While most of my work is Mac/Unix based some of my business work is built on VB.NET/ASP.NET inside a Windows development. While striving for more robust, predictable code I chose to implement a Continuous Integration (CI) system. I had already used CI in large scale game production environments with great success following the TDD model.

Setting up a Continuous Integration server was the 1st task and I chose Jenkins for the task in hand. This had to be setup on a Windows system so that it could invoke Visual Studio 2010 in order to build the required projects parts that were a mix of VB applications and ASP.NET web services. We also had a requirement to use Perforce as the SCM of choice.


I’m assuming you already have a working build of your product on a host machine with your VS2010 build already cleanly building via a solution file.

Here’s how I did it:

Install Java Runtime Edition (JRE)

Jenkins requires Java so you’re going to have to ensure you have that installed before you can go much further. Oracle maintain the JRE so go there now and pop back when you’ve got it installed.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Download and install Jenkins

Once again, there’s a nice handy page over at Jenkins HQ that includes all the info you need on how to get Jenkins installed. Don’t forget to come back for more settings.
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Meet+Jenkins#MeetJenkins-Installation

Jenkins Setup

Within our organisation we typically keep all of our development files in a common directory regardless of host machine that maps straight into the Perforce Depot at a consistent point. This ensures we can get developers up & running very quickly. In our case, it’s:

C:\dev\

Firstly, we’ll relocate Jenkins into that directory so we can maintain it inside our Perforce Depot. So locate your downloaded & unpacked ‘jenkins.war’ and move it to:

C:\dev\Build\jenkins\jenkins.war

To test our setup, we’re going to start a static server via the command prompt so we can see all the various messages it produces. This will help us spot errors and get to know how Jenkins works. Inside your Command Prompt issue:

java -jar C:\dev\Build\jenkins\jenkins.war

If this all looks good, then check the Jenkins web service is running by visiting the default web browser location http://localhost:8080/. Remember this is a localhost setting so it’ll only work if Jenkins is running properly. We’ll be running Jenkins as a Windows Service once we’re happy everything is running OK and we can trust it to work cleanly in the background and startup when the system starts.

Install MSBuild plugin for Jenkins

Here’s a link to the plugin you’re looking to setup locally: https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/MSBuild+Plugin . You’ll notice there’s no download link on there as plugins are installed through the local Jenkins browser interface.

Installing Jenkins as Continuous Integration builder on Windows

Inside the Jenkins browser you’ll be installing the MSBuild plugin via Jenkins>Manage Plugins>Available then you’ll find the MSBuild in the ‘Build Tools‘ section.

NOTE: This page should be populated with available plugins, however if you’ve just installed Jenkins and got to this point quickly then it’s likely that the list will be empty. If so then try 2 things. (a) wait for the repository to download but we warned there’s no indicators for this (b) restart Jenkins service to populate the list.

Configure location of MSBuild.exe

Go to your local Jenkins Configuration via http://localhost:8080/configure
Navigate down that page to MSBuild section
click ‘Add MSBuild‘

  • Name: .NET 4.0
  • Path : C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
  • Default Params: empty

Installing Jenkins as Continuous Integration builder on Windows

You should now have the prerequisites to be able to make a build Job via Jenkins.

Build Job

Add a new Build Job

– New Job http://localhost:8080/view/All/newJob
– Job Name: ProjectName
– Type: Build a free-style software project
– OK

Installing Jenkins as Continuous Integration builder on Windows
Setup your Job to execute a MSBuild script:
Navigate down through Build -> Add Build Step -> Build a Visual Studio project
– MsBuild Version: .NET 4.0
– MsBuild Build File: C:\dev\Projects\ProjectName\Project.vbproj

Installing Jenkins as Continuous Integration builder on Windows

That’s it for the basic build. You should now be able to get Jenkins to run your build job and have it build locally without errors. If it’s not working right, sort it out now before adding in SCM.

Continuous Integration via Perforce

Now you’ve got a working build (if not then read up and come back) it’s time to connect your local build to the Perforce depot so we can get your build system automatically syncing & building your project when anything changes in Perforce.

Install Perforce plugin

Install Perforce plugin for Jenkins in a similar way to how we installed the MSBuild plugin via Jenkins -> Manage Plugins -> Available

Configure Perforce

We’re now going to configure the default Perforce command for the whole of Jenkins.

Go to http://localhost:8080/configure and navigate down to Perforce section of the configuration click ‘Add Perforce‘
– Name: p4
– Path: C:\Program Files\Perforce\p4.exe

The system wide default Perforce command is now installed and ready for connection to a Job.

Add Perforce to Job

Next we’re going to join the command into the job so they execute when appropriate.

Go to the job configuration page for the Job you’re setting up and locate ‘Source Code Management‘ and select ‘Perforce‘
— P4PORT: your perforce server IP:1666
— username: your perforce username
— workspace: jenkins

Ensure the perforce workspace/view mappings are accurate inside the Job -> Perforce settings. A good way is to copy the view from a working p4 workspace inside the p4v application itself and replace the original workspace name with ‘jenkins’

Check Perforce Works

 It’s now time to see if you’re done everything right. Starting a Build for the Job inside Jenkins should work smoothly now. But we’re not done yet, we’ve still got to setup the triggers to complete the CI process.

Poll SCM

So now you’ve got a working installation of Jenkins, you’ve got your build working cleanly and it now Integrates your project from Perforce when you initiate a build. It’s all good but it’s not very Continuous. To make this work we’re going to get Jenkins to poll Perforce every 1 minute for changes and then automatically start the Job we already setup.
Find the setup portion inside Job -> Configure -> Build Triggers
– [x] Poll SCM (checked)
– Schedule :

# every minute
* * * * *

Done

Well, that’s it. You’ve now built yourself a Continuous Integration server to watch over you and make sure your builds are consistently building and you’ve not forgotten to add something to the repository, submit a complete working build or a myriad of other reasons.

You may want to install some desktop notifications for clients, setup some NUnit tests and really start building on the good foundations you’ve setup.

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