What are good ways of dealing with the issues surrounding plugin code that interacts with outside system?
To give a concrete and representative example, suppose I would like to use Subversion and Eclipse to develop plugins for WordPress. The main code body of WordPress is installed on the webserver, and the plugin code needs to be available in a subdirectory of that server.
I could see how you could simply checkout a copy of your code directly under the web directory on a development machine, but how would you also then integrate this with the IDE?
I am making the assumption here that all the code for the plugin is located under a single directory.
Do most people just add the plugin as a project in an IDE and then place the working folder for the project wherever the 'main' software system wants it to be? Or do people use some kind of symlinks to their home directory?
Short answer - I do have my development and production servers check out the appropriate directories directly from SVN.
For your example:
Develop on the IDE as you would normally, then, when you're ready to test, check in to your local repository. Your development webserver can then have that directory checked out and you can easily test.
Once you're ready for production, merge the change into the production branch, and do an svn update on the production webserver.
Where I work some folks like to use the FileSync Plugin for Eclipse for this purpose, though I have seen some oddities with that plugin where files in the target directory occasionally go missing. The whole structure is:
Ant task to create target directory at desired location (via copy commands, mostly)
FileSync Plugin configured to keep files in sync between development location and target location as you code (sync the Eclipse output folder to a location in the Web server's classpath, etc.)
Of course, symlinks may work better on systems that have good support for symlinks :-)
To me, adding a symlink pointing to your development folder seems like a tidy solution to the problem.
If the main project is on a different machine/webserver, you could use something like sshfs to mount your development directory into the right place on the webserver.
Related
I am trying to figure out what's the best process to implement for build & deployment for coldfusion project.
I am much more familiar with the regular java stack: some back-end framework (Spring, Struts, etc), bunch of JSP files, then use maven to compile and bundle everything to a .war file that I simply deploy (copy) over to a tomcat webapp directory
Are cfm files practically same as jsp? What are the similarities & differences between Java vs Coldfusion build/deploy process?
The resources I found so far make it sound like to just copy & paste the physical files, which doesn't sound quite right.
The thread here Best Practices for Code/Web Application Deployment? - goes on the generic deployment process, which we already have implemented. We have code repository and maven to manage our build & deployment process, can coldfusion work straight out of the box with the same set up as regular Java/war projects?
A thread in Adobe forum does not give much insights either: Deploying ColdFusion 8 project via EAR/WAR file, plus it talks about EAR rather than WAR.
This is an old link from 2007: build tools: maven and coldfusion seem to indicate maven is not straight out of the box solution, also seems like Coldfusion has no need for dependency management that maven is so useful for?
Can someone help point me to the right direction for build & deployment of coldfusion projects with the following stack:
Code repository, doesn't matter much: Git, svn
Maven build
Deploy project as war into Tomcat7 (not built in)
MySQL db connector
and Lastly - how would the solution be different between CF8 vs CF10? Looks to me CF8 may be worse as it doesn't officially support Tomcat, whereas CF10 runs on modified version of Tomcat?
Thanks!
When it comes to deploying CFML out the box then you really just have to copy and paste the file into your web server. In your case if you are using git just pull it from your repository. You don't have to do anything other then that. However, in some cases you may need to clear your CFML Cache if you don't see the changes immediately. This is my personal process:
Make changes on local machine running a CFML Development environment.
Commit and Push changes to git repository.
Pull changes to Production Server
Clear cache if needed.
It really is simple as that as long as your code makes it that simple.
Answer 1:
I have worked on some substantial apps were the process was zip up all the files, send them to a deployment team and they will unzip at the appropriate location.
Answer 2:
I suspect you are looking for something like CAR files. http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/10.0/Admin/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbf364104-7fd3.html
I have a play framework project which run on remote server.
I'm trying to configure eclipse to work remotely on the project.
since no build is required my requirements are to be able to edit the project files from eclipse and automatically save on server, auto complete and debug.
I've installed Remote System Explorer on eclipse and setup a remote ftp connection to my server.
