Previews

XCODEPROJ-COMPATIBLE

This feature is compatible with raw Xcode projects.

REMOTE PROJECT REQUIRED

This feature requires a remote project.

When building an app, you may want to share it with others to get feedback. Traditionally, this is something that teams do by building, signing, and pushing their apps to platforms like Apple's TestFlight. However, this process can be cumbersome and slow, especially when you're just looking for quick feedback from a colleague or a friend.

To make this process more streamlined, Tuist provides a way to generate and share previews of your apps with anyone.

DEVICE BUILDS NEED TO BE SIGNED

When building for device, it is currently your responsibility to ensure the app is signed correctly. We plan to streamline this in the future.

Tuist Project

tuist build App # Build the app for the simulator
tuist build App -- -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' # Build the app for the device
tuist share App

Xcode Project

xcodebuild -scheme App -project App.xcodeproj -configuration Debug # Build the app for the simulator
xcodebuild -scheme App -project App.xcodeproj -configuration Debug -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' # Build the app for the device
tuist share App --configuration Debug --platforms iOS
tuist share App.ipa # Share an existing .ipa file

The command will generate a link that you can share with anyone to run the app – either on a simulator or an actual device. All they'll need to do is to run the command below:

tuist run {url}
tuist run --device "My iPhone" {url} # Run the app on a specific device

When sharing an .ipa file, you can download the app directly from the mobile device using the Preview link. The links to .ipa previews are by default public. In the future, you will have an option to make them private, so that the recipient of the link would need to authenticate with their Tuist account to download the app.

tuist run also enables you to run a latest preview based on a specifier such as latest, branch name, or a specific commit hash:

tuist run App@latest # Runs latest App preview associated with the project's default branch
tuist run App@my-feature-branch # Runs latest App preview associated with a given branch
tuist run App@00dde7f56b1b8795a26b8085a781fb3715e834be # Runs latest App preview associated with a given git commit sha

PREVIEWS' VISIBILITY

Only people with access to the organization the project belongs to can access the previews. We plan to add support for expiring links.

Tuist macOS app

Tuist

<a href="https://cloud.tuist.io/download" style="text-decoration: none;">Download</a>

To make running Tuist Previews even easier, we developed a Tuist macOS menu bar app. Instead of running Previews via the Tuist CLI, you can download the macOS app. When you open a Preview link in the browser, the app will automatically launch on your currently selected device.

REQUIREMENTS

To download Previews, you need to first authenticate with the tuist auth command. In the future, you will be able to authenticate directly in the app.

Additionally, you need to have Xcode locally installed.

Pull/merge request comments

INTEGRATION WITH GIT PLATFORM REQUIRED

To get automatic pull/merge request comments, integrate your remote project with a Git platform.

Testing new functionality should be a part of any code review. But having to build an app locally adds unnecessary friction, often leading to developers skipping testing functionality on their device at all. But what if each pull request contained a link to the build that would automatically run the app on a device you selected in the Tuist macOS app?

Once your Tuist project is connected with your Git platform such as GitHub, add a tuist share MyApp to your CI workflow. Tuist will then post a Preview link directly in your pull requests:

Automations

You can use the --json flag to get a JSON output from the tuist share command:

tuist share --json

The JSON output is useful to create custom automations, such as posting a Slack message using your CI provider. The JSON contains a url key with the full preview link and a qrCodeURL key with the URL to the QR code image to make it easier to download previews from a real device. An example of a JSON output is below:

{
  "id": 1234567890,
  "url": "https://cloud.tuist.io/preview/1234567890",
  "qrCodeURL": "https://cloud.tuist.io/preview/1234567890/qr-code.svg"
}