From Chaos to Consistency - Managing Build and Release for 25+ Android Repos with Github Actions

Managing the build and release process for over 25 Android repositories can be a daunting task. With each repository having its own pipeline or workflow, it can become difficult to ensure consistency and quality across all the repositories. In this talk, we will share our experience of how we tackled this challenge at YML by using a centralized Github Actions approach.

We will discuss how we created reusable workflows that can be easily shared across all the repositories, reducing the need to maintain multiple pipelines. We will also cover the various checks that we execute for each repository, such as unit tests, integration tests, and code quality checks. These checks help us catch issues early and ensure we are always release-ready.

By using a centralized Github Actions approach, we have been able to streamline our build and release process, reduce the time and effort required to maintain multiple pipelines and ensure that our code quality remains consistent across all the repositories.

Transcript

1. Welcome to Droidcon San Francisco 2023
2. From Chaos to Consistency: Managing to Build and Release for 25+ Android Repos with Github Actions
3. Shrikant Ballal - Staff Engineer Android at YML
4. Getting you to tomorrow faster Hello from YML YML.co
5. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Let’s Begin: Architecture
6. 6 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Our Architecture
7. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Previous CI/CD Setup
8. Separate CI/CD in each repo
9. The Tech we used before for CI/CD Separate Jenkins pipeline for Android Shell app and for each library project 9 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 One AWS Mac OS agent for all repositories 🤯
10. The Tech we used before for CI/CD 10 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 No mechanism to publish AAR files to internal maven/nexus repositories No App Distribution in place.
11. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Challenges
12. Challenges Across All Repositories 12 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Effort Duplication Inconsistent CI/CD practices
13. Challenges Across All Repositories 13 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Difficulties in adopting new tools, practices and enforcing standards Inefficient troubleshooting and debugging of pipeline failures
14. Challenges Across All Repositories 14 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Lack of Centralised visibility and reporting Limited visibility into test coverage and code quality metrics
15. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Enter Reusable Work fl ows
16. Github Reusable Workflows To The Rescue 16 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 What are Github Reusable Workflows?
17. Benefits of GitHub Reusable workflows 17 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Ensures consistency Improves efficiency Simplifies maintenance
18. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Work fl ow Con fi guration
19. Anatomy of Reusable Workflows - workflow_call 19 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
20. Anatomy of Reusable Workflows - jobs 20 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
21. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Work fl ow Integration
22. Anatomy of Reusable Workflows - caller workflow 22 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
23. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Work fl ow Customisation
24. Additional syntax: Expressions 24 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
25. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Work fl ow Design
26. CI/CD Architecture 26 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
27. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Our Work fl ow Structure
28. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Prepare
29. Checkout + Setup 29 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
30. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Build
31. Assemble 31 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
32. Test 32 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
33. Lint 33 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
34. Sonarqube Scans 34 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
35. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Library Publish and Integration
36. Inside Library module - lib/publish.gradle 36 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
37. lib/publish.gradle 37 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
38. getVersionCode() 38 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
39. lib/build.gradle 39 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
40. Reusable Workflow File Changes 40 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
41. When lib is published 41 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
42. Integrate lib from Github packages into Android app 42 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
43. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Notify
44. Notify 44 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
45. slack_alerts.sh 45 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
46. telegram_alert.sh 46 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
47. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core App Distribution
48. App Distribution - Firebase 48 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
49. App Distribution - Alternatives 49 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Google Play App Center
50. App Distribution - Alternatives 50 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Google Play Firebase Alpha/Beta track Rolling to production Staged rollouts Not prod distribution Crash reports App Center
51. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Monitoring the work fl ow
52. 52 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
53. 53 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
54. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Dependency Management
55. Dependency management 55 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 dependabot.yml
56. Dependency management 56 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
57. Dependabot vs renovatebot 57 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Dependabot is simple Renovate Bot more flexible (auto merge, batch update)
58. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Bene fi ts and Results
59. Our Observation 59 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Increased consistency and reliability across all repositories Streamlined build and release processes Time savings due to automation and reuse
60. 60 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Total Repositories Developer Hours Spent before Work fl ows (per Sprint) Developer Hours Saved with Work fl ows (per Sprint) Android Library Repo (22 Total) 6 hours * 22 repos 2 hours * 22 repos Total 132 hours 44 hours
61. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Reusable Work fl ow Limitations
62. Limitations of Reusable Workflow 62 YML.co droidcon SF 2023 Environment variables set in the caller workflow are not passed to the called workflow. You can call a maximum of 20 reusable workflows, including nested workflows. You can chain up to four workflows.
63. Healthcare Client app )Mobile, Wearables, Web) Library project built in a standalone Github repository. Home Appointments Dependency fl ows in a direction Checkin Facilities Live Video Consultations Health Activity Tracking Feature Libraries Secured Storage Design Kit (Reusable UI Components) Analytics Location Awareness Personalisation Capability Libraries Core Cost Metrics
64. Included Storage and Minutes 64 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
65. Minute Multiplier 65 YML.co droidcon SF 2023
66. Per-minute rates 66 droidcon SF 2023
67. Pricing Details 67 droidcon SF 2023 https://github.com/pricing
68. Thank You!
69. Q & A 69 YML.co droidcon SF 2023