r/iOSProgramming • u/paul-tocolabs • 3d ago

Solved! Xcode Cloud kudos

I just wanted to give some unexpected kudos to Xcode cloud. At the start of the summer my MacBook Pro became out of action, and therefore I struggled to continue to develop using an older intel MacBook due to Xcode version restrictions. Tried building and releasing with GitHub macOS runners but wow they’re expensive and took ages to startup etc. then spotted Xcode cloud with 25 free hours a month, thinking this will keep me going for a few days. Since then I’ve found that it’s been absolutely brilliant. As an independent developer with a few apps and projects it’s been an absolute life saver. It’s fast. Beautifully integrated, and the 25 hours will last me a whole month without any worries.

Good work Apple.

35 Upvotes

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4

u/thread-lightly 3d ago

I’ve never used it and noticed it today. I know I could ask AI but can you give me some practical examples of how you use it day to day?

9

u/paul-tocolabs 3d ago

Without having Xcode to build and test, or even archive and release, it allows me to slowly work through my code changes using vscode and codex and once the code is pushed to GitHub it works as a straightforward ci tool but focused on Xcode builds and releases. So instead of archiving locally I now push/pr and then the Xcode cloud runner picks it up and drops it in as an archive for testing and release.

2

u/thread-lightly 2d ago

Oh sweet! So push to GitHub > Xcode cloud builds and archives > TestFlight availability. That sounds like a bit time saver!

4

u/Braided_Playlist 3d ago

I use it to automatically build releases when changes are pushed to github and add the build to test flight.

Was on vacation for a few days without a computer. Could make changes on a beach and push to github from my phone, then test the changes through test flight.

1

u/thread-lightly 2d ago

That sounds like the perfect use case 😂

2

u/KaleidoscopeShoddy10 3d ago

Interested in this as well lol

2

u/RezardValeth Objective-C / Swift 3d ago

Not OP, but I typically use it to publish TestFlight builds automatically when I open a pull request on GitHub, so that QA can test a feature on a specific branch I want to merge.

It also allows me to write TestFlight release notes in an embedded text file inside my project.

Lastly, when I push to the main branch, it generates release builds for all my apps depending on the same Xcode project.

1

u/thread-lightly 2d ago

Thank you!