Kiran Gangadharan

Setting up Jenkins as a watchdog for your Python application

· Kiran Gangadharan

In order to facilitate  an efficient collaboration amongst developer teams, it is very important to keep the development workflow as simple and straightforward as possible. Version Control is one tool that helps with this. Continuous Integration is another one. Below, I’ll illustrate the steps needed to configure a basic Python application with Jenkins, a CI server that automates a lot of the repetitive stuff, so that you can focus on writing code. Well, let’s get started then.

Create a new project, and fill in the *GitHub project *option with the path to your local git repository.

local-git-repo-config

 

Next, install the following plugins:

  • Git Plugin
  • Cobertura Plugin (for coverage reports)
  • Violations Plugin (for pylint violation reports)

After installing the above, restart Jenkins and move on to the next step.

Once you’re done restarting, open Jenkins Dashboard > Manage Jenkins > Configure System. Set your GitHub username and email under the Git Plugin option

Now, go back to your projet configuration and set the following properties:

  • Select Git under Source Code Management and add your project details. Remember to set the project branch accordingly.
  • Select Poll SCM under Build Triggers and set it to an appropriate value, based on how often you want Jenkins to look into your project for changes.
  • Add a new build step under the Build option and select Execute Shell. This allows you to specify the instructions to build your project. I’ve used the following snippet, but feel free to modify it in accordance to your liking.
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# Adding virtualenv to PATH
PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
cd $WORKSPACE/

virtualenv --no-site-packages ve
. ve/bin/activate

# Installing necessary packages and project dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt --download-cache=/tmp/$JOB_NAME
pip install nose
pip install coverage
pip install pylint

# Running Tests
nosetests --with-xunit --all-modules --traverse-namespace --with-coverage --cover-package=bootstrapy --cover-inclusive

# Generating code coverage
coverage xml

# Checking for pylint violations
pylint -f parseable -d I0011,R0801 mypackage | tee pylint.out
  •  Add Publish Cobertura Coverage Report and Publish Junit test result report to Post Build Actions and set them to coverage.xml and nosetests.xml :

coverage-and-test-config

  • Lastly, add Report Violations to Post Build Actions and then set the XML filename pattern for pylint as **/pylint.out

pylint-config

 

That’s it ! Now build your project and you should be able to get test, coverage and pylint violation reports right on the project dashboard. The best part is the fact that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Jenkins is capable of. There are lot more cooler things that you can do. So, have fun exploring !