docker run \
--rm \
-u root \
-p 8080:8080 \
-v jenkins-data:/var/jenkins_home \ (1)
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v "$HOME":/home \ (2)
jenkinsci/blueocean
This tutorial shows you how to use Jenkins to orchestrate building and testing a simple Node.js and React application with the Node Package Manager (npm), as well as deliver different outcomes for development and production purposes.
Before starting this tutorial, it is recommended that you run through at least one of the initial set of Introductory tutorials from the Tutorials overview page first to familiarize yourself with CI/CD concepts (relevant to a technology stack you’re most familiar with), how these concepts are implemented in Jenkins and the fundamentals of Jenkins Pipelines.
In this tutorial, you’ll use the same application that the Build a Node.js and React app with npm tutorial is based on. Therefore, you’ll be building and testing the same application but this time, its delivery will be different depending on the Git branch that Jenkins builds from. That is, the branch being built determines which delivery stage of your Pipeline is executed.
Duration: This tutorial takes 30-50 minutes to complete (assuming you’ve already met the Prerequisites below). The exact duration will depend on the speed of your machine and whether or not you’ve already run Jenkins in Docker from another tutorial.
You can stop this tutorial at any point in time and continue from where you left off.
If you’ve already run though another tutorial, you can skip the Prerequisites and Run Jenkins in Docker sections below and proceed on to forking the sample repository. (Just ensure you have Git installed locally.) If you need to restart Jenkins, simply follow the restart instructions in Stopping and restarting Jenkins and then proceed on.
For this tutorial, you will require:
A macOS, Linux or Windows machine with:
256 MB of RAM, although more than 512MB is recommended.
10 GB of drive space for Jenkins and your Docker images and containers.
The following software installed:
Docker - Read more about installing Docker in the
Installing Docker section of
the Installing Jenkins page.
Note: If you use Linux, this tutorial assumes that you are not running
Docker commands as the root user, but instead with a single user account that
also has access to the other tools used throughout this tutorial.
Git and optionally GitHub Desktop.
In this tutorial, you’ll be running Jenkins as a Docker container from the
jenkinsci/blueocean
Docker
image.
To run Jenkins in Docker, follow the relevant instructions below for either macOS and Linux or Windows.
You can read more about Docker container and image concepts in the Docker and Downloading and running Jenkins in Docker sections of the Installing Jenkins page.
Open up a terminal window.
Run the jenkinsci/blueocean
image as a container in Docker using the
following
docker run
command (bearing in mind that this command automatically downloads the image
if this hasn’t been done):
docker run \
--rm \
-u root \
-p 8080:8080 \
-v jenkins-data:/var/jenkins_home \ (1)
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v "$HOME":/home \ (2)
jenkinsci/blueocean
1 | Maps the /var/jenkins_home directory in the container to the Docker
volume with the name
jenkins-data . If this volume does not exist, then this docker run command
will automatically create the volume for you. |
2 | Maps the $HOME directory on the host (i.e. your local) machine (usually
the /Users/<your-username> directory) to the /home directory in the
container. |
Note: If copying and pasting the command snippet above doesn’t work, try copying and pasting this annotation-free version here:
docker run \
--rm \
-u root \
-p 8080:8080 \
-v jenkins-data:/var/jenkins_home \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v "$HOME":/home \
jenkinsci/blueocean
Proceed to the Setup wizard.
Open up a command prompt window.
Run the jenkinsci/blueocean
image as a container in Docker using the
following
docker run
command (bearing in mind that this command automatically downloads the image
if this hasn’t been done):
docker run ^ --rm ^ -u root ^ -p 8080:8080 ^ -v jenkins-data:/var/jenkins_home ^ -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock ^ -v "%HOMEPATH%":/home ^ jenkinsci/blueocean
For an explanation of these options, refer to the macOS and Linux instructions above.
Proceed to the Setup wizard.
If you have some experience with Docker and you wish or need to access the
Jenkins/Blue Ocean Docker container through a terminal/command prompt using the
docker exec
command, you can add an option like --name jenkins-tutorials
(with the
docker run
above), which would give the Jenkins/Blue Ocean Docker container the name
"jenkins-tutorials".
This means you could access the Jenkins/Blue Ocean container (through a separate
terminal/command prompt window) with a docker exec
command like:
docker exec -it jenkins-tutorials bash
Before you can access Jenkins, there are a few quick "one-off" steps you’ll need to perform.
When you first access a new Jenkins instance, you are asked to unlock it using an automatically-generated password.
