Get started with Firebase Test Lab from the gcloud Command Line

Firebase Test Lab lets you test your iOS app on multiple devices through the gcloud command line interface. Keep reading to find out how to get started.

Create a Firebase project

If you don't have a Firebase project for your app, go to the Firebase console and click Create New Project to create one now. You will need ownership or edit permissions in your project.

You can use Test Lab for a limited number of daily test executions on the Spark and Flame plans. To use Test Lab without daily quota limits, you must upgrade to the Firebase Blaze plan.

Configure your local Google Cloud SDK environment

1. Download the gcloud command line tool, if you haven't yet: Google Cloud SDK
2. Make sure your Cloud SDK installation is up-to-date and includes the gcloud firebase command:

   gcloud components update

3. Make sure your authentication credentials are current:

   gcloud auth login

4. Set your current project in gcloud:

   gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

Build XCtests for your app

To build your test, use the following command in the terminal:

xcodebuild -project PATH/TO/YOUR_WORKSPACE.xcodeproj \
  -scheme YOUR_SCHEME \
  -derivedDataPath FOLDER_WITH_TEST_OUTPUT \
  -sdk iphoneos build-for-testing

xcodebuild -workspace PATH/TO/YOUR_WORKSPACE.xcworkspace \
  -scheme YOUR_SCHEME \
  -derivedDataPath FOLDER_WITH_TEST_OUTPUT \
  -sdk iphoneos build-for-testing

After your test successfully builds, zip it for upload to Test Lab:

cd FOLDER_WITH_TEST_OUTPUT/Build/Products ; \
zip -r MyTests.zip Debug-iphoneos YOUR_SCHEME_iphoneosDEPLOYMENT_TARGET-arm64.xctestrun

Run your tests

Choose your test dimensions

Test Lab lets you run tests on a variety of iOS versions, devices, screen orientations, and locales. These configurations are known as the test's test dimensions. To see the options for each dimension, substitute models, versions, or locales for dimension in the following command:

gcloud alpha firebase test ios dimension list

Screen orientation is somewhat simpler, as its only options are portrait and landscape.

Look through the list of test dimensions, and select a few combinations that you'd like to run your test on. If you're on the Spark or Flame plans, you can run up to 5 combinations per day. If you're on the Blaze plan, you can run tests on an unlimited number combinations per day, but you can only include up to 200 combinations in each run. For more information on test limits and pricing, see Pricing Plans.

Run the tests

Once you've chosen a set of test dimensions, you can have Test Lab run your tests using the firebase test ios run command. For each combination of test dimensions you'd like to test on, include a separate --device flag:

gcloud alpha firebase test ios run --test PATH/TO/MyTests.zip \
  --device model=MODEL_ID_1,version=VERSION_ID_1,locale=LOCALE_1,orientation=ORIENTATION_1 \
  --device model=MODEL_ID_2,version=VERSION_ID_2,locale=LOCALE_2,orientation=ORIENTATION_2 \
  etc...

Analyze your test results

When the test is done, the gcloud tool prints a basic summary of your test results. As part of the summary, the tool includes a link to view more detailed results in the Firebase console. To learn more about how to interpret these results, see Analyzing Firebase Test Results.

Automate future tests

Scripting gcloud commands with Test Lab

You can use shell scripts or batch files to automate mobile app testing commands that you would otherwise run using the gcloud command line. This sample bash script runs an XCTest with a two-minute timeout, and reports if the test run completed successfully:

if gcloud alpha firebase test ios run --test MyTest.zip --timeout 2m
then
    echo "Test matrix successfully finished"
else
    echo "Test matrix exited abnormally with non-zero exit code: " $?
fi

Script exit codes

Test Lab provides several exit codes that you can use to better understand the results of tests that you run using scripts or batch files.

Scripting exit codes for Test Lab

Next step

Explore the Test Lab for iOS command line SDK: gcloud alpha firebase test ios