The play environment on my server is under
/play-2.0.2/
My project path is
/play-2.0.2/test
In RSE I clicked on /play-2.0.2/test and 'Create Remote Project'
Now in Java perspective I can browse through the project, change files and then automatically save to server.
My problem is auto completion of play framework library doesn't work well since all the reference are to /play-2.0.2/repository/...
any idea how to solve it? I tried to play with the build path but no success
Thanks!
So, I was looking into achieving the same thing myself.
The problem you are experiencing is due to the fact that the .classpath file has absolute values. While for me, besides the symlink that doesn't work between two different kinds of O.S., I thought on another two solutions:
Use sed to rewrite the classpath on the .classpath file after it's generated
Use a "classpathTransformerFactory" for the sbt eclipse command
I haven't had to deal with it (it's more of want to than whatnot) as soon as I do, I will explore the two options and post details. I just leave the answer here in case someone wants to pick up where you left.
Another thing is:
Seen that sbt picks up the libs referenced in build.sbt, downloads the jars and puts them in the ~/.ivy2 directory, if you use any of those methods to change the reference from the remote machine to the local one, you would need to make sure that the same libs are on the local ivy cache. So, just as I wrote this, another idea came to mind:
sbt eclipse or play eclipse or activator eclipse [it should be the same] on a local environment, and on the remote one, then, transfer the .project and .classpath files from the local to the remote, and see what happens (if it doesn't work, scan them for absolute and incorrect paths that might need to be changed)
Sorry for the unproved answer, still I think it's better than no answer.
Cheers
I'm looking for advice regarding best practices for sharing an Eclipse project among developers.
It seems clear to me that each developer should have his/her own Eclipse workspace. However, projects seem to loan themselves better for many users to use the same project, e.g., if several users are working on a particular component, they are all likely to need to use the component's project, since if they each had their own project, they'd each have to set up and maintain the same project dependencies, etc. Looking to see if this is what other folks do or if their are reasons to give each developer his own project for a particular component.
Also, if the recommendation is to share a project, what are recommendations for configuration managing an Eclipse project? In the past we have used ClearCase, but we are now looking to change to Git or SVN. In the ClearCase world, it would seem advisable to do frequent checkins and merges to help the team stay up to date. Again, I'm looking for opinions from folks who have already lived this.
Thanks for any recommendations or external "how to" books or websites!
Thanks,
Ken
Sharing an Eclipse project doesn't cause any problem. Just put the .classpath, .project files and the .settings directory (and any project-related config file/directory that Eclipse generates at the root of the project) under source control.
Also, avoid using absolute paths in your project (for external libraries, for example), since all the developers don't necessarily have the same setup and use the same locations.
Git, SVN or ClearCase : it doesn't matter : all allow sharing Eclipse files.
We put the entire eclipse project folder under version control (with an svn:ignore for the directory containing the compiled classes).
This allows us to share not only the build configuration, but also launch configurations (with the proper VM-parameters), the configuration for compiler warnings the team considers relevant, and the formatter configuration for the coding conventions in use. We can also set text file encodings that way.
...avoid using absolute paths in your project
Good point.
We've had some issues with this in ClearCase. Our third party libs were placed in a different part of the filesystem under version control. So to avoid absolute paths to the libs we added an ant script. The script would copy the libs to a view private directory that was directly under the project root.
We then added a builder to the project to make sure that the script was run first at every clean + rebuild.
At my company, we use Weblogic (depending upon the installation anywhere between versions 6.1 to 11g).
Right now, we embed environment specific variables into our ears, jars, and wars. This even includes the weblogic.xml file where we have something like this:
<working-dir>/opt/bea/wl61/server/domains/deploy/prod3/temp/work</working-dir>
That means we have to rebuild the same jars, ears, and wars for each and every environment. And, if there's a change in the environment, we have to rebuild and redeploy the wars, ears, and jars. You can imagine the issues and problems we have with build and release management (which is my job).
At my last position, we used JBoss, and somehow were able to create generic and deployable ears. I would have Hudson build an ear that the developers could use for their testing. This same ear could then be passed to our QA team in their environment, to UAT, staging, and into production.
