With TestFlight beta testing, you can distribute prerelease builds of your app to testers to collect feedback and prepare your app for release in the App Store. TestFlight beta testing is optional; you can submit your app for review without using it. However, it’s easy to do, free, and a valuable way to improve your app before releasing it in the App Store. TestFlight beta testing in iTunes Connect is available only for iOS apps. You can enable TestFlight beta testing for up to 10 apps at one time in your developer account. For an overview of this feature, go to TestFlight Beta Testing.
You should take the following steps to set up prerelease versions of your app for testing in iTunes Connect.
If the app is new, create an iTunes Connect record for it. See Create an iTunes Connect Record for TestFlight Beta Testing.
Generate a new App Store Distribution profile containing the beta entitlement to distribute builds via TestFlight.
Upload a build for the app. See Uploading a Build for an App.
Add App Description and What to Test to the build. This step is optional for releasing your builds to internal testers, but required when submitting your app to Beta App Review for external testing. See Add Metadata for your Prerelease App.
Distribute the app to internal testers.
Submit the app for Beta App Review, and distribute it to External users.
Get feedback from your testers.
Upload new builds as you develop them.
When you are finished having users test prerelease versions of your app, submit the app for App Review or turn off testing. See Submitting the App to App Review or Finish Testing an App.
To enable users to start testing prerelease builds of your app, you need to create an iTunes Connect record for your app, as described in Creating an iTunes Connect Record for an App. Because TestFlight beta testing does not require metadata to distribute an app to internal testers and only a limited amount for distributing to external testers, you can start testing quickly.
The chapter Creating an iTunes Connect Record for an App describes all the metadata required before final submission to App Review.
Internal testers. You are not required to supply all metadata in order to invite internal testers to test a prerelease build of your app.
External testers. To enable external users to test a prerelease build of your app, you must supply the following metadata.
What to test
App description
Feedback email
Marketing URL
Support URL
Privacy policy URL (optional)
Beta App Review contact information
Beta App Review notes (optional)
In the iTunes Connect record for the app, you upload a build from Xcode or Application Loader, as explained in Uploading a Build for an App.
Important: In order to use iTunes Connect for TestFlight beta testing, you must submit your app using the latest App Store Distribution profiles that contain the beta entitlement. To regenerate your App Store distribution profile, visit the Member Center; read Beta Testing Your iOS App in App Distribution Guide.
When you have successfully uploaded the build, you can see it in the Prerelease pane.
To view build details
Open the App Details page, as described in Creating an iTunes Connect Record for an App.
Click Prerelease to see the list of builds you have uploaded for the app.
On Builds, you can click the build number to see more information about the build.
The Internal Testers and External Testers panes let you manage the users who will test your builds, as explained in Set Up and Invite Testers.
Once you have created the iTunes Connect record and uploaded a build, you can fill in details about the build to share with your testers. This step is optional for internal testing but recommended, since those fields appear in the TestFlight app and can help your testers.
To add a build description
Open the App Details page, as described in Creating an iTunes Connect Record for an App.
Click Prerelease.
Click the build number you want to test.
Click TestFlight.
On Test Information, provide information for your testers such as What to Test, App Description, your feedback email address, and URLs. You will also provide information for App Review in the Beta App Review Information section, including contact information, demo account information, and any special notes on the build. Please note that this information is specific to Beta App Review and is not the same as the App Review contact information you provide when submitting your App Store version.
Invite users you would like to test prerelease versions of your app. You can enable up to 25 users from your iTunes Connect team to be internal testers and up to 1000 users to be external testers per app.
Note: External testers do not need to be in your organization; you can invite any user with an email address to become one of your external testers.
First verify whether the iTunes Connect user is eligible to become an internal tester and then enable the user to be a tester. Then add the user as a tester of your app and invite him or her to begin testing.
To be eligible to become an internal tester, a user must be part of your iTunes Connect team with the Admin, Legal, or Technical role. Adding iTunes Connect users and setting their roles is explained in Setting Up an iTunes Connect User. You can see users’ roles in the Users and Roles section.
Enabling an iTunes Connect user for TestFlight beta testing is explained in Viewing, Editing, and Deleting iTunes Connect Users.
To add internal testers and invite them to test your app
On the Internal Testers pane in the Prerelease section, select up to 25 of the current users who are enabled as internal testers.
