Disclaimer: I can achieve the behavior I’m looking for with Active Choices plugin, BUT I really want this to work in a Jenkinsfile and controlled with scm because it’s tedious to configure the Active Choices on each job we may need them on. And with it being separate from the Jenkinsfile creation, it’s then one job defined in multiple places. :(
I am looking to verify if this is possible, because I can’t get the syntax right, if it is possible. And I haven’t been able to find any examples online:
pipeline {
environment {
ARTIFACTS = lib.myfunc() // this works well
}
parameters {
choice(name: "Artifacts", choices: ARTIFACTS) // I can’t get this to work
}
}
I cannot use the function inline in the declaration of the parameter. The errors were clear about that, but it seems as though I should be able to do what I’ve written out above.
I am not home, so I do not have the exceptions handy, but I will add them soon. They did not seem very helpful while I was working on this yesterday.
What have I tried?
I’ve tried having the the function return a List Because it requires a list according to the docs, and I’ve also tried (illogically) returning a String in the precise syntax of a list of strings. (It was hacky, like return "['" + artifacts.join("', '") + "']" to look like ['artifact1.zip', 'artifact2.zip']
I also tried things like "$ARTIFACTS" and ${ARTIFACTS} in desperation.
the list of choices has to be supplied as String containing new line characters (\n): choices: 'TESTING\nSTAGING\nPRODUCTION'
I was tipped off by this article:
https://st-g.de/2016/12/parametrized-jenkins-pipelines
Related to a bug:
https://issues.jenkins.io/plugins/servlet/mobile#issue/JENKINS-40358
:shrug:
First, we need to understand that Jenkins starts running your pipeline code by presenting you with Parameters page. Once you've set up the parameters, and pressed Build, then a node is allocated, variables are set, and your code starts to run.
But in your pipeline, as presented above, you want to run some code to prepare the parameters.
This is not how Jenkins usually works. It's definitely not doing the following: allocating a node, setting the variables, running some of your code until parameters clause is reached, stopping all that, presenting you with GUI, and then continuing where it left off. Again, it's not how Jenkins works.
This is why, when writing a new pipeline, your first option to build it is Build and not Build with Parameters. Jenkins hasn't run your code yet; it doesn't have any idea if there are any parameters. When running for the first time, it will remember the parameters (and any choices, if were) as were configured for this (first) run, so in the second run you will see the parameters as configured in the first run. (Generally, in run number n you will see the result of configuration in run number n-1.)
There are a number of ways to overcome this.
If having a "somewhat recent" (and not "current and absolutely up-to-date") situation fits you, your code may need minor changes to work — second time. (I don't know what exactly lib.myfunc() returns but if it's a choice of Development/Staging/Production this might be good enough.)
If having a "somewhat recent" situation is an absolute no-no (e.g. your lib.myfunc() returns the list of git branches, and "list of branches as of yesterday" is unacceptable), then your only solution is ActiveChoice. ActiveChoice allows you to run some code before showing you the Build with Parameters GUI (with script approval etc.).
Related
I wrote a code and used concert technology(cplex and C++). Now I want to get some information about variable selection. For example I want to know that at each node which variable is selected among 10 variables.
how can i write this and add it to my code?
As #IagoCarvalho suggested, you should have a look at the Branch callback:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSSA5P_12.9.0/ilog.odms.cplex.help/CPLEX/UsrMan/topics/progr_adv/callbacks_basic/15_catalog.html.
Examples using a branch callback can be found in an installation of the product. Look for "branch callback" in the cplex/examples/src directory and you will find, among others, cpp/iloadmipex3.cpp.
So Flow only works correctly the first time I run it, and then I have to restart my computer before it'll work correctly again.
Specifically, the problem I'm seeing is that we are using the Flow language to add type annotations to our JS code. Our linter script is setup to run flow type checking among other things. However, when I fix an issue in my code and then rerun the linter script, it still comes back with the exact same errors... BUT when it shows the piece of code where the error is supposed to be, it actually shows my updated code that's fixed.
