I'm no experience with Jenkins, I'm currently researching different options for PHP & JS automated unit testing with Jenkins.
I've come across Chutzpah (which uses PhantomJS's headless WebKit browser) but:
Is it possible to use Chutzpah with Jenkins?
There's very little documentation on Chutzpah. Although it does state on the Chutzpah homepage that it can be integrated into the TeamCity continuous integration server.
What's the minimum requirements for something to be compatible with Jenkins?
It is possible to use Chutzpah with Jenkins and with the 2.1 release of Chutzpah it is easier. Chutzpah's command line client can now take /junit argument that lets you specify a file name to output a junit-xml compatible file to. You can use Jenkins to pick this file up and report the test results.
I am not the downvoter, but I agree it is difficult to give a good answer to this question.
I believe the minimum requirement for something to be compatible with Jenkins is: It can be executed from a shell or cmd script. (If it's not, you need to find or write a plugin.)
Additionally, the thing should exit with code 0 for success and anything else for failure. (If it doesn't, you need to find or write a plugin.)
If you are interested in having Jenkins publish test results, the results must be in xml files using junit compatible notation. (If they are not, you need find or write a plugin.)
Additional requirements might be imposed by the tool you want to execute: It might need to draw windows or access the mouse or other parts of a graphical UI desktop/session. If that's the case, you need to run Jenkins in a context/session where it has access to those. (Windows, Mac and Linux all restrict background daemon/service access to the GUI desktop.)
Also, if your tool needs to access resources which are accessible by only certain user, you need to run Jenkins as that user.
This is a very open-ended question. Please try it out and come back with more concrete questions.
Related
My case is about having too much complex project configuration logic inside Jenkins jobs definition and in time this becoming harder and hard to deal with. This also prevents you from easily execute build jobs under other build/CI tools.
If those projects would be Java based anyone would probably tell me to use maven as I could put most of the things inside the pom.xml files and have them with the project. Still, in my case is more about C/C++ or even .NET projects for which the all the build scripts are usually in bash (cygwin being a dependency on Windows).
I do know that theoretically I could code the parts that are now inside jenkins job configuration in those bash files but this would clearly require significant effort and would be really hard to tune them to allow to enable and disable different steps based on external conditions.
So, what I am trying here is to achieve a high level of independency regarding the build system, so if I want I could switch it in the long future.
What would you recommend as a solution for that? Obviously I need something that can be used multiplatform and not tightened to a specific build system.
Does it make sense to use maven for that, even if those projects are not Java ones? Personally I am not a big fan of XML configuration files, YAML, JSON and INI being seen as more friendly.
What kind of extra logic existing in Jenkins configuration are we talking about?
One would deployment, as I want to be able to deploy to Nexus or similar repositories, executing tests, code coverage and maybe posting the results somewhere.
As a sidenote, looking at Travis configuration files makes me wonder why Jenkins didn't go for such approach.
Look at Groovy. Jenkins allows direct Groovy code manipulating almost everything. A Groovy script could be used to take care of everything from project specific configuration, and it could even be checked in together with the source code. Then in the Jenkins job, you just have a single build step to call the Groovy script.
The above suggestion, however, is very Jenkins dependent.
Another possibility is an Ant script. The AntExec plugin allows to execute Ant script, along with ant-contrib if needed, using the same tools installation process that the rest of Jenkins use. Therefore, you don't need to worry about Ant being installed on the node: Jenkins will take care of it on demand.
The benefits of the Ant script is that it's not tied to Java concepts as Maven is, it's cross platform (Windows and Linux), and just like the Groovy script example above, it can be checked in along with the rest of the source code.
How to configure Jenkins to run Query (select, Update) on Oracle database,
Is there any plugin available in Jenkins?
Is there any easy way to write script in python?
Jenkins is a Continuous Integration (CI) tool. It is a development practice that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository several times a day. Each check-in is then verified by an automated build, allowing teams to detect problems early.
