In this post, we will see how to build a CI\/CD pipeline in Azure DevOps along with its integration with LambdaTest for bug tracking.<\/b>
\nJoin the DZone community and get the full member experience. Azure DevOps by Microsoft Azure is one of the leading tools that automate CI\/CD\u2019s process and, in turn, supports automatic builds and code projects to make them available to others. The Azure pipelines combine Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) to consistently test and build the code and ship it to the target environment. In this article, we will learn how to configure an Azure CI\/CD pipeline and integrate it to LambdaTest Azure DevOps for bug tracking. A CI\/CD pipeline is used to automate the process of continuous integration and continuous deployment. The pipeline facilitates the software delivery process via stages like Build, Test, Merge, and Deploy. In simple words, a pipeline may sound like an overhead, but it isn\u2019t. Instead, it\u2019s a runnable specification of steps that reduce developers\u2019 manual work by delivering a new version of a software productively and saves time. Source Stage: In most cases, when a change is attempted to the central repository, a pipeline run is triggered. These triggers are set by the CI\/CD pipeline tool in the source stage. Build Stage: The combination of source code and its dependencies when building into a runnable instance corporate to the end-user application. The built-in application languages like Java need compilation too, which is done in the build stage. If docker images are to be constructed, that can also be facilitated in this stage. Failing this stage marks a potential error in the code or its dependencies. Test Stage: This stage corresponds to automated tests running to validate our code and its behavior accordingly. This stage acts as a sieve that prevents the bugs from reaching the end-user. There can be multiple stages, from smoke tests to end-to-end integration tests. Failure at this stage will expose errors in the code. Deploy Stage: Once we have a runnable code, the deployment is processed with all predefined tests passed. There are a lot of stages like \u201cBeta,\u201d \u201cStaging,\u201d etc., for the product team. A \u201cProduction\u201d stage for the end-users is also present. Remember, the stages mentioned above are the basic stages, and different steps can be added to make the CI\/CD process more automated. To bring a new life to these stages, we have Azure DevOps CI\/CD. Azure DevOps is a collection of services given by Microsoft Azure. It provides development services for a team to support, plan, collaborate, build, and deploy applications. It provides integrated features in a browser or an IDE(Integrated Development Environment). Some of the services for developers are: Azure Repos Azure Pipelines Azure Boards Azure Test Plans Azure Artifacts These resources are quite useful, especially Azure Pipelines. In this article, we will be using Azure Pipelines to create a CI\/CD pipeline for a. NET project. We will also connect the Azure DevOps CI\/CD to LambdaTest account at a later stage. This will help you push the bug, epic, task, story, etc., to the Azure DevOps project instance. And guess what! This is freemium. The Azure CI\/CD pipeline simplifies continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI\/CD) in the application development process. You can start from the source stage with existing code on GitHub or on-premise containers. The Azure Repos can maintain a central repository, and the Azure pipelines maintain build and release pipelines for the given project. The Azure DevOps CI\/CD process is a crucial process with all the required dev services. Apart from continuous integration and continuous deployment with Azure DevOps, these pipelines are used to construct build-deploy-test workflows used mainly in Continuous Testing (CT). This tests the changes in a fast and scalable routine. The Azure Pipelines can be multifactored, and in the Azure DevOps CI\/CD practice, they provide various advantages: Version Control Systems: Having the code into a version control system is the first step of building an Azure CI\/CD pipeline. You can manage your source code in GitHub, Bitbucket, Subversion, or any other Git repository. It also supports Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC). Programming Languages and Application Types: You can use different languages with Azure pipelines like Java, Ruby, C, C++, Python, PHP, Go, and JavaScript. Deployment Targets: The applications with Azure CI\/CD pipelines can be deployed to multiple target environments. This includes Virtual Machines, Containers, or any On-prem or Cloud Platform. Pricing: It is free for public