So as an example, I had a file I copied into the project, that I didn't think I really needed, but maybe I would. So I copied it in just in case. Well then it came up with a bunch of linter errors, so I decided to just delete the file since I didn't really need it. So then I run "yarn lint --fix" again, but it's still complaining about that file, EVEN THOUGH THE FILE DOESN"T EXIST! Now interestingly, where the linter output is supposed to show the code for those errors it's just blank.
Or another example, let's say I had a couple of functions in my code:
100: function foo() {}
...
150: function bar() {}
And foo has a lot of errors because it was some throw away code I don't need anymore and so I just delete it. So the new code looks like:
100: function bar() {}
Well I rerun the linter and get an error like:
Error ------------------------ function foo has incorrect
something...blah blah
src/.../file.js
100| function bar() {}
I also tested this out on a coworker's machine and they got the same behavior that I did. So it's not something specific to my machine, although it could be specific to our project?
Note: There doesn't appear to be a tag for Flow, but I couldn't post without including at least one tag, so I used flowlang even though that's actually a different language :-( I'm assuming that anyone looking for flow would also use that tag since it's the closest.
The first time you launch Flow it starts up a background process that is then used for subsequent type checking. Unfortunately this background process is extremely slow, and buggy to boot. In linux you can run:
killall flow
To stop the background process. Then if you rerun the flow type checker, it will actually see all your latest changes.
I have a cucumber feature file 'A' that serves as setting up environment (data clean up and initialization). I want to have it executed before all other feature files can run.
It's it kind of like #before hook as in http://zsoltfabok.com/blog/2012/09/cucumber-jvm-hooks/. However, that does not work because my feature files 'A' contains hundreds of cucumber steps and it is not as simple as:
#Before
public void beforeScenario() {
tomcat.start();
tomcat.deploy("munger");
browser = new FirefoxDriver();
}
instead it's better to be able to run 'A' as a feature file as a whole.
I've searched around but did not find a answer. I am so surprised that no one has this type of requirement before.
The closest i found is 'background'. But that means i can have only one huge feature file with the content of 'A' as 'background' at the top, and rest of my test in the same file. I really do not want to do that.
Any suggestions?
By default, Cucumber features are run single thread in order by:
Alphabetically by feature file directory
Alphabetically by feature file name within directory
Scenario execution is then by order within the feature file.
So have your initialization feature in the first directory (alhpabetically) with a file name that sorts first (alphabetically) in that directory.
That being said it is generally a bad practice to require an execution order in your feature files. We run our feature files in parallel so order is meaningless. For Jenkins or TeamCity you could add a build step that executes the one feature file followed by a second build step that executes the rest of your feature files.
I have also a project, where we have a single feature file, that contains a very long scenario called Scenario: Test data with a lot of very long scenarios, like this:
Given the system knows about the following employees
|uuid|user-key|name|nickname|
|1|0101140000|Anna|annie|
... hundreds of lines like this follow ...
We see this long SystemKnows scenarios as quite valuable, so that our testers, Product Owner and developers have a baseline of what data are in the system. Our domain is quite complex, and we need this baseline of reference data for everyone to be able to understand the tests.
(These reference data become almost like well known personas, and are a shared team metaphore)
In the beginning, we were relying on the alphabetic naming convention, to have the AAA.feature to be run first.
Later, we discovered that this setup was brittle, and decided to use the following trick, inspired by the PageObject pattern:
Add a background with the single line Given(~'^I set test data for all feature files$')
In the step definition, have a factory to create the test data, and make sure inside the factore method, that it is only created once, like testFactory.createTestData()
In this way, you have both the convenience of expressing reference setup as a scenario, that enhances team communication, but you also have a stable test setup.
Hope this is helpful!
Agata
I have read the topic Guardfile for running single cucumber feature in subdirectory?, and this works great: when I change a feature, only this will be run by guard.
But in the other direction it doesn't work: when I edit any step definition file, always all features are run, whether they are using any of the steps in the step definition file, or not.