Is there any plugin available in Jenkins?
As far as i know, there are no plugins for the type of job you're looking for. However, it does provide you a mechanism to run your own scripts by using various options present in Build section such as running a Win batch script, shell script, perl, python, ant commands etc...
Is there any easy way to write script in python?
If you understand the language well, then yes!
This link might be of some interest: http://176.34.122.30/blog/2009/05/18/continuous-integration-with-oracle-plsql-utplsql-and-hudson/
Plugin to run Sql on Oracle database in Jenkins:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/SQLPlus+Script+Runner+Plugin
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've just installed Hudson and it is running beautifully. It builds, runs JUnit-tests and also CheckStyle analysis.
Next step for us would be to create an installation, install it and then run automated tests on the actual installation. I would then like to fail the build if the tests fail or at least publish the results somehow. I think we would set it up so that part runs periodically or manually triggered.
We use InstallAnywhere for installation and IBM Rational Functional Tester for automated tests.
So questions are: anyone created a similar setup? are there any plugins, tutorials or other resource that could help me along. Or do you have any tips or advice in general.
The command line reference for Rational Functional Tester:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/rfthelp/v8r0m0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.rational.test.ft.doc/topics/RobotJCommandLine.html
Sample command for running a test:
java -classpath "C:\IBM\RFT\FunctionalTester\bin\rational_ft.jar"
com.rational.test.ft.rational_ft -datastore \\My_project\AUser\RobotJProjects -user admin -project
\\My_project\AUser\TestManagerProjects\Test.rsp -build "Build 1" -logfolder "Default" -log
"Al_SimpleClassicsA#1" -rt.log_format "TestManager" -rt.bring_up_logviewer true -playback
basetests.SimpleClassicsA_01
An additional note, you'll want to configure windows properly on your agent machine which will be running the tests. This is not advice specific to Hudson or RFT, but rather all GUI automation tools on Windows. RFT will require an interactive desktop environment for it to be able to click buttons, etc. If you have your Hudson agent running as a Windows service, there will be no desktop. See the following: Silverlight tests not working unless RDP connection open
We have run a fairly complicated distributed build on Hudson, it is a process that basically follows:
Test on Windows.
Test on OSX, run code coverage & push results to server.
Test on OSX Tiger.
Package for OSX Leopard & push build to server.
Package for Windows & push build to server.
Update product website.
We don't use InstallAnywhere or Rational Functional Tester, but have similar sorts of mechanisms in their place. The key we found to making it all sing in Hudson was being able run our various steps from the command line. Maven and appropriate plugins made short work of this task. So my advice would be just that, using whatever build tool you are using (ant, maven, ?) configure them so that you can run your rational functional tester and install anywhere from the command line with a simple goal passed to your build tool (i.e. mvn test or mvn assembly:assembly).
After that, make sure whatever machine Hudson is running on has everything installed (i.e. Rational Functional Tester) and configured, so that you can open up the command line and type in the goal and have your tests correctly execute.
Hooking it up in Hudson from that point on is fairly simple - just pass in the goal when you configure the build.
I believe the best answer is that integrating RFT with Hudson/Jenkins is a useless endeavor.
As this IBM FAQ says, to make RFT work you must:
be logged in the machine;
the screen can't be locked;
if you are remotely connected, you can't minimize the connection screen.
So you can't run Jenkins/Hudson as a service, making it not very useful. You must run it from your logged account. If you are in a corporate computer (very probable if you are using RFT), you probably must use a hack to prevent the screen saver to start. If the screen is locked, your tests will always fails.
It isn't very difficult to configure your tests to run from the command line, you just have to take care of the return codes when the tests fail and succeed.
Jenkins/Hudson would also give you some advantages, like integrating the tests with your version control, probably automatically running the tests when a commit is made. It would also help sending emails when the tests fail.
But you still would have to integrate the RFT logs with some kind of JUnit plugin to have a nice report. You also would have to have script to run the tests using the command line.
