Simple iOS/Android App Distribution Server

This is a simple, self-hosted iOS/Android app distribution server (ipa and apk files).

This server can be used for either Ad-hoc or Enterprise application distribution. Developers can perform internal builds on their computers (without using a service like Expo) and utilize this platform to easily distribute the build among other developers, testers, or clients.

We wrote a blog post about this project. It explains the 'Why' and provides a 'How-to' style walkthrough on using and deploying it: How to distribute iOS IPA builds.

The project provides a single endpoint for uploading an .ipa or .apk build. It returns a publicly accessible, minimalistic installation page with a QR code - that simple. It is designed for easy deployment within your infrastructure via a Docker container. And the upload functionality is secured with a pre-shared authorization token (see "Configuration" below).

To maintain simplicity and focus, this project does not handle device ID registration or application building, just sharing files with a simple, public install page.

Usage

To run with Docker:

docker run \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v ./uploads:/uploads \
  ghcr.io/significa/app-distribution-server

To upload your built iOS or Android app, just run:

curl -X "POST" \
  "http://localhost:8000/upload" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-Auth-Token: secret" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -F "app_file=@your-app-build.ipa"

Where your-app-build.ipa is your iOS IPA build or Android APK (ex: your-app-build.apk).

This will return a link to the installation page.

More documentation in the Swagger OpenAPI explorer available on /docs.

Upgrading / migration to v2

This project was previously called ios-ipa-app-distribution-server, from release 2 on it was renamed to app-distribution-server - as it now supports both IPA and APK files.

Migrating from version 1 to 2 should be straightforward:

Update the image to ghcr.io/significa/app-distribution-server.
The upload multipart form submission now accepts a field named app_file (instead of ipa_file).

The uploads directory is backwards compatible, meaning that previously uploaded files (from v1) will continue to work with the new version. In v2, we've introduced additional fields on the download page to provide more detailed information about each upload. For most of these fields, we can infer or migrate the missing data from the older uploads. However, one exception is the creation time, which was not stored in v1 uploads. As a result, the creation time will not be displayed for files uploaded prior to v2.

Configuration

UPLOADS_SECRET_AUTH_TOKEN: Token used to upload builds. Don't forget to change it! Default: secret.
APP_BASE_URL: The front-facing app URL for link generation. Defaults to http://localhost:8000.
STORAGE_URL: A PyFilesystem2 compatible URL. Defaults to osfs:///uploads for Docker installations, and osfs://./uploads when running directly with Python. This means /uploads and ./uploads respectively.

Compatible with many storage backends. Check out the possible configurations in the index of filesystems.

AWS S3 Example: s3://your-bucket-name (and then provide the credentials via the usual AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY).
LOGO_URL: The logo URL - absolute URL or a relative path to a logo src. Defaults to /static/logo.svg (Significa's logo). Disable the logo by setting it to false (LOGO_URL=false).
APP_TITLE: Defaults to iOS/Android app distribution server, use it to customise your page title.

Development

Requirements:

Python 3.11
Make tools

Useful development commands:

Setup a virtual environment (ex: make setup-venv).
Install the dependencies: make install-deps.
Start the development server: make dev.
Open the interactive OpenAPI explorer (Swagger): http://localhost:3000/docs.
When changes to the dependencies are made, freeze them in the lockfile with: make lock-deps.

License

GNU GPLv3

Built by Significa