack label
  • Allows a single BrowserStack build to be spun up and tested alongside the official app release
  • While e2e performance builds are unlikely to be installed to a device, we may as well keep these builds within the 'Internal' bucket
    PlayStore/AppStore build
  • iOS: com.expensify.chat.adhoc, Android: com.expensify.chat.adhoc
• Expensify Chat Dev: [env pulled from local .env file] local developer builds for internal employees and external contributors
  • Environment is pulled from the .env config, it can point to Ngrok/production environment depending on who is building the app
  • iOS: com.expensify.chat.dev, Android: com.expensify.chat.dev

[staszekscp]

Hey @Julesssss! As a follow-up from Slack to keep everything in the issue: Could you add com.expensify.chat.internal and com.expensify.chat.dev projects to Google Services? Without that I’m afraid I won’t be able to build android app.