Jenkins is a popular open source automation server. It’s used to implement Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) for any development project.
CI/CD, a key component of a DevOps strategy, allows you to shorten the development lifecycle while maintaining quality by automating tasks like testing. In short, a successful implementation will help you test more often and deploy faster with high quality.
Jenkins, as a Java-based CI server with strong community support and a huge plugin ecosystem, is a powerful tool for anyone looking to add CI/CD to their project.
History of Jenkins
Jenkins has a long history, stretching back to 2011, and its roots extend back even further to 2004. That was the year that Kohsuke Kawaguchi, a Java developer at Sun Microsystems, built an automation tool to help him answer the question of whether his code would break the build before he committed it. The open source tool he built, called Hudson, automated tests and builds and helped him understand whether his code would work much sooner.
In 2011, there was an issue between Oracle (which had acquired Sun Microsystems) and the open source project’s community, and the community created a fork named Jenkins. For a while both projects were updated independently, but Jenkins proved to be more popular and Hudson is no longer developed.
What Does Jenkins Do?
Jenkins helps you automate tasks for CI/CD. Once the Jenkins server is configured, you will be able to execute a series of automated tests and builds so that your code is always up to date and valid. Implementing CI/CD through a tool like Jenkins can greatly simplify the process of ensuring a high level of code quality and successful builds. It’s particularly powerful when large development teams are working on a single project, as traditional methods can result in a lot of conflicting code commits that require complex troubleshooting.
Before we dive further into the functionality of Jenkins, let’s take a moment to define continuous integration/delivery. Then we’ll discuss how Jenkins helps you achieve it.
What is Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)?
CI is a process that enables you to integrate code changes from multiple developers working on a single project quickly and repeatedly. When a developer commits code, it can immediately be tested. If the tests pass, the code can be integrated into the build, which can similarly be tested and immediately verified.
Automated tests are typically used alongside automated builds so that the process can be fast, effective and easily repeatable.
How Does Jenkins Help with Automated Testing?
Using Jenkins to implement a CI/CD process can dramatically improve your ability to test and ship a high quality product.
One of the chief benefits is the ability to rapidly discover and fix bugs. If newly committed code introduces a defect into the build, not only is it caught immediately, but it is easy to know whose code caused the error. The problematic code can then be isolated, updated and recommitted quickly.
Getting Started with Jenkins and Jenkins Pipeline
The Jenkins CI server can be run as a standalone application with a built-in Java servlet container, or as a servlet in other Java servlet containers such as Apache Tomcat.
The most popular way to manage CI/CD with Jenkins is through Jenkins Pipeline, which is a suite of plugins that help you integrate continuous delivery pipelines in Jenkins. Essentially, a Pipeline is a linked series of automated steps to be executed by Jenkins. Jenkins Pipelines are implemented in code which can be committed, so that it can be versioned and reviewed along with the rest of your code.
Here’s an example (from the Jenkins docs) of a CD scenario modeled in Jenkins Pipeline:
Pipelines can be written manually or through the newer Blue Ocean GUI. There is also an older “classic UI”, but if you want to use a UI Blue Ocean is recommended.
Extending Jenkins with Plugins
Jenkins is designed to be easily extended via plugins – and over the years a thriving community has created a huge plugin ecosystem. The strength of this community, and subsequently the size of the plugin library, is one of the best things about Jenkins.
You can find a plugin for just about anything you need, as there are already 1500+ plugins contributed by the community (and counting). This is a good place to note that Jenkins is very actively updated and open to community participation.
Many testing tools like Applitools have a plugin that can easily help get your testing and CI/CD working together. Check out the Applitools plugin for Jenkins to see how this works.
Should You Use Jenkins?
Jenkins is a popular open source tool for CI/CD that is free to use. While you may need some server administration skills to configure and monitor Jenkins, there are many advantages to consider. The Jenkins project includes a large plugin ecosystem, the community around it is thriving and it is actively developed. If that sounds appealing to you, then give Jenkins a look for your CI/CD needs.
Learn More
- Continuous Integration with Jenkins [Free Course]
- How to update Jenkins build status in GitHub pull requests [Step-by-Step Tutorial]
- Jenkins Documentation [official]
