Can anyone advise what is the equivalent of hudson for c# application?
I used to use hudson as a build server for java performing auto deployment for java web and batch job application at scheduled timing and email notify technical team
I like to ask how can i do the same for c# application.
And is there any standard plugins like static code analysis tool in the build server which i can used to scan through the codes
In addition to the great tools mentioned by jamesj, TeamCity works pretty well too. I prefer it to CruiseControl, from a configuration usability perspective, and it is free given you stay within certain constraints.
If you've already invested in TFS as a source control, though, make sure you are getting your money's worth and use it for your builds and deployments too.
If you like Hudson, take a look at Jenkins. I've seen folks using it for .NET builds as well, though I haven't personally used it, and according to their page Jenkins used to be called Hudson, so it would probably be familiar to you.
TFS is great for continuous integration, but you can also use CruiseControl.NET with NAnt. Both of these should be able to run batch jobs, send emails and run automated deployments
StyleCop and FxCop both do static checking and both can be integrated into your build process.
Related
I'm developing a project in C# using VS2010. I'm using svn 1.7 for my version control. What I want is a (FREE) tool that runs on the build server and checks for fresh commits. If the commit breaks the trunk then I want email notifications sent (I have a sendmail openbsd server on the network I can use). I also want this tool (or another tool) to run all my MSTest tests periodically and send emails if there is a failed test.
Any suggestions? I already built my own crude windows service to check for failed builds. But this was before I heard that tools for this sort of thing already exist. I could easily have this thing run all my tests with mstest.exe and then parse the xml results files, but I'm wondering if my time would be better spent just installing and configuring a proper tool for all of this.
There will be at most 4 developers.
Thanks in advance for the help!
I have some experience with TeamCity and Hudson/Jenkins.
I found TeamCity fairly easy to setup and it seems to meet your needs of:
MSTest integration out of the box
Email notifications
TeamCity is free for up to 20 build configurations and has an easy to use Web/GUI interface.
Have a look at CruiseControl.Net
built in support for Subversion
no limits on number of build configurations
email notifications using the 'Email Publisher'
web interface and desktop build notifications via CCTray
I am referred to Hudson today.
I have heard about continuous integration before, but I have no idea what the heck is a ci-server.
Hudson is really easy to install in Ubuntu and in several minutes I managed to set up an instance of it.
But I don't quite understand the workflow of a ci-server, or how am I supposed to use it?
Please tell me if you have experience about ci, thanks in advance.
Edit:
I am currently using Mercurial as my SCM, and I wonder what is the right way to use it with Hudson.
I have installed the Mercurial Plugin of Hudson, and I create a new job with a local repository. When I commit in the repository the Hudson job is built with the latest version of my source code.
If what I used is a remote repository, what's the workflow like?
Is it something like the following?
Set up a Hudson job with the repository
Developer makes a local clone of the repository
Developer commit and push changes
The remote repository update with the incoming changeset
Run a Hudson build
There may be something I misunderstanded at all, please help me point it out.
Continuous Integration is the process of "integrating software" continuously i.e. as frequently as possible (ultimately after each set of changes) to avoid any big-bang integration and all subsequent problems by getting immediate feedback.
To implement Continuous Integration, you first need to automate the build of your software (where build means of course compiling sources, packaging them, but also compiling tests, running the tests, running quality checks, etc, anything that will help to get feedback on the health of your code). Then you need to trigger the build on the latest version of the sources on a particular event (a change in the repository, a temporal event), to generate reports and to send notifications upon failure (by mail, twitter, etc).
And this is precisely the responsibility of a CI engine: offering trigger mechanisms, being able to get the latest version of the sources, running the build, generating and publishing reports, sending notifications. CI engines do implement this.
And because running a build is CPU and Disk intensive, CI engines usually run on a dedicated machine (or even a farm of machines if you want to build lots of projects).
Back to your question now. Once you've got Hudson running, configure it (Manage Hudson > Configure System): setup the JDK, build tools, etc. Then setup an Hudson Job and follow the steps: configure the location of the source repository, the build tool, the trigger, a notification channel and you're done (you can do more complex things but that's a start).
