Continuous Integration Learning Process from a .NET developer
Ok. Things are changing around here. I have typically worked on projects solo and to some degree in a vacuum. I’m now working on larger projects with more stakeholders involved. This requires a change in my programming practices.
I learned a while about the importance of a version control. I’ve been using Dynamsoft’s SourceAnywhere (http://www.dynamsoft.com/) for about 3 years now. I like it and it has served me well. It was very easy to setup and get going for the newbie. All wasn’t perfect, but very good and easy. Everything was on my development machine which isn’t ideal, I know, but it worked for me. Now I’m changing my workflow a bit and my tools are changing to fit that workflow as well.
I’ve just started using CollabNet’s Subversion (http://www.open.collab.net/products/subversion/) and TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.net/) for versioning and SCM. It was fairly easy to set up and get started. Not as easy as SourceAnwhere, but not like painting the Mona Lisa either. Here’s a fairly good tutorial on the setup process http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/subversion/, but the Subversion and Tortoise documentation is incredibly helpful and well (and that’s saying something for free software).
As a side note: using TortoiseSVN and Subversion allows me to put anything under versioning control: Design files, Word docs, planning documents, anything. TortoiseSVN integrates with the explorer in Windows and with a right-click anything can be put into a Subversion repository.
I did miss the Visual Studio integration so the addition of one more piece of free software fixed that: AnkhSVN (http://ankhsvn.open.collab.net/).
Now instead of my versioning repository being on my development machine it is on a separate server for all of us developers to access.
The next step is continuous integration. I’ve got another developer or two that will need access to files as well as other stakeholders (and myself) who would like to know the status of the latest commits. Having a tool to build, test and generate reports when new code is checked in will be a great improvement to what I’ve been doing.
Over the next few posts I will outline what software and tools I’m using and how things are going. I don’t anticipate this being a lengthy process – nor do I see these posts being great tutorials – just pretty good information.
As I post other articles I’ll try to remember to update this one with links. If I don’t, well, just say something a bit mean under your breath and forgive me.
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