UCL Computer Science M.Sc. apps development module

1. Testing and Publishing
Apps
@niallrochen.roche@ucl.ac.uk
Niall Roche
Lead Technologist, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
UCL Engineering

2. • Mobile Developer - pretty much every platform!
• Lecturer in Distributed and Mobile Computing at ITT Dublin
• UCL - Tech Lead at Dept of Innovation and Enterprise
• Tech Trainer
• Mentor at
Background

3. Overview
• App Distribution Overview
• Publishing Guidelines
• App Lab
• App Templates
• Testing

4. Publishing Options
• Websites
• Portals
• Mini Apps, Widgets
• Public App Stores
• Private App Stores
• Enterprise App Stores
• UCL App Lab

5. UCL Web Guidelines
• UCL have guidelines for it’s digital and web
presence to UI and branding consistency
• UCL have developed Indigo guidelines for best
practice in representing UCL content according to
the design guidelines as demonstrated at
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/indigo.
• For web applications where the ui is implemented
at the client side these templates need to
implemented in frameworks such as React.js

6. App Templates
• Provide a good starting point for new developers and reduce
research time on new projects
• To avoid reinventing the wheel on each new project (however
not all apps are the same and may require different wheels!)
• To provide consistency in technologies across projects to
ease support and maintenance
• To improve overall quality by using mature and stable
frameworks and tools to ensure code quality
• Templates implementations - iOS, Android and Web/Hybrid

7. Areas Addressed
• Testing Tools (both unit and automated)
• UI Frameworks with good MVC implementaiton for SOC and data binding
• Offline interaction and caching
• Logging and Exception handling
• Crash handling and reporting
• Build tools involving code quality checking and reducing resource sizes (lint tools and resource optimisation
and obfuscation)
• Analytics tools (ideally linked to logging tools)
• Networking and error handling
• Security (tools + best practice to ensure user data is stored safely at rest and in transit) also authentication
such as oAuth2
• Push Messaging
• Dependency Management - use of dependency management tools

8. App Distribution
• Apps for public distribution require signing with different certificates to development
builds
• iOS Distribution Certificates
• Android Release Keys
• In addition to the app lots of data about the app is needed
• Legal info, Age Ratings, availability, categories, promotional content
• Privacy Policy - see MEF tool http://www.appprivacy.net/#learn-more
• Guides
• https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/
Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/UploadingBinariesforanApp.html
• https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/preparing.html

9. Prepare for Launch
• Get All paperwork and legals in place long before launch
as this normally takes quite a while
• Create the necessary Certificates Profiles etc.
• Upload App Meta data and promotional content
• App search Optimisation ASO and App Naming, keywords,
description icons and screenshots are very important
• Promotional/Support Website + Social
• Logos and Screenshots in necessary resolutions and sizes

10. Publishing Guidelines
• Each app platform has their own guidelines
• UI Guidelines
• Apps should follow the design language and
interaction styles of the platform
• e.g. Android Material Design, Apple HIG
• If these are not followed or if UI elements are used
incorrectly or inconsistent to guidelines, the apps
can be refused

11. Publishing Guidelines
• Other Important Guidelines
• Apps should not make use of excessive battery or
network activity
• background activity of app should be reasonable
and not draw excessive resources
• push vs poll architectures are best
• Apps should not try to access APIs that are not
permitted (Apple and Microsoft in particular)

12. CARTOON CREDIT: "The Joy of
Tech™" by Nitrozac & Snaggy,
joyoftech.com. Copyright © 2008
Geek Culture. Archived at
GeekCulture.com.

