Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates

Overview

Over-the-air (OTA) updates are a great way to deliver new code to your users without requiring a full app store release. To ensure your bug and crash reports are correctly associated with the right code version, Instabug needs to be made aware of these OTA updates.

Configuring Your OTA Version

We provide a single, unified API to track your OTA updates, whether you are using Expo Updates or CodePush.

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Requires Instabug React Native SDK version v16.0.0 or higher.

Expo Updates

Instabug provides support for apps using Expo Updates. This allows you to see a specific Expo Update's build ID in all your reports, helping you track issues with precision.

Setup

To track your Expo Updates, pass the overAirVersion object with the service and version parameters during SDK initialization.

import Instabug, { OverAirUpdateServices } from 'instabug-reactnative';

// First, initialize the SDK
Instabug.init({
  token: '<YOUR_APP_TOKEN>',
  invocationEvents: [InvocationEvent.shake],
});

// Then, set your OTA version
Instabug.setOverAirVersion({ 
  service: OverAirUpdateServices.expo, 
  version: '<Your-Build-ID>' 
});

The service parameter accepts two enum values:

• OverAirUpdateServices.expo: For teams using Expo Updates.
• OverAirUpdateServices.codePush: For teams using CodePush.
  construction

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Character Limit

The total combined length of your app version and the Expo Update Build ID should not exceed 40 characters. Any characters beyond this limit will be trimmed.

Uploading Sourcemaps

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Uploading sourcemaps should work automatically by adding our Expo plugin instabug-reactnative in your app.json for standard Expo builds (eas build).

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However, for Expo Updates, you must use the manual CLI command provided below to upload sourcemaps:

Usage: instabug upload-eas-updates-sourcemaps [options]

Options:
  -f, --file <path>          The path of eas update folder (default: "dist")
  -t, --token <value>        Your App Token (env: INSTABUG_APP_TOKEN)
  -n, --name <value>         The app version name (env: INSTABUG_APP_VERSION_NAME)
  -c, --code <value>         The app version code (env: INSTABUG_APP_VERSION_CODE)
  --androidUpdateId <value>  The Eas android Update id 
  --iosUpdateId <value>      The Eas ios Update id

CodePush (Legacy)

For teams still using the older codePushVersion parameter within the Instabug.init method, it will continue to be supported.

// Deprecated but still supported
Instabug.init({
  token: '<User-App-token>',
  codePushVersion: '<Code-push-version>',
  invocationEvents: [<Invocation-events>],
});

We recommend migrating to the new, unified setOverAirVersion API for a more consistent approach.

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API Precedence

The new API, setOverAirVersion, has been created to handle both Expo and CodePush versions.

• It accepts two values: .expo or .codePush - which though deprecated, will continue being supported if called.

If you call both the new setOverAirVersion API and use the legacy codePushVersion parameter, the SDK will always honor the most recently called API. For example, if you set the codePushVersion and then call setOverAirVersion later, the value from setOverAirVersion will be used.