Continuous Integration with Jenkins

Behind every business is a network of processes, tools and technology, employees, and business consultants filling in the gaps. A company can’t be an expert at everything, and that’s where tap|QA comes in. We help companies with software development projects to streamline the entire process of testing, and automate as much as we can to minimize the need for additional headcount.

Continuous Integration is an important part of the development and testing process that helps keep everything on track, and keeps issues to a minimum and minor.

How Does Continuous Integration (CI) Work?

Continuous integration (CI) is the process of sending each developers’ new code into a shared repository at regular intervals so that it can quickly and accurately be tested for bugs and defects. Continuous integration will also tell you when and where things went wrong.

There are 5 primary steps to CI:

1. Create a shared repository for source code (CVS, Subversion, Perforce, etc.)
2. Build automation (Ant, Maven, Makefiles, etc.)
3. Setup CI Server such as Jenkins
4. Automate deployment of source code at regular intervals
5. Automate testing – unit, UI, API, regression, load, security testing

Using continuous integration minimizes time wasted on manually checking for errors while helping identify and solve complex issues. By eliminating manual work, progress keeps moving forward, and the project will be on a quicker path to a final product.

Meet our friend, Jenkins

Jenkins is the star quarterback of continuous integration tools that we use to play the CI process.

Jenkins is an open source automation server that executes these tests and integrates with many existing version control systems. Jenkins is one of the most popular continuous integration solutions used daily here at tap|QA.

CI with Jenkins provides integration and runs the latest functional tests on code. It will take and test new code from each individual developer merged in the shared repository, and produce an output report that can be sent via email on multiple platforms.

Besides standard features, there is an ecosystem of 1,000+ plugins available for Jenkins, which adds nearly endless possibilities to functionality and integrations.

Consider how much code your business builds a day. Shouldn’t you have an automated system to ensure its integrity, quality, and functionality? Automation may sound easy, but can take time for many organizations to grasp and implement.

We definitely believe that CI is worth the investment. By leveraging tools like Jenkins and partners like tap|QA, businesses can realize development potential that may not have been possible before.

What are the benefits of using Jenkins?

Some of the biggest benefits of using Jenkins for CI are:

1. High adoption rate
2. Huge number of available plugins
3. Incremental iterative improvements
4. It’s an open source, cross-platform tool

Are you ready to embrace CI?

Control, build, develop, test & validate. It is simple, safe, and speedy.

Learn more about continuous integration and tap|AUTOMATION, or contact us today!