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App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

blogs.msdn.microsoft.com

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Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#11

Post by keithba »

ridruejo wrote: post #6
keithba wrote: post #2

Hi - author of the blog post here and PM on the team! We are very proud of what we've built here. Regardless of how you built your app (Swift, Java, React Native, Xamarin), we offer CI, releasing to your beta users and the app stores, Crash reporting, analytics, and even push messaging. Let us know your thoughts!

Very cool. Any plans to add support to server side apps for Azure?

We are highly focused on rich client apps right now, especially iOS and Android, but also Windows and macOS.

Feel free to reach out to me and we could discuss your scenarios in more detail. There are other tools that may fit your scenario better.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#13

Post by keithba »

vblord wrote: post #12

Looks pretty good, but a lot depends on implementation. The testing on devices is cool, but $100 a month is a lot... especially since many developers don't make that much off their apps.

Most of the services are free. You don't have to use the test service if it is outside of your budget. For instance, you could push your successful builds directly to beta testers, if you'd like.

We've gone out of our way to make sure everything in the product is accessible via our REST API, and we also have a CLI you can install from npm.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#14

Post by lardo »

keithba wrote: post #10
CharlesW wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems…great? Why did Microsoft create this? Specifically, I'm not interested in the "because we love developers" story, I'm interested in the "this is strategic for Microsoft now and for the next decade because" story.

The team is extremely passionate about creating developer productivity tools. App Center's creators include the founders of HockeyApp, Xamarin Test Cloud, and CodePush. This is something we were all iterating towards individually, and when we met up at Microsoft, we realized we now had the team and ability to make it happen. Microsoft is very serious about creating amazing developer tool across any app, platform, and…

What a lovely nonanswer.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#15

Post by jjeaff »

CharlesW wrote: post #8
keithba wrote: post #2

Hi - author of the blog post here and PM on the team! We are very proud of what we've built here. Regardless of how you built your app (Swift, Java, React Native, Xamarin), we offer CI, releasing to your beta users and the app stores, Crash reporting, analytics, and even push messaging. Let us know your thoughts!

This seems…great? Why did Microsoft create this? Specifically, I'm not interested in the "because we love developers" story, I'm interested in the "this is strategic for Microsoft now and for the next decade because" story.

Why did they create it? It's $40 - $99 a month for premium usage and has the potential to make tying in with other MS products like azure, easier. Seems like plenty of reason to me.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#16

Post by tkjef »

lardo wrote: post #14
keithba wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The team is extremely passionate about creating developer productivity tools. App Center's creators include the founders of HockeyApp, Xamarin Test Cloud, and CodePush. This is something we were all iterating towards individually, and when we met up at Microsoft, we realized we now had the team and ability to make it happen. Microsoft is very serious about creating amazing developer tool across any app, platform, and…

What a lovely nonanswer.

Seems like it's to get more people on Azure. Doesn't look like it works with AWS or GCP.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#17

Post by m_fayer »

keithba wrote: post #2

Hi - author of the blog post here and PM on the team! We are very proud of what we've built here. Regardless of how you built your app (Swift, Java, React Native, Xamarin), we offer CI, releasing to your beta users and the app stores, Crash reporting, analytics, and even push messaging. Let us know your thoughts!

Here's a scenario I'm dealing with that must be fairly common. A mobile app running against an Azure backend, where users can also access the app through a SPA on their desktop. I don't want my analytics data spread out over multiple analytics services, so can this analytics service support SPAs as well? Bonus points for being able to track the same user across mobile + SPA.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#18

Post by keithba »

m_fayer wrote: post #17
keithba wrote: post #2

Hi - author of the blog post here and PM on the team! We are very proud of what we've built here. Regardless of how you built your app (Swift, Java, React Native, Xamarin), we offer CI, releasing to your beta users and the app stores, Crash reporting, analytics, and even push messaging. Let us know your thoughts!

Here's a scenario I'm dealing with that must be fairly common. A mobile app running against an Azure backend, where users can also access the app through a SPA on their desktop. I don't want my analytics data spread out over multiple analytics services, so can this analytics service support SPAs as well? Bonus points for being able to track the same user across mobile + SPA.

Right this second, we offer the ability to export your analytics to Azure Blob Storage, and Application Insights, where you can then join the App Center analytics with other data.

We are looking at what we can do to make the SPA + mobile workflow super easy, though. Stay tuned on this. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me as I'd love to ask you some more questions.

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#19

Post by WorldMaker »

Sujan wrote: post #9
Sujan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Regardless of how you built your app (Swift, Java, React Native, Xamarin) Any word on Cordova support? All those Ionic apps (which uses Cordova in the background) would feel very at home at App Center...

Oh, just saw that https://appcenter.ms mentions Cordova: > Even more! macOS, tvOS and Cordova But can't find it inside...

Interestingly, the new deeper HockeyApp integration recognized that my apps were built with Cordova, but then just shows a "Cordova support coming soon" page for Android and iOS. (The Windows Cordova app was recognized as UWP rather than Cordova. The Windows Electron app I have wasn't recognized at all, but that is unsurprising.)

Re: App Center: Build, Test, Distribute and Monitor Apps in the Cloud

#20

Post by jksmith »

keithba wrote: post #10
CharlesW wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems…great? Why did Microsoft create this? Specifically, I'm not interested in the "because we love developers" story, I'm interested in the "this is strategic for Microsoft now and for the next decade because" story.

The team is extremely passionate about creating developer productivity tools. App Center's creators include the founders of HockeyApp, Xamarin Test Cloud, and CodePush. This is something we were all iterating towards individually, and when we met up at Microsoft, we realized we now had the team and ability to make it happen. Microsoft is very serious about creating amazing developer tool across any app, platform, and…

You need golang on that toolchain. It is arguably the language of the cloud at this point.
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