Azure & Branch Management

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After a period of mess, we decided to improve our branch management. We identified the team’s needs, researched best practices, and got to work.

We have two main branches called ‘master’ and ‘development’:

• ‘master’ holds the latest version that we’ve released to the market.
• ‘development’ holds the most up-to-date version with all new features and bug fixes that have been tested.

In addition, we have 3 branch folders named ‘feature’, ‘bugfix’, and ‘rc’.

• Under the ‘feature’ folder, we create a new branch for each new feature ‘task’ in the sprint. When we push the changes, Azure Pipeline sends a new release to the ‘feature application’ we created on AppCenter, and we test the new feature in this application. If there are no issues, we move the changes to ‘development’.
• Under the ‘bugfix’ folder, we create a new branch for each new ‘bug’ in the sprint. When we push the changes, Azure Pipeline sends a new release to the ‘bugfix application’ we created on AppCenter, and we test the fix in this application. If the issue is resolved, we move the changes to ‘development’.
• After developing new features and fixing bugs, now we need to release a new version for our users. At this stage, we create a new release candidate from the ‘development’ branch. When we push the branch, Azure Pipeline sends a new release to the ‘rc application’ we created on AppCenter. We test the latest version in the live environment. If the tests are successful, we send the changes to ‘master’.

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - feature/*

steps:
  # - build 
  # - publish artifact

  # Disribution Tasks
  - task: AppCenterDistribute@3
    displayName: 'Android AppCenter distribution'
    inputs:
      appSlug: 'Your_Company/YourApp-FEATURE'
      appFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/debug.apk'
      distributionGroupId: 'xx-xx-xx' #testers
     condition: succeededOrFailed()

We have created different ‘yaml’ files for each branch.

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - rc/*

steps:
  # - build
  # - publish artifact

  # Disribution Tasks
  - task: AppCenterDistribute@3
    displayName: 'Android AppCenter distribution'
    inputs:
      appSlug: 'Your_Company/YourApp-RC'
      appFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/debug.apk'
      distributionGroupId: 'xx-xx-xx' #testers
     condition: succeededOrFailed()

Everything looked fine, but we had one problem. Whenever we switched branches or merged code, we had to check and update the ‘yaml’ file every time to make sure that the changes were going to the correct application on AppCenter.

Then we added ‘yaml’ files for the ‘build’ and ‘deploy’ jobs.

##azure_deploy_feature.yml

steps:
  - script: echo deploy feature I am deploying to $(Environment)! #defined on branch variables yaml
    displayName: 'Run Deployment'
  - download: current
    artifact: apk
    patterns: '**/*.apk'
  - task: AppCenterDistribute@3
    displayName: 'Android AppCenter distribution'
    inputs:
      appSlug: 'Your_Company/YourApp-FEATURE' #change for each branch
      appFile: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/apk/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/debug.apk'
      distributionGroupId: 'xxx-xxx-xxx' #testers
    condition: succeededOrFailed()

Here is our main ‘yaml’ file after the changes.

##azure-pipelines.yml

trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - master
      - development
      - feature/*
      - bugfix/*
      - rc/*
      
stages:
  - stage: Master
    displayName: Deploy master stage
    condition: eq(variables['Build.SourceBranch'],
      'refs/heads/master')
    jobs:
      - job: BuildMasterJob
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/build_release.yml
      - job: DeploymentJobMaster
        variables:
          - template: azure-variables/azure_variables_master.yml
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/azure_deploy_master.yml

  - stage: Development
    displayName: Deploy development stage
    condition: eq(variables['Build.SourceBranch'],
      'refs/heads/development')
    jobs:
      - job: BuildDevJob
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/build_debug.yml
      - job: DeploymentJobDevelopment
        variables:
          - template: azure-variables/azure_variables_dev.yml
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/azure_deploy_dev.yml

  - stage: Feature
    displayName: Deploy feature stage
    condition: startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/feature/')
    jobs:
      - job: BuildFeatureJob
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/build_debug.yml
      - job: DeploymentJobFeature
        variables:
          - template: azure-variables/azure_variables_feature.yml
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/azure_deploy_feature.yml

  - stage: Bugfix
    displayName: Deploy bugfix stage
    condition: startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/bugfix/')
    jobs:
      - job: BuildBugfixJob
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/build_debug.yml
      - job: DeploymentJobBugfix
        variables:
          - template: azure-variables/azure_variables_bugfix.yml
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/azure_deploy_bugfix.yml

  - stage: RC
    displayName: Deploy rc stage
    condition: startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/rc/')
    jobs:
      - job: BuildRCJob
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/build_release.yml
      - job: DeploymentJobRC
        variables:
          - template: azure-variables/azure_variables_rc.yml
        steps:
          - template: azure-jobs/azure_deploy_rc.yml

Now everything is OK 👍🥳
Here is an example from Azure Pipeline:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/RU_Roundabout_6_Cars.gif

Ford Otosan — Connected Products & Engineering Tribe
Mobile Chapter Lead
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