With install for Windows or Linux complete, a new solution can be executed.
A key principle of the Continuous Delivery Automation Framework is loose coupling. This gives the automation developer the ability to run the automation process on their workstation, well before executing in the pipeline tooling. This principle should be retained where possible so that troubleshooting and feature development can be be bought closer to the developer.
a loosely coupled solution can allow migrating from one pipeline tool to another with minimal effort.
Seed your solution
To seed a new solution, the minimal requirement is a directory with a solution file CDAF.solution
mkdir .cdaf
Linux
echo "solutionName=mycoolproduct" > .cdaf/CDAF.solution
echo "artifactPrefix=0.1" >> .cdaf/CDAF.solution
Windows
Set-Content .\.cdaf\CDAF.solution "solutionName=mycoolproduct"
Add-Content .\.cdaf\CDAF.solution "artifactPrefix=0.1"
The minimum properties are the name of your solution, and the versioning prefix. The resulting artefact will have the build number appended to the release package, e.g. the first build will be 0.1.1, then 0.1.2 and so on. See packaging.
solutionName=mycoolproduct
artifactPrefix=0.1
Continuous Integration (CI)
With CDAF installed on your path, you can now test the solution by running linux
ci.sh
or for windows
ci
Many things will happen, however the key observation is that a file called release.sh for linux or release.ps1 for windows will be produced, this is the build artefact that can be consumed by the Continuous Delivery (CD) stages.
Shift-Left & Fail-Fast
Now that you have the bare minimum, apply it to your CI/CD toolset immediately. We want to have a green pipeline from the start to trap any problems we may introduce in subsequent steps
Next: Install CDAF to your pipeline