So far, I mainly used expo to preview my React Native app(s), and let others do the building (e.g. the APK for Android). Now, I want to do it myself and directly automatize this using gitlab.
I have to confess that I am not familiar with gitlab CI (yet), but I have experience with other CI-tools like Jenkins or Azure DevOps. So far, I have a Ubuntu-server hosting my GIT-repo and I would go for installing gitlab on that machine, but how do I proceed now?
Here on Stackoverflow I found a couple questions on the topic of "React Native CI", which are not helping me much: One question is closed, the others are tackling only part of the challenge:
- Automating react native apps
- React-native: what automation CI tool is the best?
- Continuous Integration with React Native
This are aside, I also found
- A 2018 tutorial called Automate React Native Builds With Gitlab CI which seem to use Expo (which I heard is not strictly necessary).
- GitLab CI/CD for a React Native App suggests a docker-based architecture which I do not want to have.
- How to build and publish your React Native Android applications using GitLab CI is rather rudimentary.
Could someone please give me a top-level summary which minimal architectural components I need to have?