Click Save.
Next, make the builds available to your testers in the TestFlight app.
To enable TestFlight Beta testing
In the Prerelease section, click the Builds tab.
Set the TestFlight Beta Testing switch to the On (green) position.
The users you selected will automatically receive an email inviting them to test. They will be directed to use the TestFlight app on their iOS devices to accept the invitation to test the latest build available.
You can invite up to 1000 users to be external testers per app. First, you add external testers, and then you invite them to test your app. You’ll need an email address for each tester and optionally their first and last names. Your app must pass Beta App Review before you can invite your external testers to test it (see Submitting an App for Beta App Review). The build will be available to them for 30 days after the invitations are sent.
To invite add external testers and invite them to test your app
On the External Testers pane in the Prerelease section, click Add (+) and choose Add New Testers.
Enter the email, first name, and last name of each external tester.
To import a list of email addresses, click Import File.
Choose a CSV file with the following format:
first name, last name, email address |
For more information, download the testing import template.
Optionally, under the “Add to Groups” section, check the groups or add a group you want to add the user to.
Click Add.
Alternatively, add an existing tester by choosing Add Existing Testers from the Add (+) pop-up menu and selecting testers from the list.
To invite external testers from the Builds tab
Click the Builds tab.
In the External Testing column, click Send Invites.
The build status changes to Active and displays the number of days of availability remaining. The external testers will receive email directing them to use the TestFlight app on their iOS devices to accept the invitation. TestFlight can be downloaded from the invitation email or the App Store.
To continue testing after the 30-day period expires, upload another build. Internal testers automatically receive an update notification when the new build is available. To distribute the new build to external testers, you resubmit it to Beta App Review. As soon as it is approved, you can send the external testers an update email by clicking Send Invites from the External Testers column on Builds, as shown above.
For more information on managing external testers, read Managing External Testers and Organizing External Testers Into Groups.
Before you can invite external testers, the build must be approved by Beta App Review. Click Submit For Beta App Review to begin the Beta App Review process.
The external testing status for the build changes to Waiting for Review. The first build for a prerelease version submitted to Beta App Review requires a full review. Later builds for the same version may not require full review.
After you submit your build for Beta App Review, Apple reviews the build and the accompanying metadata.
If Apple approves your build for TestFlight beta testing, users on the iTunes Connect account with Admin or Technical roles receive an email notifying them of the approval. You will then be able to send invitations to the External Testers.
If Apple rejects your build or metadata, the build status changes to Rejected. Admin and Technical users receive an email notifying them of the rejection. You can view the reason for the rejection by clicking Resolution Center at the top of the App Details page. Note that if your build is rejected for any reason, you will need to resubmit a build again for review.
If you submit a new build of a prerelease version that was previously approved by Beta App Review, you will be asked whether you made any significant changes to the app since the last submission. Significant changes means that you’ve added or removed a major feature or functionality.
Submitting the app for Beta App Review does not submit it for final App Review for sale in the App Store.
You can see the status of each tester in the Internal Testers and External Testers panes. When testers are added as TestFlight beta testers, their status becomes Added. When invitations are sent to the testers, their status changes to Invited. As your testers accept their invitations, their status changes to Accepted. When they download the app, their status changes to Testing, and the Latest Build column shows the latest build they have installed.
The Builds pane shows the Internal and External Testing statuses for each build:
When a build has Active status, the number of days remaining for testing is shown.
After the 30 day testing period has ended, the build status changes to Expired.
Builds not currently being tested will have the status Inactive.
The Installations column in the Builds pane shows how many times a build has been installed.
Important: If your app uses Game Center, testers will be required to turn on the Game Center sandbox from their device settings in order to use the Game Center features while testing the app.
Testers use the TestFlight app to send you feedback for the build they are testing at any time during the testing period. Their feedback is sent to the email address you specified in Test Information in the TestFlight pane for that build.
As you continue to develop the app and get feedback from your testers, you can upload new builds for them to test. Uploading a build is described in Uploading a Build for an App. When you upload a new build, it is a good idea to fill in new information for What to Test, as described in Add Metadata for your Prerelease App.