For more details on the setup, check:
The official Use Hudson guide for more details. << START HERE
Continuous Integration with Hudson - Tutorial.
Spot defects early with Continuous Integration.
Martin Fowler's overview of continuous integration is one of the canonical references. In my opinion, using automation to make sure your code base is healthy is one of the most useful things that you can set up.
Update Sorry that I didn't have much time earlier to expand on my reply. #Pascal_Thivent is right that in order to effectively use CI, you need to be able to automate your builds, tests, etc. CI is actually a good forcing function for this. For me, it's one of those little warning flags if I start to think that it would be too painful to put a build into Hudson. It means that something is not quite right.
What I like about Hudson is that it's flexible enough to accommodate different workflows. We use it for both builds / unit tests and releases. And it eliminates a lot of the worry about certain release procedures only working in one person's environment.
What I don't like about Hudson is that it is occasionally unstable when new builds break plugins. I've had a couple of upgrades (2 out of 10 or so) go bad because of incompatibilities. I do two things now:
I never upgrade my team's Hudson server to the latest and greatest right away. I generally only upgrade when there are significant new features, or bug fixes.
I now have a basic Hudson instance set up with all my plugins on a virtual machine with some dummy builds that I fire up to test out any new upgrades before doing it on the public server.
at my work we are presently looking for a automated build tool. We have googled quite a bit, but there are so many possibilities we are not sure which tool is the best option, to be honest.
We are not even sure there is one that fits our needs. It should have as many as possible from following features:
Integration with Subversion, meaning it should be able to do both updates and commits.
Diff tool or ability to integrate with one, and capability of auto-merging files (well, at least not the problematic ones).
Delphi build automation, using the command line compiler.
Integration with Oracle, meaning having the ability to run SQL scripts and compiling PL/SQL packages, functions, etc.
Sending of e-mails with build status (I guess this is something all of them have).
Additional functionalities would be welcome but are not needed at the moment. Anything in the line of getting at least points 1 and 2 would be great.
If anyone could point us to some particular tool we would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance and best regards
For my Delphi projects, I was using FinalBuilder (itself a Delphi app) way back when. I was always very happy with the product, and it worked very well.
In the meantime, they also launched a Server version of the build tool, so you can set up a full build server and have your code built there.
Another worthy contender back in those days used to be Visual Build - feature by feature the two almost match up, but the "feel" of the app, the ease of use, was with Finalbuilder, in my personal opinion.
I'm not sure if any of the two has direct and specific Oracle support, but at least Finalbuilder can run anything that can be run from the command line, so that should give you plenty of options, really.
I've been using CruiseControl.NET as a Continuous Integration server for our Delphi builds, which integrates quite nicely with NAnt as a build scripting language.
Forgetting about CC.NET, simply using NAnt would provide most/all of what you need, I think.
Combined with the extra NAnt-Contrib library of extra tasks, I have implemented everything you mention with the exception of the Oracle integration. However, you can easily invoke commandline stuff from within NAnt scripts, or write your own NAnt tasks using any .NET language.
NAnt has tasks for integrating with Subversion, or you can simply invoke the svn command line client.
I have invoked BeyondCompare as a diff tool from within my NAnt scripts, used NAnt to send customised HTML emails and execute Installshield builds, along with obviously executing the commmand line Delphi compiler and resource compiler.
NAnt is free and open-source, it's worth checking out.
Check also Automated Build Studio from AutomatedQA, it has many of the features you ask for.
We use FinalBuilder to handle requirements 1, 3, 4 and 5 and Beyond Compare to handle requirement 2 and have been very happy with both of these tools.
Apache Ant is open source and contains many tasks out of the box, and a very feature complete scripting and dependency management environment.