After the 2 sets of asterisks appear in the terminal/command prompt window,
browse to http://localhost:8080
and wait until the Unlock Jenkins page
appears.
From your terminal/command prompt window again, copy the automatically-generated alphanumeric password (between the 2 sets of asterisks).
On the Unlock Jenkins page, paste this password into the Administrator password field and click Continue.
After unlocking Jenkins, the Customize Jenkins page appears.
On this page, click Install suggested plugins.
The setup wizard shows the progression of Jenkins being configured and the suggested plugins being installed. This process may take a few minutes.
Finally, Jenkins asks you to create your first administrator user.
When the Create First Admin User page appears, specify your details in the respective fields and click Save and Finish.
When the Jenkins is ready page appears, click Start using Jenkins.
Notes:
This page may indicate Jenkins is almost ready! instead and if so, click Restart.
If the page doesn’t automatically refresh after a minute, use your web browser to refresh the page manually.
If required, log in to Jenkins with the credentials of the user you just created and you’re ready to start using Jenkins!
Throughout the remainder of this tutorial, you can stop the Jenkins/Blue Ocean
Docker container by typing Ctrl-C
in the terminal/command prompt window from
which you ran the docker run …
command above.
To restart the Jenkins/Blue Ocean Docker container:
Run the same docker run …
command you ran for macOS,
Linux or Windows above.
Note: This process also updates the jenkinsci/blueocean
Docker image, if
an updated one is available.
Browse to http://localhost:8080
.
Wait until the log in page appears and log in.
Obtain the simple "Welcome to React" Node.js and React application from GitHub, by forking the sample repository of the application’s source code into your own GitHub account and then cloning this fork locally.
Ensure you are signed in to your GitHub account. If you don’t yet have a GitHub account, sign up for a free one on the GitHub website.
Fork the
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
on GitHub into your local GitHub account. If you need help with this process,
refer to the Fork A Repo
documentation on the GitHub website for more information.
Clone your forked building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
repository (on
GitHub) locally to your machine. To begin this process, do either of the
following (where <your-username>
is the name of your user account on your
operating system):
If you have the GitHub Desktop app installed on your machine:
In GitHub, click the green Clone or download button on your forked repository, then Open in Desktop.
In GitHub Desktop, before clicking Clone on the Clone a Repository dialog box, ensure Local Path for:
macOS is /Users/<your-username>/Documents/GitHub/building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Linux is /home/<your-username>/GitHub/building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Windows is C:\Users\<your-username>\Documents\GitHub\building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Otherwise:
Open up a terminal/command line prompt and cd
to the appropriate directory
on:
macOS - /Users/<your-username>/Documents/GitHub/
Linux - /home/<your-username>/GitHub/
Windows - C:\Users\<your-username>\Documents\GitHub\
(although use a Git
bash command line window as opposed to the usual Microsoft command prompt)
Run the following command to continue/complete cloning your forked repo:
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-GITHUB-ACCOUNT-NAME/building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
where YOUR-GITHUB-ACCOUNT-NAME
is the name of your GitHub account.
Before creating your Pipeline project in Jenkins, create "development" and
"production" branches of your locally cloned Git repository. You’ll be creating
a single Jenkinsfile (initially in the master
branch, which you’ll pull into
the other branches) whose stages will be selectively executed based on the
branch that Jenkins is building from.
Within the building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory (i.e. your local
clone of the sample repository):
Run the following commands to create
these branches (from the contents of the master
branch):
git branch development
and
git branch production
Check that these branches now exist by running the command git branch
, which
should give you:
development
* master
production
If the asterisk (indicating the current branch) does not appear next to
master
, run the command git checkout master
to ensure that master
is the
current branch.
Whenever you create any Pipeline project in Blue Ocean, Jenkins actually creates this as a multibranch Pipeline project behind the scenes. This becomes apparent if you were to access Jenkins’s classic interface after creating a Pipeline project in Blue Ocean; you’ll see that Jenkins will have created your project as a "Multibranch Pipeline" project.
Go back to Jenkins and ensure you have accessed the Blue Ocean interface. To do this, make sure you:
have browsed to http://localhost:8080/blue
and are logged in
or
have browsed to http://localhost:8080/
, are logged in and have clicked Open
Blue Ocean on the left.
In the Welcome to Jenkins box at the center of the Blue Ocean interface,
click Create a new Pipeline to begin the Pipeline creation wizard.
Note: If you don’t see this box, click New Pipeline at the top right.