This is not nice. I'd like to have at least only those features to be run which use any of the steps in the edited file; but even better would be if guard could see which step currently is edited, and then only runs the features that use this specific step.
The first shouldn't be that hard to accomplish, I guess; the second rather seems wishfu thinking...
To master Guard and have the perfect setup for your projects and own needs, you have to change the Guardfile and configure your watchers accordingly. The templates that comes with each Guard plugin try to match the most useful behavior for most users, which might differ from your personal preferences.
Each Guard plugin starts with the guard DSL method, followed by an options hash to configure the Guard plugin. The options are often different for different Guard plugins and you have to consult the plugin README for more information.
In between the guard block do ... end you normally configure your watchers. A watcher must be defined with a RegExp, which describe the files to be watched. I use Rubular to test my watchers and you can paste your current features copied from the output from find features to have real files to test your RegExp.
The line
watch(%r{features/.+\.feature})
for example watches for all files in the features folder that ends with .feature. Since there is no block provided to the watcher, the matched file is passed unmodified to Guard::Cucumber for running.
The watcher
watch(%r{features/support/.+}) { 'features' }
matches all files in the features/support directory and because the block always returns features, every time a file within the support directory changes, features is passed to Guard::Cucumber and thus all features are exectued.
The last line
watch(%r{features/step_definitions/(.+)_steps\.rb}) do |m|
Dir[File.join("**/#{m[1]}.feature")][0] || 'features'
end
watches for every file that ends with _steps.rb in the features/step_definitions dierctory and tries to match a feature for the step definition. Please notice the parenthesis in the RegExp features/step_definitions/(.+)_steps\.rb. This defines a match group, that is available later in your watcher block. For example, a step definition features/step_definitions/user_steps.rb will match and the first match group (m[1]) will contain the value user.
Now we try to find a matching file in all subdirectories (**) that is named user.feature. If this is the case then run the first matching file ([0]) or if you do not find anything, then run all features.
So it looks like you've named your steps different from what the default Guard::Cucucmber Guardfile is expecting, which is totally fine. Just change the watcher to match your naming convention.
We are using Jenkins to automate several of our build and test processes. For some of our process, the engineer starting the build needs to specify a parameter. But the range of possible and optimal values for that parameter change throughout the course of the day.
What I would like to do is let the engineer specify a value - if they know an optimal value - or leave it blank and have a value be calculated by an early build step. If the value is calculated, I would like the calculating build step to update the parameter value of the job. That way, all subsequent build steps don't have to worry about using the parameter or calculating it, they just use the parameter regardless.
It looks like the Groovy Script Plugin might be able to do this, but I can't see how I can SET the build parameters, just GET them.
Found the answer: use the EnvInject Plugin. One of the features is a build step that allows you to "inject" parameters into the build job from a settings file. I used one build step to create the settings file, then another build step to inject the new values. Then, all subsequent build steps and post-build operations used the new value.
Update with an example:
To add a new parameter (REPORT_FILE), based on existing one (JOB_NAME), inject a map with new or modified parameters in the Groovy Script box:
// Setting a map for new build parameters
def paramsMap = [:]
// Set REPORT_FILE based on JOB_NAME
def filename = JOB_NAME.replace(' ','_') + ".html"
paramsMap.put("REPORT_FILE", filename)
// Add or modify other parameters...
return paramsMap
Jenkins does have the ability to parameterize builds. For a string parameter, the developer can leave the field blank and then your build scripts can check to see if the env. variable for the parameter is set. If the env. var. is not set, the script can perform whatever calculation is needed (I don't think Jenkins has "pre-build steps") and pass it along. For a choice parameter the first line can be something like (Default), and again the build script can test its value and act accordingly.
Note on (Default)
I tried leaving the first line of the choice box blank, and Jenkins saved it correctly the first time; but when I came back to reconfigure the build Jenkins ran some kind of trim on options and the leading blank line was removed so I settled on (Default).
I hope this helps,
Zachary