13. Problems with Approval
• not following Human Interface Guidelines
• using Private APIs (functions reserved for Apple)
• apps not working offline
• competition with built-in app or Apple service
• e.g. alternatives to in-app purchases
• using existing Apple icons for different purpose

14. Problems with Approval
• don’t just wrap a mobile website into an App
• Check the size of the App
• Validate the app before launch
• Be careful with background activity and data use
• testing using tools and on real devices on different OS
and hardware variants
• Leave time for Approval/Rejection/Reapply/Rejection

15. App approval times
• current average is 4-5 days (weekends too)
• http://appreviewtimes.com for latest times
• @appreviewtimes will post once a day with the
latest averages
• double that to be safe (ideally 2 weeks)
• can be more near a new iOS version release

16. Prelaunch Strategies
• Soft launch in smaller App Stores (App Lab)
• TestFlight and Google Play Beta
• launchsky.com preapps.com
• Promote on discovery sites like Appolicious
• Coordinate marketing activities with launch
• Reviews - who blogs/writes about your type of apps -
send them a promo code

17. Gather detailed use analytics to learn and
iterate with the help of our UX Consultants
and connect directly with users hoping to
become App Ambassadors.
Beta test in App Lab, UCL's app
store exclusive for it’s 45,000+ staff &
students
APP Lab
@ucladvances
applab.ucl.ac.uk

18. Important Features to Add
• User Feedback mechanism online and in-app
• Let users suggest improvements & inform about issues
• Crash reporting and handling
• Manage permissions appropriately
• prompt user before the OS asks for permissions
• Ratings API (use carefully don't annoy users)
• Analytics and Metrics
• Push Notifications

19. Validating Assumptions
• What you think vs what users actually do
• A/B testing for each feature
• abtestmaster.com for list of libraries
• Measurement is key to validate
• Analytics tools
• segment.io flurry google UXCam mixpanel
• Measure, learn and improve
• Let the data help to drive your decisions

20. Keeping Users Engaged
• Keep user using your app or the will stop using it
• Competition with other apps on device is high
• Use Push Notifications - but not too much
• Find reasons for them to engage
• Update regularly to keep users engaged
• Competitions/Promotions/Social etc

21. Android Fragmentation 2015

22. Testing
• Testing on Simulators and a small set of devices is not sufficient
• Important to identify baseline support of devices and OS versions to support
• Determine who and where your users are and the devices they are likely to use
• https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/271774/share-of-android-platforms-on-
mobile-devices-with-android-os/
• https://opensignal.com/reports/2015/08/android-fragmentation/
• https://www.browserstack.com
• https://www.appannie.com

23. Testing Tools
• Power Analysis
• https://developer.att.com/application-resource-optimizer
• Resource usage
• tools to monitor CPU GPU RAM Battery Screen updates Network Analysis
• iOS - Instruments
• Android - Profile
• https://developer.android.com/studio/profile/index.html
• Web
• Chrome Inspector

24. Android Monitor

26. Test Automation
• Web Automation
• WebDriver protocol - Selenium
• iOS
• appium.io XCTest
• Android resources
• https://developer.android.com/studio/test/index.html
• Robotium
• http://quamotion.mobi/ (iOS Android Windows)
• Calabash (iOS Android)
• see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAj3XGtVLhg for an intro to Appium

27. Testing Options
Open Device Labs
https://opendevicelab.com/
Crowd Sourced Testing
https://testfairy.com/
https://www.testbirds.com/
https://www.applause.com
https://globalapptesting.com/
http://ubertesters.com/
Cloud Testing
real devices accessed in the cloud:
https://www.browserstack.com
https://www.perfectomobile.com/
https://www.xamarin.com/test-cloud
https://aws.amazon.com/device-
farm/
https://saucelabs.com/

28. Unit Testing
• test individual pieces of functionality
• need to ‘mock’ other parts of the system that the
functionality interacts with
• Popular frameworks include Jasmine, Mocha
• XCTest for iOS - can test UI classes too

29. Jasmine
describe("A suite", function() {
it("contains spec with an expectation", function() {
expect(true).toBe(true);
});
});

30. XCTest
class TableValidationTests: XCTestCase {
/// Tests that a new table instance has zero rows and columns.
func testEmptyTableRowAndColumnCount() {
let table = Table()
XCTAssertEqual(table.rowCount, 0, "Row count was not zero.")
XCTAssertEqual(table.columnCount, 0, "Column count was not zero.")
}
}