Continuous Integration and Micro Focus Development Tools

The sections Introduction to Continuous Integration and Continuous Integration Workflow introduce the idea of continuous integration and summarize how continuous integration works as a process. This section looks at the continuous integration process and shows how different products available from Micro Focus fit into and add value to that process.

The diagram below shows the process presented in the topic Continuous Integration Workflow but has been modified to indicate which Micro Focus products you can use at the different parts of the process. Although this diagram refers to Micro Focus products, the process described does not require the use of Micro Focus products, so if you are already using a third-party product for one part of the process you can continue to work with that and use Micro Focus products to integrate with it.

where the numbered steps are as follows:

1. Developers use Visual COBOL to check out code into their private workspaces. They then make their changes and test them locally using Visual COBOL's unit testing features.

   This diagram illustrates the use of AccuRev, Dimensions CM, StarTeam or PVCS as the source code control system but you are not limited to using only those products. Visual COBOL works with any SCC-compliant source code control system, so you can work seamlessly in Visual COBOL with virtually any source code control system you choose to use regardless of whether it is a Micro Focus product or a third-party product.

2. When done, developers check in their changes into the source control repository.
3. The CI server monitors the source control repository and when it detects a change it triggers a build of the relevant sources. Although the build actions are triggered by the CI server, the build actions themselves will be performed by Visual COBOL, typically using Apache Ant or MSBuild scripts.
4. After a successful build, the CI server performs activities such as the following:
   • makes deployable artefacts available for testing
   • assigns a build label to the version of the code that was just built
   • notifies the relevant team members that a successful build occurred
   • triggers unit and integration testing to be run under COBOL Server

   At this point, the changes that were checked in at step 2 have been successfully built and a build label has been applied to the source code that was used for the build (so the build could be recreated if necessary).

   In the event of a build failure, the CI server sends notifications to the relevant developers who restart the process from step 1, using Visual COBOL to make the changes necessary to resolve the build errors.

5. After the unit and integration testing has taken place, the relevant team members are notified of the test results.

   At this point, the changes that were checked in at step 2 have been successfully built and tested, all with little or no manual intervention.

For information on using Jenkins to perform the CI server tasks in the above list, see Using Visual COBOL with Jenkins.

The following list gives a very brief summary of each of the Micro Focus products that play a part in the continuous integration process:

• AccuRev

  Micro Focus AccuRev is a software configuration management tool that addresses complex parallel and distributed development environments with stream-based architecture to accelerate development processes and improve asset reuse.

  AccuRev integrates with Visual COBOL to enable you to commit your changes to the shared repository quickly and easily with a minimum of fuss.

• COBOL Analyzer

  Micro Focus COBOL Analyzer is powerful code analysis and visualization toolset, designed to address the challenges of working with large-scale, complex applications.

  COBOL Analyzer enables you to quickly gain a thorough understanding of your applications, meaning that you reduce the amount of time it takes you to make your changes and you can have more confidence that your changes have the desired effect and do not introduce any new issues.

  You can also use COBOL Analyzer to run queries to determine if your code conforms to your in-house standards. Any code that does not conform to your standards can be flagged as an error following a commit or during the build process.

• COBOL Server

  COBOL Server is the deployment and execution environment for applications developed using Visual COBOL. It provides a high-performance, platform-portable run time environment in which your customers can execute your COBOL applications, while its small footprint and ease of installation makes it easy for you to use in your testing.

  As well as providing the environment in which your COBOL applications run, COBOL Server includes features to simplify your testing. For example, once you have set up a COBOL Server environment for testing an application you can export the definition of that environment to an XML file, where the XML definition includes details of all aspects of the COBOL Server environment such as region definitions, locations of data files, and settings of environment variables. Once you have exported the definition you can import it to be used during your testing, ensuring that the COBOL Server environment you use in your testing is exactly the same environment as the one you know to be correct.

• Dimensions CM

  Micro Focus Dimensions CM streamlines the complexity of collaborative parallel development and increases team velocity while ensuring a high degree of release readiness.

  Dimensions CM integrates with Visual COBOL to enable you to commit your changes to the shared repository quickly and easily with a minimum of fuss.

• PVCS

  Micro Focus PVCS Version Manager is used by thousands of software developers around the world to meet their version control requirements. It is one of the most reliable, trusted, and proven solutions available.

  PVCS integrates with Visual COBOL to enable you to commit your changes to the shared repository quickly and easily with a minimum of fuss.

• StarTeam

  Micro Focus StarTeam delivers changes across multiple ALM repositories and tools as the single source of truth. It's an enterprise change management system, serving both centralized and geographically distributed development teams, helping them achieve their highest level of software delivery.

  StarTeam integrates with Visual COBOL to enable you to commit your changes to the shared repository quickly and easily with a minimum of fuss.

• Visual COBOL

  Micro Focus Visual COBOL is the next-generation solution for COBOL application development and deployment. It enables you to modernize COBOL systems using Visual Studio and Eclipse as well as deploy COBOL applications and services to new platforms, including .NET, JVM, and the cloud.

  Visual COBOL offers the following features that make it a great fit for using in your CI process:

  • Support for Apache Ant means that you can write scripts to enable your CI server to build and run your COBOL applications just as easily as you can build and run your COBOL applications from the Visual COBOL IDE.
  • Integration into an extensible IDE enables you to use a range of third-party functionality to work with different CI servers.
  • Integration with SCC-compliant source code control systems to enable you to work seamlessly with your source code.
  • Integration into Eclipse provides useful debugging features such as colorization, error flagging, and intelligent copybook handling to enable you to quickly track down any issues, establish their cause, and make your edits.
  • Reverse Debug and Live Recording are Technology Preview features that enable you to create a recording of an application's execution then load the recording into the debugger.

    With the recording loaded into the debugger you can monitor everything that influenced the running of the program (such as all input, disk access, and keyboard strokes) and because the debugger lets you move backwards and forwards through the execution path you can easily focus on potential causes of crashes or other unexpected behavior in the application.

  • The Micro Focus Unit Testing Framework, an xUnit-style testing framework, includes much of the architecture you would expect of an xUnit framework, enabling you to create, compile, run, and debug unit tests from either the command line or the Visual COBOL IDE.
  • Core dump debugging. When an application crashes you can arrange for its state to be saved to disk, in a core dump file, which can indicate where the error occurred in the source code, the contents of memory at the time of the error, and the values of any variables and expressions set at the time. You can then use the core dump file to help debug the problems.
  • Wait for attachment enables you to attach the debugger only when a particular piece of code is executed.
  • Integration with Micro Focus Rhythm means that you can navigate and update your sprint backlog without even having to leave Eclipse.
  • Remote debugging enables you to debug programs that are running on a different computer from the one on which you are using.
  • The Consolidated Tracing Facility (CTF) produces detailed diagnostic information that can be invaluable in diagnosing problems when you can't easily attach a debugger.