On 9/14/05, Barney Boisvert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Nope, no ant anywhere in that process. No need for it. Aside from > the 'svn' commands for merging and stuff, the most complicated command > is the sync operation, which takes an optional "-n" flag for doing a > dry run to preview what is actually going to be updated.
That's a surprise -- though it of course depends on what you're doing. I don't have many CF projects that don't have at least *some* java in them (usually the credit card API) so using Ant seems pretty natural. I do a lot with using filter expansion to properly configure differences between deployments (e.g. changing the fusebox <mode> parameter from development to production as appropriate on the specific server). > And really, no one works on the stage branch, about the only thing > that ever gets fixed on the stage branch (not the stage working > directory, mind you) is typos. Pretty much everything else is done on > a branch (often developer-specific), and then merged back in when > complete. Lot easier that way. It also has the effect of making the > stage branch pretty much exclusively for integration testing, and > having the configuration being tested automatically updating itself > (necessitating a restart of the test procedure) would be a huge > headache. Wouldn't you have to start the testing process again after any change in the branch being tested? A change in the staging branch during integration testing *should* restart the unit tests for sure, functional if they are automated and reasonable in length. Continuous integration tools are only going to redeploy code that's changed in the repository being monitored -- so a change in the development branch does not necessarily redeploy the staging branch. Of course a *merge* from dev into staging would, but you'd expect that. > I'm a big advocate of using all the neat tools out there to make your > job easier, but I'm an even bigger advocate of NOT using superfluous > tools when they're not going to help. I think that's one of the major > problems people face these days. Not just developers, but people in > general. There are so many tools out there, it takes real discipline > to research, select, and understand the tools you need, but it takes > just as much discipline to not use the tools you don't need. No doubt -- and the key is matching them to your process. If you don't do continuous integration, you don't need continuous integration tools. If you don't do automated testing, you don't need CFCUnit, HttpUnit, Selenium, etc. If you don't use UML tools, you don't need ArgoUML. I mean, I love Eclipse, but to make a couple of quick edits, I'm poppin' open Textpad and using Tortoise to commit it to SVN :) > That being said, I use ant in abundance for all kinds of tasks, but I > don't think I build a single software package with it. It's all for > server administration and stuff like that. And yes, where > appropriate, testing is automated. Still have to test stuff manually > though, no matter how good your test framework is, particularly with > HTML stuff. That last bit is key -- CF web apps can be hard to test, mostly because CF has such poor unit-testing tools. For legacy apps without CFCs, you're out of luck. Functional testing with tools like Selenium though, makes it suprisingly easy to automate user/integration tests and add test cases for each bug. But setting it all up, especially on a legacy project, takes a siginficant amount of time. I'm thrilled we're (the CF community) at the point where more of the discussions are about how to implement the tools to improve process than "why it's important to use source control". -- John Paul Ashenfelter CTO/Transitionpoint (blog) http://www.ashenfelter.com (email) [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:218378 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
