Build Keystore File and Publish App

📦 Manually Packaging the Mazaar Flutter App

1. 🔑 Generate the Keystore File

First, navigate to where keytool is located and run the following command to generate a keystore:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore key.jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -alias MazaarFERelease

Example pathing with command for keytool location:

PS C:\Program Files\Eclipse Adoptium\jdk-21.0.1.12-hotspot\bin> keytool -genkey -v -keystore key.jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -alias MazaarFERelease

Follow the prompts and provide the necessary details:

• Keystore password: [Enter a secure password]
• First and last name: [Firstname Lastname]
• Organizational unit: Dev
• Organization: Mazaar
• City or Locality: Sunnyvale
• State or Province: CA
• Country code: US

Once completed, the system will generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair and self-signed certificate valid for 10,000 days, and it will store it in key.jks.

2. 📄 Create key.properties File

At the root of your android folder in MazaarApp Frontend, create a key.properties file and include the following content:

STORE_PASSWORD=[Your keystore password]
KEY_PASSWORD=[Your key password] 
KEY_ALIAS=MazaarFERelease
KEYSTORE_PATH=C:/Program Files/Eclipse Adoptium/jdk-21.0.1.12-hotspot/bin/key.jks

Your KEY_PASSWORD is usually the same as the STORE_PASSWORD password.

3. 🛠️ Update build.gradle

In your project’s build.gradle file, include the following code before the android section to load the keystore properties:

def keystoreProperties = new Properties()
def keystorePropertiesFile = rootProject.file('key.properties')
if (keystorePropertiesFile.exists()) {
    keystoreProperties.load(new FileInputStream(keystorePropertiesFile))
}

4. 🖊️ Configure Signing in build.gradle

Update the signingConfigs section in the build.gradle file. If you encounter issues, consider running flutter clean before rebuilding the project.

signingConfigs {
    release {
        keyAlias keystoreProperties['KEY_ALIAS']
        keyPassword keystoreProperties['KEY_PASSWORD']
        storeFile file(keystoreProperties['KEYSTORE_PATH'])
        storePassword keystoreProperties['STORE_PASSWORD']
    }
}

buildTypes {
    release {
        signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        minifyEnabled true
        shrinkResources true
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
    debug {
        signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
        debuggable true
    }
}

5. 🚀 Build the App Bundle

Run the following command to build the app bundle for release:

flutter build appbundle --flavor prod --release --obfuscate --split-debug-info=build/symbols

note

This command may be out of date; Check the workflow file main.yml to see the latest command

This will also generate the necessary debug symbols for de-obfuscating crash reports.

6. 🛠️ Upload Native Debug Symbols

To upload native debug symbols, go to:

[YOUR_PROJECT]/build/app/intermediates/merged_native_libs/release/out/lib

Inside this folder, you'll find subdirectories:

• arm64-v8a
• armeabi-v7a
• x86_64

Select these three folders, compress them into a .zip file, and upload it as a symbol file to Firebase Crashlytics.

Note: Do not compress the entire ./lib folder.

7. 📅 Versioning for New Releases

In your pubspec.yaml file, ensure proper versioning for each new release. The version is set as follows:

version: 1.1.0+2

• 1.1.0: This is the versionName (the semantic version users see).
• 2: This is the versionCode (increment this integer with each release).

8. 🛠️ Enable Crashlytics (if not already enabled) and De-Obfuscate Crash Reports

To enable Crashlytics and upload debug symbols, use this Firebase CLI command:

firebase crashlytics:symbols:upload --app=1:477683856186:android:fd23d8bac6b38b50aa9603 build/symbols

To de-obfuscate a stack trace manually if you got it through google play console, use the following command:

flutter symbolize -i <stack-trace-file> -d build/symbols/android-arm64.symbols

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By following these steps, you can successfully build, obfuscate, sign, and package your Flutter app for release on Google Play, while maintaining robust crash reporting and version management.

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