tane/docs/release.md

Releasing Tane

Tane ships as a self-contained Android app (desktop builds also work). Releases are automated and password-free: pushing a signed git tag triggers CI, which builds a signed AAB and publishes it to Google Play. This page covers the one-time setup, the automated flow, and the by-hand fallback.

TL;DR — cut a release

Once the one-time setup below is done:

# bump version in apps/app_seeds/pubspec.yaml, update CHANGELOG + changelogs/<code>.txt
git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0

Forgejo Actions (../.forgejo/workflows/release.yml) builds the signed AAB/APK and uploads to Play's internal track. No passwords are typed.

Versioning

• Semantic version in apps/app_seeds/pubspec.yaml as MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH+BUILD (e.g. 0.1.0+1). Flutter maps +BUILD to Android versionCode and the rest to versionName.
• Record every user-visible change in ../CHANGELOG.md and add a matching per-locale note under apps/app_seeds/fastlane/metadata/android/<locale>/changelogs/<versionCode>.txt.

One-time setup

Android signing keystore (dedicated to Tane)

Tane uses its own upload keystore, separate from other Comunes apps (Ğ1nkgo, Fuegos), kept in the shared Comunes signing directory:

keytool -genkey -v \
  -keystore /home/vjrj/proyectos/sync/comunes/shared-l2/apkSigning/tane-upload.jks \
  -keyalg RSA -keysize 4096 -validity 10000 -alias tane-upload

Release builds sign with this keystore when a gitignored apps/app_seeds/android/key.properties exists; without it they fall back to debug keys (so contributors can still flutter run --release). For local signed builds, create apps/app_seeds/android/key.properties (never commit it):

storeFile=/home/vjrj/proyectos/sync/comunes/shared-l2/apkSigning/tane-upload.jks
storePassword=…
keyAlias=tane-upload
keyPassword=…

With Play App Signing (recommended, enabled once in the console) this is the upload key; Google holds the app signing key and can help rotate the upload key if it is ever lost.

CI secrets (one-time, Forgejo → repo Settings → Actions → Secrets)

Set these so releases never prompt for a password:

Secret	What
TANE_KEYSTORE_BASE64	base64 -w0 tane-upload.jks
TANE_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD	store password
TANE_KEY_ALIAS	tane-upload
TANE_KEY_PASSWORD	key password
SUPPLY_JSON_KEY_DATA	Google Play service-account JSON (raw file contents)

The Play service account is reused from Ğ1nkgo (ginkgo-play-uploader@…, /home/vjrj/etc/ginkgo_play_api_key.json) — it belongs to the Comunes Play account, not to one app, so it just needs access granted to org.comunes.tane in Play Console. fastlane supply uses it to upload without a human. The first upload of the brand-new app must still be done by hand in the console (Play requires the app to exist before the API accepts uploads).

Build by hand (fallback / first Play upload)

cd apps/app_seeds
dart run slang                                    # i18n (if strings changed)
dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs   # Drift (if schema changed)
flutter test                                      # must be green
flutter build appbundle --release                 # AAB for Play
flutter build apk --release                       # APK for sideload / QA

Artifacts:

• AAB → apps/app_seeds/build/app/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab
• APK → apps/app_seeds/build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk

Verify the signature is Tane's key (not another app's): apksigner verify --print-certs app-release.apk → alias tane-upload.

Publish to Google Play (fastlane)

CI does this on tag, but you can run it locally too:

cd apps/app_seeds
bundle install
SUPPLY_JSON_KEY_DATA="$(cat play-service-account.json)" bundle exec fastlane deploy_play

Lanes live in fastlane/Fastfile; the store listing (titles, descriptions, changelogs, screenshots) is read straight from fastlane/metadata/android/. Data Safety and content-rating answers: legal/internal/play-compliance.md.

Publish to F-Droid (official repo)

F-Droid builds and signs from source after a merge request to fdroiddata. The build recipe is kept in-repo at fdroid/org.comunes.tane.yml. Copy it to metadata/org.comunes.tane.yml in a fork of fdroiddata, validate with fdroid lint / fdroid build -l org.comunes.tane, then open the MR. F-Droid signs with its own key, so the F-Droid and Play builds have different signatures.

Store metadata

F-Droid / Fastlane-style metadata lives under apps/app_seeds/fastlane/metadata/android/. Descriptions are derived from intro.md; icon and splash are generated by flutter_launcher_icons / flutter_native_splash (see pubspec.yaml).

Legal & Play compliance (before any store submission)

• The privacy policy must be live at https://tane.comunes.org/legal/privacy (sources in legal/) — Play Console requires the URL.
• Fill the Data Safety form and the UGC/content-rating questionnaires from the answer sheet in legal/internal/play-compliance.md.
• The in-app requirements (community-rules acceptance on market entry, report and block) ship with the app; keep them working — Play's UGC policy review looks for them.

Manual smoke test before shipping

Automated tests cover behaviour; a release build still gets a human pass on a real device (the one place we allow manual testing — it validates the packaged artifact, it does not replace tests):

1. Cold start → intro carousel → home.
2. Quick-add a seed with a photo; it appears in the list.
3. Mark a lot to share; the "I share" filter and printable catalog appear.
4. Save a backup, then restore it (and test the recovery sheet + code on a second install).
5. Switch language (es / en / pt); check an RTL locale if the device offers one.

Not automated

Web builds (SQLCipher is unavailable on web) and iOS (no Apple developer setup yet). The F-Droid MR is opened by hand (F-Droid builds on its own infra, not ours).