Constants.manifest.releaseChannel is null on launch

Expo Development Tools
1

I have read this discussion, but it is not clear of how to solve it yet.

Recently I eject my project from Managed to Bare, still want to use OTA updates.

I use fastlane to automate the build and deploy process. Basically I add EXUpdatesReleaseChannel to Expo.plist before building iOS app.

Herewith my fastlane code.

$NativeVersion = 'ManualVersion'

platform :ios do
  desc 'Build and deploy'
  private_lane :build do |options|
    buildNumber = Time.now.strftime("%y%m%d%H%M")
    buildDirectory = './ios/build'
    releaseChannel = $NativeVersion + '-' + options[:type]

    set_info_plist_value(
      path: './ios/tooot/Supporting/Expo.plist',
      key: 'EXUpdatesSDKVersion',
      value: $ExpoSDK
    )
    set_info_plist_value(
      path: './ios/tooot/Supporting/Expo.plist',
      key: 'EXUpdatesReleaseChannel',
      value: releaseChannel
    )

    case options[:type]
    when 'staging', 'production'
      increment_build_number(
        xcodeproj: './ios/tooot.xcodeproj',
        build_number: buildNumber
      )
      app_store_connect_api_key(
        key_filepath: "./fastlane/appstore.p8"
      )
    end

    case options[:type]
    when 'staging'
      match(
        type: 'appstore',
        readonly: true
      )
      build_ios_app(
        scheme: 'tooot',
        workspace: './ios/tooot.xcworkspace',
        export_method: 'app-store',
        output_directory: buildDirectory,
        output_name: releaseChannel + '-' + buildNumber
      )
      upload_to_testflight(
        skip_submission: true,
        notify_external_testers: false
      )
    end

    yarn( # The 'expo publish' script
      package_path: './package.json',
      flags: 'release',
      command: releaseChannel
    )
  end

  desc 'Build staging to TestFlight'
  lane :staging do
    build(type: 'staging')
  end
end

Above flow works perfectly. But launching the app from TestFlight results in undefine of Constants.manifest.releaseChannel. Though the OTA is working perfectly. After the building above, I manually run expo publish again to the same channel. After that, the app runs OTA by itself, and now the Constants.manifest.releaseChannel is correct.

What could be the reason behind releaseChannel shows undefined but OTA is working fine? How can I fix this? Or maybe I should try to read releaseChannel from somewhere else when the building is handled by RN instead of Expo?

2

Hey @xmflsct, can you try to see if the value of Updates.releaseChannel is on launch?

Cheers,
Adam

3

Thanks. I can confirm Updates.releaseChannel works, but not Constants.manifest.releaseChannel for some reason.

5

There is some further discussion here if you are curious about using Updates rather than Constants:
https://github.com/expo/expo/issues/7721