Subversion integration add-on: subclipse
SQL core task is included
Apply task can run any executable on any file pattern (like *.dpr)
Mail task included
Diff Patch task included
Also available: zip/unzip, tar/untar, xmlvalidate, xslt, ftp, telnet, scp, sshexec, cab, ...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Hudson. Most build tools seem to target a specific language or platform. Hudson takes a different approach. It provides a plugin architecture so you can create a build server that fits your needs. The project itself is written in Java but is entirely self contained (with the exception that it depends on the JRE of course). It uses its own built-in web server to provide a user interface.
Embarcadero uses Hudson extensively and there are several great how to articles to get you started
http://christerblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/using-hudson-to-build-delphi-projects/
http://www.nickhodges.com/post/Getting-Hudson-set-up-to-compile-Delphi-Projects.aspx
And if you need commercial support the original author has started a company that provides a custom version as well as technical support.
I am 'relatively new' to unit-testing and TDD. Only more recently have I completed my first production application that has (at least in theory) 100% code coverage. I have done unit-testing in previous projects as well for some time, but not in true TDD fashion and with good code coverage. It had always been an after-thought. I feel I have a pretty good grasp on it now though.
I'm also trying to train the rest of the team on TDD and unit testing so that we can grow togeather and start moving forward with doing unit testing in all of our applications, and eventually progress to doing full TDD w/ automated builds & continous integration. I posted a thread here regarding my plan of attack / training agenda for comments & critisism.
One of the replies (in fact the highest voted) suggested I first setup infrastructure before I go forward with the training. Unfortunately I have no exposure to this, and googling on the topics is difficult because the pages for CruiseControl.NET / nAnt / etc do not really explain the 'why' we should set this up and the 'how' everything connects togeather.
We are a small shop (about 10 developers) and use almost exclusively microsoft technologies and do our development in VB.NET. We are looking to eventually start using C# but that's for another time. I've been using the MSTest project that comes with VS2008 for my unit tests, and I've been building my apps using Visual Studio, and deploying using MSI setup projects... We also (unfortunately) use VSS for our soure control - but that is also on the chopping block and I'd really like to get rid of it and use subversion.
I know that I need to use CruiseControl.NET for CI, and either nAnt or MSBuild for building the applications. And I probably need a build server to run all these builds. But I just can't find anything that 'connects' the dots and explains how they interact with eachother, what should be on your build server, when you should build with your build server (is it just for deployment builds, or even when you just want to compile the app you're developing after making a small change, on your local environment?). I'm also planning on axing MSTest as I've found it to be buggy and will use nUnit instead.
Can anyone perhaps illuminate this gap I have from 'knowing how to do TDD' to 'setting up the proper infrastructure so the whole team can do it and work togeather'? I do understand what continous integration is, but again, I'm not sure how a build server should be setup and how it connects with everything, and why we need one (e.g. the pitch to management).
thanks very much for your time.
What portion of finalbuilder do I need? It seems there's some overlap with final builder and teamcity. Finalbuilder server seems to be a CI server, so I'm guessing I don't need that. FinalBuilder seems to be a build server - but I thought TeamCity is also a build server... And Automise seems to be a visual windows automation tool, like some kind of development platform for winforms apps...
_I also don't see support for final builder in The Team City Supported Apps Diagram : _
Take a look at a webinar I did a few weeks ago - How To Start Unit Testing Successfully. In that webinar I've talked about tools and unit testing best practices and it was aimed at developers just like you who want to introduce unit testing in their organization.
First order of business you want to put a CI (Continuous Integration) process in place and for that you'll need three tools:
Source control
Build server
Build client/script
I hope you already have some form of source control in place so let's talk about the other two.
Build Server - checks the source control and when it changes (or some other condition met) runs a build script on some client (or same machine) there are several build server available I recommend JetBrain's TeamCity it's easy to install and use (great web interface) and is free for up to 20 developers (that's you).
Build Script - on your build client you want to run a build script that would build your solution and run your unit tests. TeamCity has some basic build & test capabilities but for more advanced options (build installer, documentation etc.) you'll need some script runner at work we use FinalBuilder - it's not free but has very good editor. If you're looking for a free alternative have a look at ANT or NANT - but be prepared to edit a lot of XML.
