Browser Builders:   Use an iPhone to Update Your App

If you use the Browser Build method,

  • Current versions of Loop, Trio, LoopFollow and LoopCaregiver should automatically rebuild at least once per month, on the first day of the month.
  • The ENABLE_NUKE_CERTS Variable ensures that your Apple Distribution certificate will automatically renew
  • From time-to-time, manual intervention is required.  These steps can all be done from your phone in any location with internet access (hotel room, sports field, or just relaxing and don’t have a computer handy).  

The GitHub layout is slightly different on the phone, but the process is the same whether you’re building using a computer, tablet or phone, and you need to follow the instructions to sign any pending Apple Developer agreement, or renew your distribution certificate.
Warning:  If you get a build error, the very first thing that you should do is sign into your Apple Developer acount and look to see if you need to sign a new license agreement or update certificates. The GitHub error messages can be misleading and it is unlikely that someone who has successfully built before will suddenly have an issue with their Secrets or Identifiers, so don’t start deleting things in GitHub until you’ve gone to Apple Developer and posted on Facebook.

Here’s how you can quickly and easily update your apps from any location using your phone.

LoopDocs has more indepth information:

https://loopkit.github.io/loopdocs/browser/bb-update/

Sync Fork

To sync (update) your fork, follow these instructions:

  1. Log into GitHub.  If you do not log in, you will see  in the upper right corner.
  2. Navigate to the repository that you’d like to update. Your URL will looks like this: https://github.com/username/repositoryname
  3. Click on Code.  In this example, our LoopFollow code is 3 commits behind.  
  4. Scroll down to Sync Fork
  5. Select Update branch

 

Actions

To build your app, follow these instructions:

  1. Click on Actions tab.  If you don’t see Actions, then click on the 3 dots next to Code or Pull Requests to reveal Actions
  2. Click on All workflows; the menu expands to reveal the 4 actions
  3. Select the action that you’d like to run.  In this example, we’re running the Build action
  4. Select Run workflow.  You’ll see the branch that you’re going to build, in this case, it is main.  If you’d like to build dev, your branch will be dev.  Instructions for creating a new branch if you don’t currently have the branch that you’d like to build
  5. Click the green Run workflow button

Create a New Branch

If you are currently using one branch of an app, but would like to build a different branch, follow these instructions:

  1.  In your repository, click on Code
  2. Select Branches
  3. Select New Branch
  4. Change your default branch name to the new branch name
  5. Select the repository that you’d like to fork from
    • DO NOT fork your own repository, select the developer’s repository
  6. Select the branch that you’d like to create (same as in #4 above)
  7. Click Create New Branch

TestFlight

After you complete the steps above, you’ll need to wait patiently for your updated app to arrive in TestFlight.  The timing for this step varies, but it usually takes less than one hour.