I think it is not worth the trouble to use an continuous integration server with RFT. Better just have your tests running every day in Windows Task Scheduler. It is a simpler solution with less failure points.
Or use my final solution: quit RFT and use the free Selenium with a headless web driver.
I have some general advice on this because I have not yet implemented this myself.
I am assuming you want to have Hudson run the RFT scripts automatically for you via a build or Hudson process?
I want to implement something similar in my organisation as well.
I have not yet been able to implement this because of organisational constraints but here is what I have thought out/done so far:
Downloaded Windows process viewer, got the command for running the tests.
Made shell Script out of it, separated out the variables etc
The future plan is to setup a Windows Slave machine which would have all the tools in it that would be required once the Tests are kicked off, for eg. the correct versions of browsers, and environment variables, and other tools that are required.
Hudson would kick off a process which runs the shell scripts created which runs all the RFT Scripts and performs necessary operations on the slave machine.
These questions are for TeamCity users only
1) Is it possible to configure TeamCity to extract build artifact information based on your own your regular expressions? This is exactly what Pulse does here
2) Does TeamCity integrate with any task/bug tracking tool? like JIRA?
3) This question is for people who run static code analyzer only. A tool like PC-Lint/Visual Lint can generate XML reports. Can TeamCity be configured to parse these artifacts and generate a build failure?
4) I'm currently evaluating TeamCity right now...there community forum doesnt seem to be very active. For those who pay for support, how is Jetbrains support? Is it good? Atlassian seems to be much better.
TeamCity allows to get build artifacts with a Ant-based pattern. You can specify multiple patterns and set target directory for each pattern. Read more at http://www.jetbrains.net/confluence/display/TCD4/Build+Artifact
There is an integration which allows to link RF-3432 to the Jira issue. More advanced integration may appear in the next release of TC. Read more at http://www.jetbrains.net/confluence/display/TCD4/Mapping+External+Links+in+Comments
Only with custom plugin. Or your build process can send a specific "echo" message which will change build status and description.
OK, I'm JetBrainer. May be we don't response immediately, but we strive to answer forum questions ASAP. Paid customers also have e-mail support.
Hope this helps,
KIR
Disclaimer: I don't work for JetBrains! But I've worked with Pulse and TeamCity in my current job.
Build Artifacts: Yes, TeamCity will export artifacts that remain after a build. You can add define ant-style wildcard patterns to match files (the default pattern matches any files left in the root build directory). These files can be seen from the project view against each individual build.
You can use special service commands in a build script to immediately export artifacts along the way too, I do this for a code complexity tool that generates xml files, for which I've also defined a custom graph.
Bug Tracking: I don't have experience with this, but KIR pointed out some alternatives.
XML Parsing: You can control this with ant. I included a third-party tool called andariel in my build that can run XPaths across xml documents, then used service messages to export the result (in this case a count of methods exceeding a complexity limit) to be displayed in a custom graph.
I believe you could also publish the artifacts, provide TeamCity with an XSL to render the XML, and create an additional tab in your build results to display it (however I have not done this)
Tech Support: I've found the community forums to be pretty good, most questions I've had answered within a day or two by both civilians and Jetbrains employees, and I was using the free 'Professional' version.
I can only imagine that email support will be just as good if not better!
I am a little confused about this question because my use of TeamCity, TC (and I guess the design principles of TC) is to allow the build script (and not TC) to remain the correspondent of build imperatives.
In other words, if you need TeamCity to do something cool, just add that cool stuff in your build script either using an existing task in your build system or write one yourself.
TeamCity supports NAnt, MSBuild, Ant and am sure, any other build platform you can install on on the buildagents.
The only integration I will want TC or any other CI platform to have is source control integration with my choice of SC. The rest of the integration should be controlled by my build script. That way, I only configure my TC once at the beginning of project for each project and then, don't touch it ever again. In contrast, the build can change per version.
So, the indirect answer to your question is Yes, theoretically, through the build script.
Hope this helps.