Other tools - Because an important part of successful unit testing is how easy it is to write and run tests on the developer's machines I suggest you check if there are better IDE's or external tools that would help the developers write & run their unit tests.
I have a few Visual Studio Solutions/Projects that are being worked on in my company, which now require a scheme for automatic nightly builds. Such a scheme needs to be able to check the latest versions from SVN, build the solutions, create the appropriate downloadable files (including installers, documentation, etc.), send e-mails to the developers upon errors and all sorts of other nifty things. What tool, or tool-set, should I use for this?
I used to use FinalBuilder a few years ago and I liked that a lot but I'm not sure if they support such features as nightly-builds and email messages.
At my work we use CCNET, but with builds on check-in more than nightly - although it's easily configured for either or both.
You can very easily set up unit testing to run on every checkin as well, FXCop testing, and a slew of other products.
I would also advise checking out Team City as an option, because it has a free version, and the reporting and setup is reportedly much simpler (it does look nice to me). It does have a limit of somewhere around 20 team members/projects, before it hits a pay-for window.
That said, we started with CCNET, and have grown several products too large to look at Team City on the free version and are very happy with what we have.
Features that help with CCNET include:
XML based configuration - you can usually copy and paste most of what you need.
More or less you'll be able to plug your treesurgeon script in as your build script, and point CCNET at that as an executable task to run the compilation.
Lots of documentation and very easy to set up nunit, ncover, fxcop, etc.
Taskbar app that will let you know the status of your projects at any time, and it can also fire off an email or keep an RSS feed with the same information.
But I'd definitely go with running a CI build on every check-in - for the most part will run the unit tests before checking in, but let the CCNET server handle run any applications/assemblies that would have dependencies on the assembly we're checking in, and they get re-built, and re-tested on every checkin.
Given that CCNET is free free and takes very little time to set up - I'd highly recommend just going for it and seeing if it suits you, then expanding from there.
(There's another thread here where I posted pretty much the same/with a few alterations - but some of the other comments may help too! Automated Builds)
Edit to add: You can easily set up your own deployment scheme for CCNET, and there are a tonne of blog posts out there to assist, and email notifications can really be set up fairly granularly, either on all successes, all failures, when it changes from success to fail, etc. There's also built in RSS, and you could even set up your own notifiers for other systems.
FinalBuilder does support emailing and just executing FinalBuilder each night will give you nightly builds. You don't really need other software for that if you don't want to.
You could also use CCNet to trigger a build when needed and have it execute FinalBuilder for the build. You can then decide if FinalBuilder or CCNet should email.
Finally FinalBuilder has a Server version which is sorta like CCNet in that it is a continues integration tool using FinalBuilder. See http://www.finalbuilder.com/finalbuilder-server.aspx
Of course the biggest advantage of CCNet is that it is free and open source.
Although it costs, I highly recommend Visual Build. It works with MSBuild, and old tools like Visual Basic. It is scriptable, and can do everything from making installers to simple Continuous Integration.
We just started using Hudson here at the office.
Its free and open-source, it has a very user friendly UI. Plus there are tons of options and plugins available.
I was up and running in a matter of minutes after installing it. All the other devs here are loving it.
All in all, its a very elegant solution for Continuous Integration or Nightly Builds.
I've recently started using CruiseControl.NET (http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CCNET/Welcome+to+CruiseControl.NET). It works reasonably well, although configuration could be easier. CruiseControl.NET is free and open source, and seems to integrate with most standard tools, although I've personally only used it with CVS, SVN, NUnit and MSBuild.
Luntbuild
Supports a wide variety of source control and build systems. Very customizable. Open Source. Setup takes some time, but it's not too horrible.
Buildbot is open source and very powerful too. You should take a look at it.
Cascade supports doing a build on every single change committed to the repository.
I would not recommend doing only nightly builds -- that's a pretty long window where a build break can slip in before it's reported.