Advanced.md

Advanced fastlane

Passing Parameters

To pass parameters from the command line to your lane, use the following syntax:

fastlane [lane] key:value key2:value2

fastlane deploy submit:false build_number:24

To access those values, change your lane decleration to also include |options|

lane :deploy do |options|
  ...
  if options[:submit]
    # Only when submit is true
  end
  ...
  increment_build_number(build_number: options[:build_number])
  ...
end

Switching lanes

To switch lanes while executing a lane, use the following code:

lane :deploy do |options|
  ...
  build(release: true) # that's the important bit
  hockey
  ...
end

lane :staging do |options|
  ...
  build # it also works when you don't pass parameters
  hockey
  ...
end

lane :build do |options|
  scheme = (options[:release] ? "Release" : "Staging")
  ipa(scheme: scheme)
end

fastlane takes care of all the magic for you. You can call lanes of the same platform or a general lane outside of the platform definition.

Passing parameters is optional.

Returning values

Additionally, you can retrieve the return value. In Ruby, the last line of the lane definition is the return value. Here is an example:

lane :deploy do |options|
  value = calculate(value: 3)
  puts value # => 5
end

lane :calculate do |options|
  ...
  2 + options[:value] # the last line will always be the return value
end

Shell values

You can get value from shell commands:

output = sh("pod update")

Importing another Fastfile

Within your Fastfile you can import another Fastfile using 2 methods:

import

Import a Fastfile from a local path

import "../GeneralFastfile"

override_lane :from_general do
  ...
end

import_from_git

Import from another git repository, which you can use to have one git repo with a default Fastfile for all your project

import_from_git(url: 'https://github.com/KrauseFx/fastlane')
# or
import_from_git(url: 'git@github.com:MyAwesomeRepo/MyAwesomeFastlaneStandardSetup.git',
               path: 'fastlane/Fastfile')

lane :new_main_lane do
  ...
end

Note

You should import the other Fastfile on the top above your lane declarations. When defining a new lane fastlane will make sure to not run into any name conflicts. If you want to overwrite an existing lane (from the imported one), use the override_lane keyword.

Environment Variables

You can define environment variables in a .env or .env.default file in the same directory as your Fastfile. Environment variables are loading using dotenv. Here's an example.

WORKSPACE=YourApp.xcworkspace
HOCKEYAPP_API_TOKEN=your-hockey-api-token

fastlane also has a --env option that allows loading of environment specific dotenv files. .env and .env.default will be loaded before environment specific dotenv files are loaded. The naming convention for environment specific dotenv files is .env.<environment>

For example, fastlane <lane-name> --env development will load .env, .env.default, and .env.development

Lane Context

The different actions can communicate with each other using a shared hash. You can access them in your lanes with the following code.

Replace VARIABLE_NAME_HERE with any of the following.

lane_context[SharedValues::LANE_NAME]                 # The name of the current lane (stays the same when switching lanes)
lane_context[SharedValues::BUILD_NUMBER]              # Generated by `increment_build_number`
lane_context[SharedValues::SNAPSHOT_SCREENSHOTS_PATH] # Generated by `snapshot`
lane_context[SharedValues::PRODUCE_APPLE_ID]          # The Apple ID of the newly created app
lane_context[SharedValues::IPA_OUTPUT_PATH]           # Generated by `ipa`
lane_context[SharedValues::DSYM_OUTPUT_PATH]          # Generated by `ipa`
lane_context[SharedValues::SIGH_PROFILE_PATH]         # Generated by `sigh`
lane_context[SharedValues::SIGH_UDID]                 # The UDID of the generated provisioning profile
lane_context[SharedValues::HOCKEY_DOWNLOAD_LINK]      # Generated by `hockey`
lane_context[SharedValues::DEPLOYGATE_URL]            # Generated by `deploygate`
lane_context[SharedValues::DEPLOYGATE_APP_REVISION]   # Integer, generated by `deploygate`
lane_context[SharedValues::DEPLOYGATE_APP_INFO]       # Hash, generated by `deploygate`

To get information about the available lane variables, run fastlane action [action_name].

Private lanes

Sometimes you might have a lane that is used from different lanes, for example:

lane :production do
  ...
  build(release: true)
  appstore # Deploy to the AppStore
  ...
end

lane :beta do
  ...
  build(release: false)
  crashlytics # Distribute to testers
  ...
end

lane :build do |options|
  ...
  ipa
  ...
end

It probably doesn't make sense to execute the build lane directly using fastlane build. You can hide this lane using

private_lane :build do |options|
  ...
end

This will hide the lane from:

• fastlane lanes
• fastlane list
• fastlane docs

And also, you can't call the private lane using fastlane build.

The resulting private lane can only be called from another lane using the lane switching technology.

Hide the fastlane folder

Just rename the folder to .fastlane in case you don't want it to be visible in the Finder.

Load own actions from external folder

Add this to the top of your Fastfile.

actions_path '../custom_actions_folder/'

The Appfile

The documentation was moved to Appfile.md.

Skip update check when launching fastlane

You can set the environment variable FASTLANE_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK to skip the update check.

Gitignore

If you are using Git for this project, we recommend that you keep the fastlane configuration files in your repository. You may want to add the following lines to your .gitignore file to exclude some generated and temporary files:

# Fastlane temporary profiling data
/fastlane/report.xml
# Deliver temporary error output
/fastlane/Error*.png
# Deliver temporary preview output
/fastlane/Preview.html
# Snapshot generated screenshots
/fastlane/screenshots/*/*-portrait.png
/fastlane/screenshots/*/*-landscape.png
/fastlane/screenshots/screenshots.html
# Frameit generated screenshots
/fastlane/screenshots/*/*-portrait_framed.png
/fastlane/screenshots/*/*-landscape_framed.png