We could do this amazing feat because we configured JBoss to look for properties files OUTSIDE or the ear itself. There was a config directory that was a sibling to the deploy directory that contained any needed properties files. Is it possible to setup Weblogic to do the same thing?
We need a way to do this with minimal code changes. I've already examined the source, and we don't specify the directory name when we specify loading the values in the properties files. Therefore, we might be able to do this with some sort of CLASSPATH idea.
I understand that these properties must live somewhere, but I would prefer if it could be configured in the environment, and maybe done by having the path relative to the deploy directory. I want to use the same ear, jar, and war files no matter what system you are on: Windows PC desktop, Linux, Mac, or Solaris server.
The toughest issue will be our weblogic.xml embedded path. Can that path be relative to the deploy directory and not from the root of the system?
As I stated before, I'm the build manager, so as far as everyone is concerned, this is my headache, and not their problem. If deployments don't go well, the Finger 'o Blame can point directly at me.
In order to get this to done I have to be able to find a solution that's simple for us to implement. We can't rewrite everything and change everything around. Otherwise, I can't get the other teams to do this. After all, it's my issue and not theirs. We need something with minimal coding changes (preferably none) and minimal changes in our Weblogic setup. I want something that in Version 3.4 of our software, we do it the old fashion environment specific way, but in Version 3.5, we can deploy in an environmentally neutral way and do that with minimal changes in our deployment environment.
I can feel your pain - I went through the same process at a couple of companies. You have a couple of options that would be a significant improvement from your current setup:
1) Modify the CLASSPATH to use an external directory / properties file that overrides everything that is in the ear file. This is easy to implement but can get out of hand without the proper standards/governance.
2) Use deployment plans to define environment specific variables. However, deployment plans were not introduced until the WebLogic 9.2.
3) Roll all of your environment specific files in to its own jar. All environments would be pointing to the same file but it would be building out different contents based on your build process. Advantages - Single file that contains all the props, easy to move, etc. Disadvantages - Cannot change properties on the fly and force a reload from the JVM.
There may be other options based on the repository. IMHO, all of these work more or less the same - It's the process and enforcing it that prevents issues.
I am not sure if there's an answer for this already -- couldn't find one for this (hopefully common) setup:
I recently converted one of my ColdFusion projects to deploy via ANT.
I have a local ant script that instructs a remote server to check out the code, and run the application's specific build file, remotely on the server.
I have a few endpoints:
Live - production (on the production server)
Staging - on the production server, different datasource, etc.
dev - on the local box.
What I have run into it seems is a simple and common problem. I now need ANT to create any build, even locally. Fine, created a local endpoint and it configures for my box.
Issue? How do I get it to show up as a project (automatically if possible) in Eclipse/ColdFusion builder. What I envision is instead of checking out a branch via the subversion plugin in CFBuilder/Eclipse, I now use ANT to do that for me.
Since I use ColdFusion Builder (Eclipse + Adobe's plugin), I have all of eclipse's tools and plugins available to solve the problem of : how can I best call ANT from within Eclipse/ColdFusion Builder, to setup the local build as a project that I can develop and work on?
I think when I check the code back in from the local box, I'd have to be sure not to check in any files with local config paths, etc.
I hope this is a detailed and clear enough explanation, if not, please ask.
Thanks in advance!
You won't be able to have it "automatically" show up in CFBuilder, but you can make it pretty easy.
Eclipse requires the ".project" file, which is a simple xml file that by default generally just contains the project name.
Once you check out your project from SVN, Do file -- new -- ColdFusion project and point it to the directory where you've checked out your code. This will create the .project in there. From there, you can commit that file to SVN.
Subsequent developers who check out the project from SVN can then do File -- Import -- Existing Project into workspace, and point it to their checked out location. Since it'll have the .project file in there (from when you committed it), that project will show up when they search for projects in that import wizard.
Now, that's how you'd do it if you already used ANT to check out the code. However, if you wanted a potentially even easier way, then you can just install either the Subversive or Subclipse plugin into CFBuilder, and then do
file -- new -- checkout project from svn
point to your svn url
select the directory you want to check out
choose a location where you want the code to live
click through to completion