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fastlane Plugins

The instructions below require fastlane 1.93.0 or higher

fastlane is an open platform and we enable every developer to extend it to fit their needs. That's why we built a plugin system that allows you and your company to provide fastlane plugins to other fastlane users. You have the full power and responsibility of maintaining your plugin and keeping it up to date. This is useful if you maintain your own library or web service, and want to make sure the fastlane plugin is always up to date.

Local actions

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Find a plugin

Head over to Available Plugins for a list of plugins you can use.

List all available plugins using

fastlane search_plugins

To search for something specific

fastlane search_plugins [query]

Add a plugin to your project

fastlane add_plugin [name]

fastlane will assist you on setting up your project to start using plugins.

This will:

  • Add the plugin to fastlane/Pluginfile
  • Make sure your fastlane/Pluginfile is properly referenced from your ./Gemfile
  • Run fastlane install_plugins to make sure all required dependencies are installed on your local machine (this step might ask for your admin password to install Ruby gems)
  • You'll have 3 new files, that should all be checked into version control: Gemfile, Gemfile.lock and fastlane/Pluginfile

Plugin Source

Your fastlane/Pluginfile contains the list of all fastlane plugins your project uses. The Pluginfile is a Gemfile that gets imported from your main Gemfile. You specify all dependencies, including the required version numbers:

# Fetched from RubyGems.org
gem "fastlane-plugin-xcversion"

# Fetched from GitHub
gem "fastlane-plugin-xcversion", git: "https://github.com/fastlane/fastlane-plugin-xcversion"

# Fetched from a local directory
gem "fastlane-plugin-xcversion", path: "../fastlane-plugin-xcversion"

# Specify a version requirements
gem "fastlane-plugin-xcversion", "1.1.0"
gem "fastlane-plugin-xcversion", ">= 1.0"

More information about a Gemfile

Install plugins on another machine

To make sure all plugins are installed on the local machine, run

fastlane install_plugins

Remove a plugin

Open your fastlane/Pluginfile and remove the line that looks like this

gem "fastlane-plugin-[plugin_name]"

Create your own plugin

cd ~/new/folder/

fastlane new_plugin [plugin_name]
  • fastlane creates the directory structure that's needed to be a valid Ruby gem
  • Edit the lib/fastlane/plugin/[plugin_name]/actions/[plugin_name].rb and implement your action
  • Easily test the plugin locally by running fastlane add_plugin in your project's directory and specifying the local path when asked for it

New plugin for existing gem

If you already have an existing gem you want to provide a fastlane plugin for, you'll still have to create a new Ruby gem. The reason for that is the way plugins are imported.

The example project xcake contains a folder named fastlane-plugin-xcake.

All you have to do if you have an existing gem:

  • Navigate to your gem
  • fastlane new_plugin [plugin_name]
  • Inside the newly created folder, edit the fastlane-plugin-[plugin_name].gemspec and add your gem as a dependency. It is recommended to also specify a version number requirement

Publishing your plugin

RubyGems

The recommended way to publish your plugin is to publish it on RubyGems.org. Follow the steps below to publish your plugin.

  1. Create an account at RubyGems.org
  2. Publish your plugin to a GitHub repo
  3. Update the fastlane-plugin-[plugin_name].gemspec file so that the spec.homepage points to your github repo.
  4. Publish the first release of your plugin:
bundle install
rake install
rake release

Now all your users can run fastlane add_plugin [plugin_name] to install and use your plugin.

GitHub

If for some reason you don't want to use RubyGems, you can also make your plugin available on GitHub. Your users then need to add the following to the Pluginfile

gem "fastlane-plugin-[plugin_name]", git: "https://github.com/[user]/[plugin_name]"

Advanced

Multiple actions in one plugin

Let's assume you work on a fastlane plugin for project management software. You could call it fastlane-plugin-pm and it may contain any number of actions and helpers, just add them to your actions folder. Make sure to mention the available actions in your plugin's README.md.