In Where do you store your code?, click Git (not GitHub).
In the Repository URL field (within Connect to a Git repository), specify
the directory path of your locally cloned repository
above, which is from your
user account/home directory on your host machine, mapped to the /home
directory of the Jenkins container - i.e.
For macOS - /home/Documents/GitHub/building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
For Linux - /home/GitHub/building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
For Windows - /home/Documents/GitHub/building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Click Save to save your new Pipeline project.
Blue Ocean detects the presence of the Jenkinsfile
"Pipeline stub" in each
branch and proceeds to run each Pipeline against its respective branch, whose
build results are shown on the Activity page of the main Blue Ocean
interface.
The Pipeline stub consists of the basic requirements for a valid Pipeline - i.e.
an The reason why the If you created a Pipeline project in Blue Ocean but didn’t have a Jenkinsfile in
one or more of your repository’s branches, then to access the branches in Blue
Ocean after subsequently pulling in/adding a
|
You’re now ready to create the Pipeline that will automate building your Node.js
and React application in Jenkins. Your Pipeline will be created as a
Jenkinsfile
, which will be committed to the master
branch of your locally
cloned Git repository (building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
).
First, create an initial Pipeline to download a Node Docker image and run it as a Docker container that will build your simple Node.js and React application. Also add a "Build" stage to the Pipeline to begin orchestrating this whole process and a "Test" stage to check that the application renders satisfactorily.
Using your favorite text editor or IDE, open the existing Jenkinsfile
at the
root of your local building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Git repository
and clear its contents.
Note: Be sure you are performing this step on the master
branch of your
repository.
Copy the following Declarative Pipeline code and paste it into your empty
Jenkinsfile
:
pipeline {
agent {
docker {
image 'node:6-alpine'
args '-p 3000:3000 -p 5000:5000' (1)
}
}
environment {
CI = 'true'
}
stages {
stage('Build') {
steps {
sh 'npm install'
}
}
stage('Test') {
steps {
sh './jenkins/scripts/test.sh'
}
}
}
}
1 | This args parameter makes the Node container (temporarily) accessible
through ports 3000 and 5000. The significance of this is explained in the
jenkins/scripts/deliver-for-deployment.sh and
jenkins/scripts/deploy-for-production.sh files of your cloned repository, and
are covered in subsequent sections of this tutorial. |
Note: For an explanation of the other components of this Jenkinsfile
, refer
to the annotations of the Declarative Pipeline in the
Create
your initial Pipeline…''
and
Add
a test stage…'' sections of the
Build a Node.js and React app
with npm tutorial.
Save your edited Jenkinsfile
and commit it to your local
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Git repository. E.g. Within the
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory, run the commands:
git stage .
then
git commit -m "Add initial Jenkinsfile with 'Test' stage"
Go back to Jenkins again, log in again if necessary and ensure you’ve accessed Jenkins’s Blue Ocean interface.
Click Branches at the top right to access the list of your Pipeline project’s branches.
Click the run icon
of the master
branch of your Pipeline project, then quickly click the OPEN
link that appears briefly at the lower-right to see Jenkins building the
master
branch with the amended Jenkinsfile
. If you weren’t able to click
the OPEN link, click the top row on the Blue Ocean Activity page to
access this feature.
Within a few minutes, the Blue Ocean interface turns green if Jenkins built
your Node.js and React application successfully from your master
branch.
Click the X at the top-right to return to the Activity page of the Blue Ocean interface.
Next, add "Deliver for development" and "Deploy for production" stages to your Pipeline, which Jenkins will selectively execute based on the branch that Jenkins is building from.
This takes the "Pipeline-as-Code" concept to a new level, in which a single
Jenkinsfile
describes your project’s entire build, test, delivery and
deployment processes in Jenkins for each branch of your repository. Read more
about Pipeline and what a Jenkinsfile is in the
Pipeline and Using
a Jenkinsfile sections of the User Handbook.
Go back to your text editor/IDE and ensure your Jenkinsfile
is open.
