During this morning’s Connect(); 2016 keynote, I introduced the preview of Visual Studio Mobile Center, a set of cloud services for building and managing your mobile apps. Mobile Center is designed for all apps targeting iOS and Android, including apps written in Swift, Objective-C, Java, Xamarin, and React Native.
Mission Control for your Mobile Apps
Delivering excellent mobile experiences requires going beyond frameworks and IDEs—developers also need services to continuously build, test, distribute, and monitor their apps so that they can quickly iterate and improve. Many teams cobble together a workflow using some of these services from different tools and products. But this is time-consuming and distracts you from your actual mission of delivering a great app.
This is why we built Mobile Center: a mission control for mobile apps that brings together all the cloud and lifecycle services that help developers deliver high quality apps faster. You can build, test, distribute, and monitor your apps and easily add backend cloud services to scale your app to millions of users on demand.
There are many great features included in the Preview, with even more to come. Here’s what you can do today:
- Build your apps automatically with every pull request
- Test apps on thousands of real-world devices
- Distribute passing builds to beta testers
- Monitor apps for crashes and bugs
- Learn about real world usage with mobile analytics
- Connect to a mobile backend for automatic scaling and to add important cloud services like offline data sync, tabular data storage, and end-user authentication services
These services are designed to work in concert to provide a simple, logical end-to-end workflow that lets you focus on building great apps, but you can also use them independently. If you just want mobile testing or beta distribution, for example, you can choose just those services. You can even use our public REST APIs, open-source SDKs, and command-line tools to integrate them in your own workflows.
Mobile Center is the next generation of our existing mobile developers services, including HockeyApp and Xamarin Test Cloud. Later next year, Mobile Center will show all of your new and existing HockeyApp and Test Cloud apps to ensure a seamless transition for those customers.
It’s easy to get started. Request an invitation and once approved, sign in with your existing HockeyApp credentials, GitHub account, or Microsoft Account. Then, connect your apps and kick off some builds. The preview is free, with some metering to ensure everyone has a chance to use the services and provide feedback.
What’s next
Future versions of Mobile Center will include expanded platform support for Cordova and the Universal Windows Platform, as well as additional cloud services such as push notifications and advanced analytics.
Sign up now and let us know what you think!
 |
Nat Friedman, Corporate Vice President, Mobile Developer Tools@natfriedman
Nat is CVP for the Mobile Developer Tools team at Microsoft. He co-founded Xamarin, Inc. with Miguel de Icaza in 2011 and served as CEO through acquisition by Microsoft in 2016. Earlier in his career, Nat served as CTO for the Linux business at Novell, co-founded Ximian with Miguel in 1999, and co-founded and served as chairman of the GNOME foundation in 1997. He is passionate about building products that delight developers. Nat has two degrees from MIT and has been writing software for 27 years. He is an avid traveler, active angel investor, and a private pilot. |
So, I see that the preview is free. What is the pricing like once this is released?
Jeremy, we haven’t settled on a pricing model yet, but we’re committed to making it both (1) affordable for independent developers and (2) scalable for large enterprises. During the preview period, our top priority is collecting user feedback so that we can deliver a suite of services that are valuable to your development workflow and business. Is there particular pricing model that would/not work for your business?
Will the crash-reporting part be free like HockeyApp is or will all features require a paid subscription?
Yes, we expect to provide a free tier. However, I simply don’t know yet if we’ll provided *unlimited* crash reporting in the free tier.
How does this fit in with VSTS? We build out a build and distribution process for Xamarin apps with HockeyApp. I can’t say it was the easiest process and took a lot of trial and error and reading conflicting tutorials to finally get something really working well.
Does this greatly simplify all that?
Dan, VSTS provides a practically infinite range of possible configurations and 3rd integrations for the advanced user. It also provides first party integration with source control, task boards, etc. AND works with projects that go beyond just mobile apps.
Mobile Center, on the other hand, is designed specifically with the mobile developer in-mind. Thus, the workflows are optimized to simplify onboarding for mobile developers. Configuring HOCKEYAPP (which, in Mobile Center, is labeled “Distribute” and “Crashes”) is as simple as connecting your Mobile Center account to a GitHub repository and, for crash reporting, adding the HOCKEYAPP SDK to your project. I think you’ll find Mobile Center greatly simplifies the onboarding and setup experience, but without some of the expansive flexibility afforded by VSTS.
How about apps targeting Windows Phone devices?
> Future versions of Mobile Center will include expanded platform support for Cordova and the Universal Windows Platform, as well as additional cloud services such as push notifications and advanced analytics.
It’s sad that at least UWP is not supported at launch, I mean it’s your platform isn’t it?
We have a lot of love for UWP and expect to add support soon.
