Continuous Build Systems Start to Finish

Ian McLean

Con$nuous Build Systems: Start to Finish

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Who is this guy?

Me Now:• Flex since 2005.• Flash for much longer.• Currently a minion for the evil internet ad syndicate.

Also me:• Background in engineering, game development.• I write dance music {150, 170} bpm• I like kung fu• Fluent in Japanese when drunk enough.


Build Systems FTW!!


Two parts

One Part Build Automa$onScripted build process (think “Make” scripts)

One Part Build Management•Scheduling and build execu$on •Repor$ng on build status•Maintaining history

Most importantly,make builds results readily available!


Benefits

Internal• Automate complex tasks• Know when builds really fail

• Compiler errors• Test failures

External• Visibility into the project.

Yes, stakeholders can monitor your progress!(WARNING: You may or not want this)


Some$mes presenta$ons use diagrams


Other common tasks

• Running unit tests

• Crea>ng documenta>on

• Packaging

• Produc>on Deployment


Popular Build Systems

Commercial:

• Atlassian Bamboo

Open Source:

• Hudson, Apache Con>nuum

• CruiseControl

– Flexible

– Lots of func>onality

– A much higher learning curve


Common build automa>on tools

Apache Ant

Apache Maven• -‐Similar to Ant

• -‐Enforces good/standard project structure

…We’ll be looking at Ant.


How does it work with Flex?

A Couple of op>ons:

• Manually execute Flex compiler binaries

• Use Flex Ant tasks– Provides MXMLC and COMPC tasks


A build script from scratch

• Step one: Write targets for the following

1. Define paths and proper$es2. Clean3. SCM update4. Build target (mxmlc)5. Run tests (FlexUnit)6. Handle applica$on versioning/update system7. Package target (adt)8. Generate documenta$on (AsDoc)9. Deploy to produc$on

• Step two: – Say goodbye to your sanity


Antennae is your friend

• Antennae– Flex/Air Build automa>on scripts– h_p://code.google.com/p/antennae/

Capabili>es (to name a few):– Compile SWF/SWC/AIR– Compile Java– Run tests– ASDoc genera>on


http://code.google.com/p/antennae/

http://code.google.com/p/antennae/

Demo

Building Flex and AIR with Antennae


AIR building >ps

Just use the Antennae AIR template.

Tips:

• Don’t forget to set <content>mySwf.swf</content>in AIR applica$on descriptor xml– FlashBuilder automa$cally does this, Antennae doesn’t

• Build.xml has mul$ple targets– Build, stage, package, run– You’ll need to manually call what you want


CruiseControl Concepts

BootstapperA Task that runs before each aeempted build

Scheduler: Specifies when build aeempts run

Modifica4onSetAllows the execu$on of builds if changes are detected

Ar4factsThe file to download when the build succeeds


Demo

Cruisecontrol overview


Build on SVN Commit

Use SvnAnt or manually exec svn

In CruiseControl

• Configure a SVN modifica>on set

• Call svn update in bootstrapper


Demo

Cruisecontrol Install + svn integra$on


Configuring other build intervals

Op#ons: Weekly, Nightly, Hourly etc…

• In config.xml

<project requireModification = false>

• Specify

<schedule interval=“?”>

• Note: You must have a modifica#on set tag despite not requiring modifica#on


Unit Tes>ng

• FlexUnit– Flex Unit tes>ng framework• Based on JUnit

• Use Antennae tes>ng templates

What Antennae doesn’t do:– No support for FlexUnit4


Demo

Running tests with Antennae


Produc>on deploy

• Copy the output file to your web server

• Use the <copy> or <gp> tasks


Demo

Produc$on deploy


Asdoc genera>on

• Put AsDoc comments in code

• Add the Antennae “asdoc” target to your build script

• You can use <artifactspublisher> to make docs available in CruiseControl


Demo

AsDoc genera$on


Version Tracking in Ant

• Use the <buildnumber> task

• Set your applica>on version property


Sekng the version in AIR

• Create applica>on descriptor template with tokens

• Use <replace> tokens with fill values

*You can hand edit build.num file if its out of sync with CruiseControl


Demo

Building version info into AIR app


Display version in SWF

Only slightly different:

• Deploy build.num file with swf

• Load its contents with URLoader()


Auto-‐upda>ng AIR apps for QA

1. Deploy your build.num to a server

2. Load value in from AIR

3. Use AIR update manager to update (if outdated)

Note: not recommended for official releases


Gekng no>fica>ons

• Email– People don’t like this

• CCTray (WIN)

• CCMenu (OSX)

• AirBob (Yup, AIR based)


General >ps

• Run CC in a console for tes>ng

• Test your ant scripts from the command line BEFORE running them in CruiseControl


Shameless-‐plug

“Flex based Workflow tools for the Flash IDE”

Adobe MAX

Tuesday at 1:30 pm

511C

Be there or be somewhere else! (En#rely up to you really)


@ianmclean

[email protected]

h_p://devote.your.life.auricom.comThursday, December 17, 2009

Continuous Build Systems Start to Finish

Documents

build managementscheduling

build intervalsop

build script

build succeedsthursday

ple targets build

nuous build systems

build systems ftw

flex ant tasks