Copy and paste the following Declarative Pipeline syntax immediately under the
Test
stage of your Jenkinsfile
:
stage('Deliver for development') {
when {
branch 'development'
}
steps {
sh './jenkins/scripts/deliver-for-development.sh'
input message: 'Finished using the web site? (Click "Proceed" to continue)'
sh './jenkins/scripts/kill.sh'
}
}
stage('Deploy for production') {
when {
branch 'production'
}
steps {
sh './jenkins/scripts/deploy-for-production.sh'
input message: 'Finished using the web site? (Click "Proceed" to continue)'
sh './jenkins/scripts/kill.sh'
}
}
so that you end up with:
pipeline {
agent {
docker {
image 'node:6-alpine'
args '-p 3000:3000 -p 5000:5000'
}
}
environment {
CI = 'true'
}
stages {
stage('Build') {
steps {
sh 'npm install'
}
}
stage('Test') {
steps {
sh './jenkins/scripts/test.sh'
}
}
stage('Deliver for development') {
when {
branch 'development' (1)
}
steps {
sh './jenkins/scripts/deliver-for-development.sh'
input message: 'Finished using the web site? (Click "Proceed" to continue)'
sh './jenkins/scripts/kill.sh'
}
}
stage('Deploy for production') {
when {
branch 'production' (1)
}
steps {
sh './jenkins/scripts/deploy-for-production.sh'
input message: 'Finished using the web site? (Click "Proceed" to continue)'
sh './jenkins/scripts/kill.sh'
}
}
}
}
1 | These when directives (along with
their branch conditions) determine whether or not the
stages (containing these when
directives) should be executed. If a branch condition’s value (i.e. pattern)
matches the name of the branch that Jenkins is running the build from, then the
stage that contains this when and branch construct will be executed. |
Notes:
For an explanation of the input message
steps, refer to annotation 4 of
the Declarative Pipeline at the
``Add
a final deliver stage…'' section of the Build a Node.js and React app
tutorial.
For an explanation of the deliver-for-development.sh
,
deploy-for-production.sh
and kill.sh
script steps, refer to the contents
of these files located in the jenkins/scripts
directory from the root of the
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
respository.
Save your edited Jenkinsfile
and commit it to your local
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Git repository. E.g. Within the
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory, run the commands:
git stage .
then
git commit -m "Add 'Deliver…' and 'Deploy…' stages"
Go back to Jenkins again, log in again if necessary and ensure you’ve accessed Jenkins’s Blue Ocean interface.
Click Branches at the top right to access the list of your Pipeline project’s branches.
Click the run icon
of the master
branch of your Pipeline project, then quickly click the OPEN
link that appears briefly at the lower-right to see Jenkins building the
master
branch with the amended Jenkinsfile
. If you weren’t able to click
the OPEN link, click the top row on the Blue Ocean Activity page to
access this feature.
Notice how Jenkins skips the last two stages you added, since the branch you
are running the build from (master
) does not meet the when
directives'
branch
conditions in these stages.
Click the X at the top-right to return to the Activity page of the Blue Ocean interface.
Now that you have a completed Jenkinsfile
to build your application in
Jenkins, you can pull this file from the master
branch of your local
repository into its development
and production
branches.
Within your local repository’s building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory:
Run the following commands to pull changes from master
to
development
:
git checkout development
and
git pull . master
Also run the following commands to pull changes from master
to production
:
git checkout production
and
git pull . master
Your development
and production
branches should now have all your
Jenkinsfile
updates you made on the master
branch.
Go back to Jenkins again, log in again if necessary and ensure you’ve accessed Jenkins’s Blue Ocean interface.
Click Branches at the top right to access the list of your Pipeline project’s branches.
Click the run icon
of the development
branch of your Pipeline project, then quickly click the
OPEN link that appears briefly at the lower-right to see Jenkins building
the development
branch with the amended Jenkinsfile
. If you weren’t able
to click the OPEN link, click the top row on the Blue Ocean Activity
page to access this feature.
Within a few minutes and when the build pauses, ensure you are viewing the
Deliver for development stage (click it if necessary), then click the top
green Shell Script step to expand its contents and scroll down until you see
the http://localhost:3000
link.
Note: Since you are building the application on a different branch, the npm
install
step will require a few minutes for npm
to download the many
dependencies required to run your Node.js and React application (stored in a
local node_modules
directory within the Jenkins home directory). These
dependencies are downloaded again because this Jenkins build would be the
first time you are running your Pipeline project on the development
branch
and each branch has its own workspace directory (containing its own
node_modules
directory) within the Jenkins home directory.
Click the http://localhost:3000
link to view your Node.js and React
application running in development mode (with the npm start
command) in a
new web browser tab. You should see a page/site with the title Welcome to
React on it.
When you are finished viewing the page/site, click the Proceed button in
Blue Ocean to complete the Pipeline’s execution.