This seems to be a new skin on Xamarin Test Cloud which explains no out box support for UWP.
I see React Native listed–any plans for NativeScript support on your roadmap?
If we receive enough developer interest on any platform, we’ll add it to our roadmap. Our immediate roadmap includes iOS, Android, Xamarin, React Native, Cordova and UWP. I’ve been keeping my eye on NativeScript and love the things Telerik is doing with the platform. As it gains momentum, I’m sure it will become a desirable platform for Mobile Center to support, too.
+1 for Cordova support!
+1 on NativeScript support
+1 definitely for Nativescript integration!! Please
I want the tool for free…
There will almost certainly be a free tier available for developers whose needs are modest.
So, this is VSO, HockeyApp and TestCloud combined.. I already have paid licenses of all three products. How will that change?
Mobile Center doesn’t yet offer all the capabilities of HOCKEYAPP, Xamarin Test Cloud or VSO. In fact, it’s not necessarily our ambition to match the feature set of services for advanced use cases like VSO (VSTS). Your paid licenses for all these services still remain relevant and intact. I encourage you to give Mobile Center a try. If it meets your needs, you can re-evaluate your purchasing decisions when it exits out of preview.
What about Mobile Engagement where is that?
Also, are there Carthage packages for iOS?
Azure Mobile Engagement has a place in Mobile Center, too. We simply call it “Analytics” within the Mobile Center dashboard, but the underlying platform is based on Azure Mobile Engagement.
As for Carthage packages, we don’t support them yet, but it’s on our radar and our roadmap. Is this an adoption blocker for you?
I have setup my project using carthage using submodules. Submodules are restored correcrly and automatically during build by the agent already. Then i have tried to add custom build scripts to my xcode project that install/update carthage with brew and the run carthage bootstrap/build while there is no carthage support out of the box.
Sadly my script runs some time but terminates
only with a xcode build/script error code 65, because xcbuild is not executed with -verbose flag. The script works local without errors.
Is there any chance to get a -verbose flag meanwhile to work with such custom scripts and for any other features/tool-support while they are not supported? It is endless guessing and waiting while xcbuild is executed without a verbose flag.
Unfortunately, we don’t officially support Carthage yet, though it’s on our near-term roadmap. I appreciate you mentioning it because every vote raises it’s priority 🙂
Regarding verbose logs, we have a verbose flag internally but haven’t exposed it to the public yet. You’re right that it’s an essential feature. I’ll add a work item to the backlog so we can expose it soon. In the meantime, we could potentially run the verbose build on your behalf and return the results. Send me an email, rsalva at Microsoft dot com.
What about UWP apps?
Rodrigo, good question! It might have been easy to miss, but Nat actually identifies a roadmap item for UWP in his original post. Under “What’s Next”, he writes: “Future versions of Mobile Center will include expanded platform support for Cordova and the Universal Windows Platform,”
Unless you add integration with VSTS, you won’t get much traction with enterprise customers, who I assume you consider your main revenue source for this product. Corporate inertia, combined with other advantages to using VSTS, means that most enrterprise customers will not add expensive (for enterprise licenses) GitHub repositories to their mix. Most of our enterprise customers use the full Microsoft stack, including VSTS, and wont even consider using GitHub.
David, thanks for the feedback. I think you’re spot-on right that many enterprise customers will require VSTS integration. The good news is that it’s on our roadmap. This week’s release is still an early preview and only demonstrates a fraction of what’s yet to come. We expect to release updates very frequently over the coming months and I’ll think you’ll be surprised how many integrations points we ultimately expose.
Regarding the target market for Mobile Center, I personally believe it’s much larger than enterprise alone. Yes, we want to provide the security, reliability and support levels that enterprises demand, but the services are equally applicable to mobile developers everywhere. If an independent developer, hobbyist, startup or consultant is reading this… first, “hi!” 🙂 Second, I hope you’ll try Mobile Center, too.
Completly, agree with David Allen, ALL the companies I’ve worked over the past 10 years uses VSTS exclusively and the majority of the doesn’t consider using GitHub. So until VSTS support doesn’t comes to life, Mobile Center will remain useless for these teams. Hope you set VSTS support at TOP PRIORITY.
David, I actually have a blog post about how to use Mobile Center currently with VSTS its not a complete option, but It should give you a start for trying out Mobile Center until the team adds in a more complete option
https://mitchmuenster.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/using-mobile-center-preview-with-vsts/
is this the v2 of hockeyapp?
Farid, that’s one way to think about it, but Mobile Center is more than just HOCKEYAPP. It combines and integrates many of the Microsoft services mobile developers use today:
Build Services
UI Test Automation (Xamarin Test Cloud)
Crash Reporting (HOCKEYAPP)
Distribution (HOCKEYAPP)
Analytics (Azure Mobile Engagement)
Live Updates (CodePush)
Authentication, Push Notifications and Storage (Azure Mobile Services)
… and that’s just the beginning. We hope to expose a lot more over the coming months.