projects. But, for private projects, you can run up to 1800 minutes of pipeline jobs free per month. To create an Azure CI\/CD Pipeline, you need to follow the steps outlined below: Create an ASP. NET sample DevOps project using Azure DevOps Starter resource in Azure. Examine Azure CI\/CD pipelines configured by Azure DevOps Starter. Clone the sample DevOps project to the system. Commit the code and execute CI\/CD. We will later attempt the LambdaTest Azure DevOps CI\/CD integration to ease bug tracking, pushing the epic, story, or any task to the respective project anytime. You will need an active Azure account for creating Azure Repos and Pipelines. You can create a Microsoft Azure Account for the same. For creating a sample app, we will be using Visual Studio and. NET Core. You can download Visual Studio and get. NET Core from the. NET Download Archives page. Azure DevOps project simplifies the setup of CI\/CD pipelines in Azure. You can go with the existing code or create a sample application as a new Azure DevOps project. Here, we will create a new DevOps project by following the steps below: Sign in to your Azure account at the Microsoft Azure Portal. Select the + Create a Resource button under the Azure Services, and then search for DevOps Starter. When created, the project automatically configures a complete CI\/CD Pipeline in your Azure DevOps organization. However, you can still do customization on these pipelines. Note: As soon as you merge the changes to the remote repository, the build process gets triggered. Getting acquainted with continuous integration and continuous deployment with Azure DevOps was our goal, but what\u2019s the whole point of learning it? What\u2019s the purpose of it? The Azure CI\/CD Pipeline, when integrated with LambdaTest, provides easy real time browser testing. This real time browser testing is quite useful for tracking the issues from LambdaTest and listing it on the Azure DevOps CI\/CD Dashboard of the Project. To start with, let\u2019s integrate LambdaTest with Azure DevOps: Login to LambdaTest Account. Go to Integrations and select Azure DevOps to integrate Azure DevOps with your LambdaTest account. After LambdaTest Azure DevOps CI\/CD integration, go to the Real Time Testing option. Place your Project URL in the required URL field; to find the URL of the project, go to the Project details, and in the right pane, you will find a browse button. Right-click and copy the link address, and paste it to the URL field on the LambdaTest portal. Select the VM (Virtual Machine) configuration; select the desired browser, browser version, OS, and resolution from the given options. For now, I am going with the default configuration. Click on Start to launch the VM. You can see the webpage with the option to report bugs in it. You can also take a screenshot of the bug via the Bug icon on the left side. After the screenshot gets captured, you can add any issue to the task or issue with an inbuilt image editor. After highlighting a bug, you can report it through the button, Mark as Bug. Once you click on Mark as Bug, you will get an option to provide all the details related to the bug. On clicking on Create branch, under Development, give the branch\u2019s name and select the bug reported from LambdaTest. You can now work on the bug by creating a new branch, and after resolving the bug, you can create a merge request. When clicked on a commit\/pull request, you have to specify the Link type, the Commit ID, and Comment. Enter the Commit ID, and you can link it to that particular commit easefully. You can change the link type to Pull request and provide its ID. Then a Pull request will be generated. These are the ways through which you can work with a bug reported via LambdaTest and resolve it. Assigning this bug to a developer or a team can also be done. This helps developers work in agile methodology. Kudos!! You have successfully integrated LambdaTest with Azure DevOps CI\/CD Project and learned about configuring Pipeline with a sample ASP. NET Core Azure DevOps project. Azure DevOps helps enterprises to plan smarter, collaborate faster, and ship better within the set of dev services. The automated Pipeline setup also provides the test, build, and deployment of the application in an easeful manner. This is how you can actually use and configure the continuous integration and continuous deployment with Azure DevOps and Azure CI\/CD Pipeline Architecture. This is a great tool to work with; Don\u2019t worry; you will love to build Azure Projects or connect GIT to Azure DevOps. Happy Learning!! Published at DZone with permission of Harshit Paul, DZone MVB. See the original article here. Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.<\/p>\n