The Blue Ocean interface turns green if Jenkins built your Node.js and React
application successfully from your development
branch. Notice how the
Deliver for development stage was executed but the Deploy for production
stage was not.
Click the X at the top-right to return to the Activity page of the Blue Ocean interface.
Click Branches at the top right to access the list of your Pipeline project’s branches.
Click the run icon
of the production
branch of your Pipeline project, then quickly click the
OPEN link that appears briefly at the lower-right to see Jenkins building
the production
branch with the amended Jenkinsfile
. If you weren’t able to
click the OPEN link, click the top row on the Blue Ocean Activity page
to access this feature.
Within a few minutes and when the build pauses, ensure you are viewing the
Deploy for production stage (click it if necessary), then click the top
green Shell Script step to expand its contents and scroll down until you see
the http://localhost:5000
link.
Click the http://localhost:5000
link to view your Node.js and React
application in a new web browser tab. This will be running in production mode
from a production build of your source code (generated using the npm run
build
command). Again, you should see a page/site with the title Welcome to
React on it. However, this time, the application’s contents are served by the
npm serve
module and are also
likely to continue running in the background in your browser.
When you are finished viewing the page/site, click the Proceed button in
Blue Ocean to complete the Pipeline’s execution.
The Blue Ocean interface turns green if Jenkins built your Node.js and React
application successfully from your production
branch. Notice how the
Deploy for production stage was executed but the Deliver for development
stage was skipped.
Click the X at the top-right to return to the Activity page of the Blue
Ocean interface.
Note: Since your browser is likely to continue running the application’s
content served by the npm serve
module, your browser will still show the
content you viewed at http://localhost:5000
long after Jenkins has killed
off the serve
process. Read more about how to clear the application and its
content from your browser below.
This section takes you through a similated development workflow using
Jenkins, whereby changes made to your application (i.e. the App.js
source
file) can be examined from the development
branch before they are deployed to
production (from the production
branch) via the master
branch.
Within your local repository’s building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory, run the command git checkout development
to change to the
development
branch.
Go back to your text editor/IDE and open the App.js
file in the src
directory of your local building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Git
repository.
Copy and paste the following HTML syntax immediately under the To get
started…
line of your App.js
file:
<br/>
This is a new line I added.
so that you end up with:
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import logo from './logo.svg';
import './App.css';
class App extends Component {
render() {
return (
<div className="App">
<header className="App-header">
<img src={logo} className="App-logo" alt="logo" />
<h1 className="App-title">Welcome to React</h1>
</header>
<p className="App-intro">
To get started, edit <code>src/App.js</code> and save to reload.
<br/>
This is a new line I added.
</p>
</div>
);
}
}
export default App;
Save the edited App.js
file and commit it to your local
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
Git repository. E.g. Within the
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory, run the commands:
git stage .
then
git commit -m "Update 'App.js'"
Back in Blue Ocean, run your Pipeline on the development
branch (as you did
above) and check the results
through http://localhost:3000
to see your new line added.
Assuming you’re happy with the change, then within your local repository’s
building-a-multibranch-pipeline-project
directory, run the following set of
commands to pull your change into the production
branch (via the master
branch):
git checkout master
and
git pull . development
then
git checkout production
and
git pull . master
Back in Blue Ocean, run your Pipeline on the production
branch this time (as
you did above) and check the
results through http://localhost:5000
to see your new line added.
Notes:
Since your browser is likely to cache the contents of the npm serve
module,
you may need to refresh your browser page to see your change.
In a real software development environment with small to large teams of people, pulling changes between branches is more likely to be conducted using pull requests on a cloud- or web-hosted Git service (such as GitHub or BitBucket).
Your browser is likely to continue running your application’s content served by
the npm serve
module, which means
that your browser will still show the content you viewed at
http://localhost:5000
long after Jenkins has killed off the serve
process.
To clear the application and its content from your browser:
Well done! You’ve just used Jenkins to build a multibranch Pipeline project with selectively run stages!
This tutorial demonstrated the power of using a single Jenkinsfile
across
multiple branches of your repository to orchestrate different build and delivery
outcomes in Jenkins.
Because Jenkins is extremely extensible, it can be modified and configured to handle practically any aspect of build orchestration and automation.
To learn more about what Jenkins can do, check out:
The Tutorials overview page for other introductory tutorials.
The User Handbook for more detailed information about using Jenkins, such as Pipelines (in particular Pipeline syntax) and the Blue Ocean interface.
The Jenkins blog for the latest events, other tutorials and updates.
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