NAnt with DB integration tests, and eventually Continuous Integration

Question

I've been exploring different strategies for running integration tests within some Nant build scripts. Typically a number of different scripts are chained in one monolithic build that has separate targets: staging (build a staging version, like build), build (just build the stuff), integration (build the stuff and run the integration tests). This works reasonably well, the build target takes about a third of the time to run as the integration target and it's not painfully long so I don't find myself disinclined to run it frequently.

The integration target on the other hand takes long enough that I don't want to do it very often - ideally just before I'm ready to do a deploy. Does this seem like a reasonable strategy? IOW, am I doing it right?

The plan is to eventually move this project to Continuous Integration. I'm new to the whole Continuous Integration thing but I think I understand the concept of "breaking the build" so I'm wondering what are some good practices to pick up in order to make the most of it?

Any good sources of reading on this subject would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, you are on the right track. What you need to do now is to hook up your nant target to an automated process. I recommend using either Team City or Cruise Control for as your CI tool. Once you have your automated server setup you can run your build and unit tests on each check in (Continuous Integration). Your integration tests could then run at night or over the weekend since they typically take longer to run. If your integration tests are successful, you can then have a job that will deploy to some QA or other server.

Answer 2

Sounds like you're 99% of the way there. My advice is to just dive in and start doing it. You'll learn a lot more by actually taking the plunge and doing it than by thinking about whether you're doing it right.

My company is currently using CruiseControl and I personally think it's great.

Answer 3

See this related thread What is a good CI build process?

You are on the right track. If you're using a decent CI tool, you should be able to set each setup up as a separate project that triggers the next step in the chain... i.e. sucessfull build triggers tests which trigger deployment which triggers integration etc

This way your ealiest "break" stops the line so to speak.

We use CruiseControl to build, unit-test, configure and deploy, run integration tests and code coverage, run acceptance tests, and package for release. This is with a system of 8 or so web services, and a dozen or so databases, all with interralated configuration and deployment dependencies with across multiple environments with different configurations (anythin from single boxes to redundent boxes for each component)