So, does this mean one can build iOS apps using the build services provided via Mobile Center? Currently we use MacInCloud in our CI process to setup builds to HockeyApp.
Hi, Huzaif. Yes, Mobile Center build services will enable you to build for iOS without having a Mac on your local network. Theoretically, this means Mobile Center could replace MacInCloud, but only as a build server. Mobile Center doesn’t give you full access to a Mac VM like MacInCloud. Before you completely eliminate MacInCloud, there are a few things you also might want to consider:
– How will you manage your edit-debug loop? You could choose to focus on Android first or, if you’re using a JS technology like React Native or Cordova, use a player app like Exponent or Ionic Player. But you’ll want something to make incremental changes easy to test.
– What’s your testing strategy? Mobile Center will eventually support most unit, functional, integration and UI tests, but since we’re in “preview”, not all flavors are supported yet. Make sure you can run the tests you need. If you can’t, tell us 🙂
Thanks for the info Ryan.
We only use the VSTS build agent plan offered by MacInCloud, as such, we only use it for build/release through VSTS to HockeyApp. We have local mac machines for dev/test.
Test automation has been a story which has been largely fractured. So far, we have not found a good way to automate iOS device testing.
Huzaif, you should definitely try the Test service within Mobile Center for automated UI testing on iOS and Android devices. It’s probably one of my favorite services within the dashboard.
Can Azure Active Directory B2C account be used as AAD identity provider?
What is the main difference between Mission Control and Xamarin Test Cloud ?
Nikola, Xamarin Test Cloud is only one of the services available Mobile Center. Mobile Center combines and integrates seven services:
1. Build Services (e.g. build your Android or Mac app in the cloud)
2. UI Test Automation (Xamarin Test Cloud)
3. Crash Reporting (HOCKEYAPP)
4. Distribution (HOCKEYAPP)
5. Analytics (Azure Mobile Engagement)
6. Live Updates (CodePush)
7. Authentication, Push Notifications and Storage (Azure Mobile Services)
By integrating these services, developers can automate many — if not all — the tasks you’l usually have to perform manually or methodically stitch together using a CI system like Jenkins. You also get more actionable telemetry from your in-market apps. For example, after committing changes to your GitHub repo, Mobile Center can automatically…
1. Build your project in the cloud
2. Test your app with Xamarin Test Cloud
3. Distribute the to beta testers
4. Report crashes and errors by device and user in real-time, so that you can…
5. Fix the errors and get a production-ready release build in the same day
Clearly, this is just an example, but hopefully it gives you a better idea how Mobile Center differs from Xamarin Test Cloud alone.
First of all I think this is an excellent step forward in integrating mobile needs into one central mobile development brand at Microsoft, hope its successful. I will also second the concerns of Enterprise Mobile Developers who use products like Xamarin and have existing corporate tool-chains for build test and deploy.
Currently as its in preview the documentation is a little sparse and doesn’t seem that enterprise friendly.
At our company for example, we use an on premise TFS (TFS Git) and CI using Jenkins and a single mac build machine using a TFS build config and then manually uploaded to itunes connect/TestFlight (iOS) for building and testing and distributing our mobile apps. Lately we added Xamarin Insights to one of our apps and found that useful as well. I’d like to get a preview of how we will be able to transition as an enterprise to Visual Studio Mobile Center to replace that on premise toolchain .
Some Questions:
How will Mobile Center be administered for a single enterprise dev community – Will there be admin users etc?
Will developers who have msdn subscriptions login to an enterprise Mobile Center? (will usage be tied to msdn subscription?)
Can enterprises who have a multiple apps maintain a set of private repositories on Mobile Center?
Can we link our on premise TFS repository to Mobile Center?
Can we use TFS Build configurations for CI?
What kinds of documentation and support can we expect as a company if we decide to use Mobile Center?
What pricing will there be for enterprise use?
thanks!
I have a minor feedback to give. My app requires some files that can’t be checked in to the version control. Think about API keys, configurations, secrets, etc. that are loaded from a text file. Does VSMC provide a way to run a custom job before build is triggered? Sort of like a custom build step that will generate a text file in a given directory?
Good concept! Can anybody let me know if I can use Azure Mobile Services on Visual Studio for Macs please?
Yes, Visual Studio for Mac has integrated support that makes it easy to connect your mobile app to Azure App Service. It works the same way as in Xamarin Studio, which is documented here: https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/azure/connected-services
If you have an existing Azure Mobile Service, you can migrate it to Azure App Service by following this guide: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-mobile/app-service-mobile-migrating-from-mobile-services