May 2024 Summaries

Bitrise has introduced a flexible build scheduler that adapts to the unique rhythms of development lifecycles. The new feature allows users to set up build schedules of their choice, including custom intervals and specific days of the week. Additionally, Bitrise now offers a Cron-Based Scheduler, which enables users to use cron syntax to define highly specific and flexible build schedules. This feature provides granular control, flexibility in patterns, efficiency in resource optimization, scalability, and standardization. The Cron-Based Scheduler allows for precise scheduling down to the minute, supports complex scheduling patterns, optimizes resource usage, and is a widely understood standard. This innovation aims to provide more control and precision in scheduling automation, catering to the needs of solo developers, DevOps wizards, and enterprise architects.

We are excited to announce an upgrade to our integration capabilities with GitHub, enhancing security, developer workflow efficiency, and reducing CI maintenance overhead. The new GitHub App integration provides short-lived tokens for better data security, integrates with GitHub Checks out of the box, and eliminates the need for SSH keys or service users. By switching from OAuth to GitHub App, developers can experience improved build status updates and more control over their repositories, making it a recommended integration method by GitHub.

Swiggy's mobile application development team transitioned from an in-house CI/CD setup to Bitrise, a leading CI/CD platform, to enhance efficiency, collaboration, and quality throughout the development lifecycle. By adopting Mobile DevOps practices, Swiggy aims to deliver high-quality apps quickly, foster teamwork, and reduce defects. The company previously used an in-house CI/CD setup managed through Jenkins, but faced scalability issues with expansion. After evaluating various platforms, including Bitrise, GitHub Actions, and Dedicated EC2, they opted for Bitrise due to its user-friendly interface, extensive feature set, and seamless integrations. With Bitrise, Swiggy has experienced improved build times, increased efficiency, enhanced quality, and reduced downtime, allowing developers to focus on coding and enhancing productivity. The company plans to continue leveraging Bitrise's features to optimize their development process and stay ahead of the competition.

Bitrise has expanded into web CI/CD, allowing developers to automate their entire development process, from mobile apps to web applications, with a platform that's been forged in its own making. The new capabilities include provisioning the right build environment using YAML syntax, building bridges between local and CI environments, accelerating builds by using pre-built Docker images, and supporting custom Docker images for tailored needs. Bitrise offers a developer-centric platform that's intuitive and adaptable, with features like effortless setup & management, lightning-fast builds with build caching, scalable cloud infrastructure, customizable workflows, and priority support channels. Developers can join the closed beta to gain early access to innovative features, influence product development, gain a competitive edge, and shape the future of CI/CD for web and backend developers.

Rippling`, a leader in the HR tech industry, successfully scaled its mobile app's infrastructure from 8 MacBooks to a fully cloud-based CI/CD setup using `Bitrise`. The company overcame challenges such as CPU performance, memory requirements, and GPU dependencies by leveraging technologies like `Detox testing framework`, `Android SDK + Android Emulator` and `MacOS + Xcode + iOS Simulator`. Rippling's mobile CI pipeline is designed to run quality checks on every pull request created by developers for the mobile app. The pipeline includes stages such as static code checks, unit tests, seed test territories, build mobile apps, test mobile apps, and publish results. Additionally, Rippling uses automated notifications, HTML test reports, and daily health checks to ensure the reliability of the mobile app on production. By adopting Bitrise, Rippling achieved a scalable and efficient mobile CI/CD solution that improved release times by 75% and enabled over-the-air releases in under 15 minutes.

When it comes to app distribution tools, developer teams are looking for alternatives to Microsoft's AppCenter that offer streamlined experiences and the same features. A key consideration is ease of use, with intuitive user interfaces that simplify the release process and reduce confusion. Transparency in release operations and control over manual or automated distribution options are also crucial. Easy tester access and smooth tester experiences are essential, as well as stakeholder management features like permission settings and comprehensive transparency. Scalability is vital, especially for growing teams, and cost-effectiveness should be evaluated alongside the tool's value for money. Platforms like Bitrise's Release Management add-on, Firebase App Distribution, Google Play Console, TestFlight, and Fastlane offer various solutions to streamline app distribution, with unique capabilities and limitations that should be considered when selecting a platform. Ultimately, finding the right distribution platform can significantly impact the ease of distribution, tester engagement, code signing, and success of app deployment.

The new trigger controls in Bitrise enhance the precision of automation by allowing developers to target specific commits, file changes, PR labels and comments within their Git events. These granular triggers provide surgical precision over what build should initiate on Bitrise based on the nature and context of their Git event, eliminating unnecessary builds triggered by irrelevant code changes. With the new controls, users can tailor build execution precisely based on the nature of changes within a push or a pull request, combining patterns to create intricate configurations for targeted builds. The enhanced triggers also include regex-based configuration options for all triggers, allowing developers to define intricate patterns for various triggers and exclude specific files or directories from triggering builds. By leveraging these powerful capabilities, users can benefit from a more targeted approach to automation, reducing wasted resources and time spent on unnecessary builds.

We're excited to introduce several updates in April, including Connected Apps for streamlined Release Management, powerful new build triggers for precise automation, and enhancements to our Workflow Editor and API. With Connected Apps, you can directly link individual App Store Connect and Google Play Console apps with Bitrise apps, allowing more efficient release management. Our new enhanced build triggers provide granular control and flexibility to streamline development workflows with automation, reducing unnecessary builds and improving accuracy. The Workflow Editor has received a new look and feel, with separate sections for output variables and description. We've also introduced five new API endpoints to simplify user management across your workspace. Additionally, we've added the Gradle Critical Path Analyzer and Diagnostic Builds, which pinpoint bottlenecks in build and test processes, significantly reducing build times. The Bitrise Runner allows you to use a machine of your choice within your own infrastructure to run Bitrise builds, providing enhanced security and geolocation flexibility. We've also updated our IP address range for Bitrise build machines and introduced rate limiting on Docker Hub image pulls.