Appcenter-cli: Allow "appcenter distribute release -g" to send to multiple group

[liszto]

Hello,
is it possible to consider to add this option to upload to multiple groups with the appcenter distribute release command ?
Or maybe there is a possibility with the -g option but I didn't find it.

Currently it's possible to do this with the open API by using :
curl -X PATCH "https://api.appcenter.ms/v0.1/apps/${OWNERNAME}/${APPNAME}/releases/${LASTEST_RELEASEID}" -H "accept: application/json" -H "X-API-Token:${APPCENTER_TOKEN}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{ "release_notes": "${RELEASENOTES}", "mandatory_update": false, $DISTRIBUTIONS_JSON, "notify_testers": false}'

so I think it could be achieved with appcenter-cli version ?
I mean nobody want to patch the app after submitting (distribute release) an application with a group option that will managed only one group.

And currently it's impossible to update the application groups with the appcenter apps update command anyway :)

I just see a ticket has been closed month ago with the same issue #467 but for me it's not really convenient to switch from one method to another (CLI / API) my main concern is to do only one method.

My explanations :

Because last week I implement really quickly CLI version of our old hockeyapp pipeline. Then I saw it wasn't possible to not notify people.

So I switched to API system, today it was almost over when I realized it was really not convenient to upload a dSym.zip file cause ours are above 256MB and the silent option for release was out last night.

So I switched back to CLI system, integrate the --silent during distribute release process. But then I figure out it was not possible to upload it to multiple group and moreover it's impossible to update it after with the apps update method.

HockeyApp will be dropped within a month (roughly) and the switch is not currently smooth as it must be (according to me). In fact, I don't care if I need to spend a week to switch from one system to another as soon as I don't have to implement X system (CLI AND API) to do what was simple to do with HockeyApp previously.

[phillipleblanc]

Thanks for opening this issue @liszto! You should be able to achieve your scenario with the appcenter distribute releases add-destination command. The help text for that command looks like this:

➜ appcenter help distribute releases add-destination

Distribute an existing release to an additional destination

Usage: appcenter distribute releases add-destination -d|--destination <arg> -t|--type <arg> -r|--release-id <arg> [-s|--silent] [-m|--mandatory] [-a|--app <arg>]

Options:
    -d|--destination <arg>             The name of the store or group, or the email of the tester
    -t|--type <arg>                    The type of destination: [store, group, tester]
    -r|--release-id <arg>              The ID of the release
    -s|--silent                        If set, do not send a notification to the testers (Not used for stores)
    -m|--mandatory                     Whether the release is mandatory for the testers (Not used for stores)
    -a|--app <arg>                     Specify app in the <ownerName>/<appName> format

[liszto]

After my suggestion I used the command you suggest @phillipleblanc (so I think it was the good thing to do as a backup solution) but I encountered another issue if you have a solution for this too.
How can I retrieve the last release ID (most updated release version for an app) with CLI ?

But on the initial topic, I think it could be nice to have this option in the basic upload command. And having the one you suggest (and I used) is good too.

[pradeepvimal]

To get recent release ID use below command:
appcenter distribute releases list --app "$owner"/"$appname" | grep ID | head -1

[liszto]

@pradeepvimal I already did this :)
I just did update this topic with the command due to the unrelated topic wuth my initial post.

[fabiendem]

Improving the command to get the release ID (this one will give you the number on its own):

appcenter distribute releases list --app "$owner"/"$appname" | grep ID | head -1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -f2 -d ' '

Adding tr -s ' ' | cut -f2 -d ' ' will transform

ID            12

to

12

[virgolee2209]

Improving the command to get the release ID (this one will give you the number on its own):

appcenter distribute releases list --app "$owner"/"$appname" | grep ID | head -1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -f2 -d ' '

Adding tr -s ' ' | cut -f2 -d ' ' will transform

ID            12

to

12

Good solution.
By the way, where do you get the above flags? (grep, head ...etc)

[fabiendem]

By the way, where do you get the above flags? (grep, head ...etc)

I am not sure to understand your question. If you're familiar with the command line you may know about them already (and use man tr for example), but otherwise, there is a lot of online resources about the unix command line and the text manipulation.
It takes a bit of googling sometimes as well to find the correct solution if you're not using those that often (like me).

[virgolee2209]

Im new to all this, especially AppCenter CLI so very appreciated your comments.
Here is my command file using @fabiendem's solution for anyone who is still learning like me:

appcenter distribute release -a $APPNAME  -r "Release Notes Here" -g "$GROUP_NAME" -f "$FILE_PATH" --token $APP_TOKEN
LATEST_VERSION="$(appcenter distribute releases list --app $APPNAME --token $APP_TOKEN | grep ID | head -1| tr -s ' ' | cut -f2 -d ' ')"
#echo $LATEST_VERSION
appcenter distribute releases add-destination -a $APPNAME -d $ANOTHER_GROUP_NAME -t group -r $LATEST_VERSION --token $APP_TOKEN

[arturaz]

For powershell users:

appcenter distribute release --group "Collaborators" --file "dist/${apkName}" --release-notes ${appCenterReleaseNotes} --app "$org/${appCenterAppName}" --token ${appCenterToken}
${appCenterReleasesMatches} = appcenter distribute releases list --app "$org/${appCenterAppName}" --token ${appCenterToken} | Select-String -Pattern "^ID:\s*(\d+)" | Select -First 1
${appCenterLastReleaseId} = ${appCenterReleasesMatches}[0].Matches[0].Groups[1].Value
echo "Last release id = ${appCenterLastReleaseId}"
appcenter distribute releases add-destination --type group --destination "SoB" --release-id ${appCenterLastReleaseId} --app "$org/${appCenterAppName}" --token ${appCenterToken}

[G00fY2]

The lack of setting multiple groups while creating a release with the CLI was the major obstacle while trying to replace the deprecated Release API uploads.

[rughvi]

Definitely need updated CLI to release to multiple groups.