Building a Software Factory

Table of ContentsexcludeIn this chapter 

Continuous Builds and Continuous Integration

Continuous integration and continuous builds are mainstay features of modern software factories.
Continuous integration is the practice of development changes being tested, built, and reported in small increments during the development process. Continuous build is an extension of this practice to provide a newly tested build of the software every time a developer commits changes.

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• Repository software - software to manage the code base (SVN)
• Build software -- software to actually build and run unit testing (ANT)
• Communication software -- how to communicate information among the team members.
• Deployment software -- in our case, Servoy Application Server.
• Continuous build software -- software to manage the continuous build process and make sure each step is occurring.

Continuous

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Build Software

There are many different choices for continuous build software available, such as Jenkins, CruiseControl, Continuum, Bamboo, and others.

This tutorial shows how to use Jenkins for the task at hand. There is also a sample page about using CruiseControl, but this one will not be updated in the future.

Using

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Continuous Build Software with Servoy

In regards to Servoy projects, Jenkins/CruiseControl is used to fill the following needs in our software factory

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Jenkins/CruiseControl are very flexible in how they can be configured and the methods and strategies can differ depending on a variety of factors. In the case of using them with Servoy, we utilize their ability to run ANT scripts. With these ANT scripts, another tool in Servoy Developer exports the solution into a a .servoy file, then another ANT script runs a smart client based test client that will import the solution into a repository and run unit tests. Finally, if unit tests are passed, an export file is created in a folder - ready to be imported automatically into a test application server.

Rather than explain everything in detail that can be done with Jenkins/CruiseControl and a Servoy project, it is more beneficial to provide an example of Jenkins/CruiseControl and the supporting applications configured for a continuous build server. The "Building the Servoy Software Factory" section will cover in detail setting up a continuous build server for a Servoy project.

Updating a Servoy Application Automatically

Once we have a proper proper .servoy file and it has passed unit testing (via our continuous build software), we would like to take it one step further and make the build available to the team for testing and use. This section talks about how to setup a Servoy Application Server to automatically import solutions.

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At this time, there is no built in functionality to import import .servoy files, nor is there any API available in the maintenance plug in for this functionality. It is possible to post to an application server and import a solution in that manner. An example importer solution is available at https://subversionsvn.servoy.com/examples/SoftwareFactoryUtils/trunk/AppServerUpdater

The importer solution will use the post the export file to the application server as if it were a web service. The solution import occurs, and the solution becomes available to the clients of that web server immediately. The import is triggered by changes to a a .servoy file; when the file is changed via the build server process, an import occurs.

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The solution is open source and configurable, so if you need to make changes in . If any changes need to be made on how it operates to meet your needs, just open it in Servoy Developer and make any the necessary changes.

One change needed will be the application server address that you want Application Server address which the import is desired to occur on. Change the the appServerAddress variable in the importer scope to the correct address and port of the application serverApplication Server.

Another change is in the the solutionOpen method. You must add your own Add the FileWatcher license code, available at http://servoy-plugins.de

Other changes can be made to the the importSolution method to adjust import settings if necessary.

Building the Servoy Software Factory

This section is a guide to setting up a Servoy software factory.

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The following information is a step by step guide to building a continuous build server. It includes a sample configuration for a sample set of sample solutions, as well as instructions on where to change this information for your solutions.

Step 1 - Install/Configure Continuous Build Software

Perform all steps in the guide on how to install Jenkins and configure it to automatically build and test Servoy Solutions that can be found here.

(alternatively you could , it is possible to set up CruiseControl using this guide - that will no longer be updated after Servoy 7.2 release)

Step 2 - Install/Start Servoy Server Importer

If you have this is not already done soyet, install another instance of Servoy as an application server Application Server to act as the automatic build server. This can run the batch process for updating another Servoy Application Server, or you it can just have it update itself and use it as the build server that holds the latest version of the software ready to be tested. Be sure to configure the ports accordingly so that there are no port conflicts.

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