If you are a newly minted automation developer, you might not know that there is a lot more to the software development process than just writing code:
- A Selenium WebDriver / Java test depends on the Java bindings for Selenium (the selenium-java library) to be downloaded and usable for your Selenium / Java project.
- The tests need to be built and compiled into some type of form before they can be run. Build artifacts, such as JAR (Java Archive) files, need to stored somewhere until they are ready to be used.
Artifactory helps by providing a way to store both the dependencies and the files produced. And their webinar might help put technical concepts in context, things that a manual tester may not be familiar with: build tools, Maven, Gradle, binary files, blobs, diff tools, and source control systems.
Build Tools -- such as Maven and Gradle -- automate the creation of executable applications from source code. The build process incorporates downloading dependencies -- such as Selenium-Java in a Selenium WebDriver / Java project -- compiling, linking and packaging the code into a usable or executable form -- such as a JAR (*.jar) file in a Java project.
- See examples of setting up Selenium-Java with Maven and POM (project object model) files.
- See examples of setting up a Selenium-Java project using Gradle.
- Travel back in time to the WikiWikiWeb to read about Apache Ant, and Apache Maven.
What is produced from the build process is a binary file. It is no longer human readable source code. Well, you might be able to make out any META tags. Maybe the header. Or a word or two. But it is not the same as when you were writing the original source code.
You can't just use a diff tool anymore to compare and contrast the changes of two different versions of a binary file. You can't fire up your command line interface, whether Unix or Mac Terminal, and type in:
- diff file1.txt file2.text
... and see line by line what the difference is between, say, the source code on your local branch on your computer in your working directory, and what has been checked into master.
Introduction to JFrog Artifactory Webinar (YouTube):
Artifactory: https://www.jfrog.com/artifactory/
Artifactory Wiki: https://www.jfrog.com/confluence/display/RTF/Using+Artifactory
Artifactory isn't just a place to store binary files. It provides versioning (applying a version control system) to them.
Have you explored GitHub? Software developers who are passionate about sharing their source code, such as the SeleniumHQ project that produced Selenium WebDriver, post their code in public code repositories. If you know the Java programming language, the code is more (or less) readable.
You can use source control systems, such as Git, to manage of changes to documents, the source code of computer programs, large web sites, and other collections of information.
Artifactory is of the opinion that binary files should not go into a source control system:
- Sources are text files. Binaries are blobs, built from sources.
- Sources are diffable. Binaries are not.
- Sources are versioned by content. Binaries are versioned by name.
A "blob" is a Binary Large Object... a "collection of binary data stored as a single entity in a database management system. Blobs are typically images, audio or other multimedia objects, though sometimes binary executable code is stored as a blob". According to Wikipedia, a database architect in the 1960s immediately thought of the movie when trying to describe a large chunk of data, and what the B.L.O.B. actually stands for has been reinvented more than a few times.
Let's say you commit a text file into the source control system the piece of text: "Mary had a little lamb". Then you committed the piece of text: "Then she had some mashed potatoes". The two commits are stored in two separate files, the original, then the changes (the "delta").
With a source control system, once the piece of text or code is committed and merged into the master branch, everyone can pull the new changes onto their system. Every developer has a clone of the entire code repository on their local computer.
If you store a really large file, such as a binary file (like a JAR file or ZIP file) each developer has to store a copy of the increasingly large repo on their machine. The solution just does not scale. Large files clog up a Git repository.
- Read more about Git.
What of you want to store binaries on a File Server? It also doesn't scale. Artifactory makes the pitch: Think of the possible requirements for storing binary files. You might want to search the binary repository by Name, context, and content.
What if you want to manage the artifact lifecycle? What if you want to maintain and clean up your snapshots each time your retention policy changes or is triggered? What if you want to optimize your storage size? You cannot compress your binary and reduce the size.
A fileserver does not give you REST API access to your artifacts. If you want to fetch and deploy your artifact in an automated fashion, you need exposure to the REST APIs.Artifactory is a Binary Repository that fulfills all these requirements.
With Artifactory, artifacts are not deleted on the fly. It picks up orphan binaries with garbage collection, usually once per day, but can be changed to once a week depending on your retention policy.
Problems with Binary Files: Too Large!
Back in 2001 Agile binaries were very small. With the advent of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, things got bigger. Then DevOps and Microservices took over, and file sizes got bigger still. Then Docker containerizing everything: The size of the binaries exploded.
According to Artifactory, you need to know where the binaries are being stored, where they are being used, and if the binary is for a release candidate. What if you want to track the binary back to the source? Which binary did you want to push to production?
Artifactory adds Metadata automatically, and with custom metadata tagging, such as QA PASS, QA Fail, and various platforms. It also adds implicit metadata such as size, download stats, author, etc. It also tells you where the build URL is coming from.
Need to write queries to search for data? You can write queries on the metadata with the Artifactory Query Language.
... All in all, I really liked their introductory video. It helped put terms in context, ones that I hadn't heard of since grad school, putting me in the shoes of other software developers and the problems they may face.
They even provide a Gradle build script, such as with their Gradle Plugin at https://www.jfrog.com/confluence/display/RTF/Gradle+Artifactory+Plugin
They even provide a Gradle build script, such as with their Gradle Plugin at https://www.jfrog.com/confluence/display/RTF/Gradle+Artifactory+Plugin
... Not familiar with JCenter? ...
Using Bintray's JCenter for Gradle resolution:
You can set up Vagrant, Maven, Gradle, Docker and other types of repositories in "minutes" with them.
- See other Screencasts by JFrog: https://www.jfrog.com/video/one-minute-artifactory/
As always, Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer,
Fitbit-Boston
// BSCS, MSE, and QA Engineer since Aug. 1996
// Automation developer for [ 1.5 ] years and still counting!
// Check out Adventures in Automation and Like us on Facebook!
No comments:
Post a Comment