At most one prerelease version of an app can be enabled at a time for TestFlight beta testing. For example, if you have uploaded builds for prerelease versions 1.0 and 2.0 of your app, only one of the versions can be enabled for TestFlight beta testing. If you have enabled testing of version 1.0, then in order to enable testing of a build in version 2.0, you must first disable testing for 1.0. (See Finish Testing an App.)
As you upload new builds for a prerelease version, internal testers will always get the most recent build you uploaded. External testers get access to the update only after you have submitted it to Beta App Review and it has been approved.
Uploading a new build will automatically disable new installations of older builds. You can manually enable and disable testing for a prerelease version at any time.
To stop testing a prerelease version of an app that is actively being tested in TestFlight beta testing, set the Testing switch into the Off (white) position.
You can choose to reenable testing by setting the switch back to the On position.
When you are done using TestFlight beta testing, you can submit the app for final review. Before you submit it, make sure you no longer want to test it or any builds you uploaded earlier than it. When the app becomes Ready for Sale in the App Store, testing automatically stops on earlier builds, and you will be unable to view or test them. See When builds become unavailable for more details. If you want to resume testing of an earlier build, you can upload it as a new build associated with a new prerelease version.
If you did not supply a full set of metadata in the app’s Versions pane, you complete that now. See Creating an iTunes Connect Re
翻译:
使用 TestFlight,你可以向测试人员发布你 App 的 prerelease 版本来收集反馈信息,为将来发布 App 的正式版做准备。现在 TestFlight 是一个可选功能,你也可以不使用它,而是像以往发布 App 那样直接提交到 appStore。
TestFlight 使用起来很容易,还是免费的,不妨把它作为你改进 App 的另一种渠道。不过现在 TestFlight 只支持了 iOS 平台的 App,每个开发者账号最多只能测试10款不同的 App。
在 iTunes Connect 中,可以通过下面的步骤来创建一个 prerelease 版本,并使用 TestFlight 测试:
创建一个 iTunes Connect Record
想 要测试人员开始测试一个 App,你首先必须要在 iTunes Connect 里面有一个 App。因为虽然 TestFlight 对于内部测试人员来讲,可以完全不需要填写任何应用信息;但是如果想要把它方便的分发给外部测试人员(1000人限制),还是需要填写一些必要的应用信息 的,而且分发给外部测试人员之前还需要经过一个 Beta Review 的过程。
如果你的 App 已经创建好了,那么就可以忽略这段。如果你要新建一个 App 的话,可以按照下面的步骤来做:
如果你之前没有 Bundle ID 的话,那么你需要先去 创建一个Bundle ID
现在你已经创建了一 个 App 了,你在‘My Apps’页面里面可以看到它。你已经可以提交这个 App 对应的 build 了,但是如果想要提交这个 App 到 appStore 或者提交给 TestFlight 的外部测试人员的话,到时候还需要补全一些必要的信息,根据 Apple 的提示补全即可。
提交一个 build
为你的 prerelease 版本添加信息
每 当你提交一个新的 build 之后,在 iTunes Connect 的 Prerelease 列表中都会对应的增加一个 build 。你可以开启对应版本的‘TestFlight Beta Testing’选项来启用 TestFlight 测试,你还可以在对应的 build 里面填写这个 build 对应更新的内容等信息。如果你还想要提供给外部测试人员的话,就需要按照下面的步骤填写更多的信息了:
邀请测试人员
你 可以根据你自己的意愿邀请该 prerelease 版本的测试人员。你最多只能邀请25个内部测试人员和1000个外部测试人员。内部测试人员在你提交新的 build 并开启 TestFlight 之后即可安装,外部测试人员需要你提交并通过 prerelease 版本的审核之后才能安装。
邀请内部测试人员:
内部测试人员必须是你 iTunes Connect 团队的成员,而且只有 Admin、Legal 和 Technical 角色有内部测试权限。所以要添加内部测试人员,必须先将他添加到 iTunes Connect 团队中来。
邀请外部测试人员
你最多可以邀请1000个外部测试人员,添加外部测试人员会更简单一点,他们不需要成为你 iTunes Connect 团队的成员。
first name, last name, email address
还需要一提的是,外部测试人员想要参与测试的话,必须要 App 已经通过了 Beta App Review 才行。
以上。。。。
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PS:说下我最近在做的 Coding 应用。如果想要使用 Coding 的 Beta 版本,可以按下面的步骤成为 Coding 的外部测试人员: