March 2019 Summaries

The text provides a comprehensive tutorial on setting up a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline for Node.js projects, utilizing tools such as Docker for containerization, Kubernetes for orchestration, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for cloud services, and CircleCI for automation. It offers detailed instructions on building a simple Node.js application, creating necessary files like Dockerfile and deployment scripts, configuring Docker, GCP, and Kubernetes for deployment, and integrating CircleCI to automate the deployment process. By following this guide, developers can significantly improve the efficiency of software delivery, enhancing productivity and acquiring valuable skills in deployment automation. The tutorial also highlights the importance of testing the CI/CD pipeline and provides steps to ensure successful deployment, offering a practical hands-on experience with modern devops practices.

This blog post is the second in a three-part series detailing the process of building, testing, and deploying a Clojure web application. It focuses on integrating a production-level PostgreSQL database into the application, packaging it as a Docker instance, and running both the application and database within Docker. The article provides a step-by-step guide on setting up the necessary prerequisites, such as Java JDK, Leiningen, Git, Docker, Docker Compose, and various accounts like CircleCI, GitHub, and Docker Hub. The post explains how to configure the application for production by modifying project files and using Docker commands to run and connect the application with PostgreSQL. Additionally, it covers creating a Dockerfile and Docker Compose file to facilitate the application's deployment within a Docker environment and ensure data persistence. The article concludes with instructions on pushing the Docker image to Docker Hub and automating this process using CircleCI, including setting up jobs and workflows to manage the continuous integration and delivery pipeline.

Organizations using CircleCI for continuous integration and delivery benefit from deploying code frequently, reducing risk, and expediting customer value. By integrating CircleCI with LaunchDarkly feature flags, development teams can maintain a flexible pace for code deployment while enhancing user experience. The introduction of Code References allows teams to track instances of feature flags in their code without exposing source code, using a utility called ld-find-code-refs, which can be implemented as a CircleCI orb. This integration ensures that new code is securely wrapped in feature flags and facilitates the removal of flags once features are fully released. The implementation of this system, exemplified by a standard orb configuration, supports GitHub repository integration and offers reference links to source code, simplifying the management of feature flags and technical debt cleanup in Git repositories.

CircleCI has launched a new Employee Resource Group (ERG) called CircleSHEi, aimed at fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for women and their allies within the company. Building on the foundation established by the Belonging & Inclusion group and the first ERG, QueerSphere, CircleSHEi aims to support women’s career growth, provide mentorship, and create a positive work culture through various initiatives. The kickoff event for CircleSHEi included diverse participants from different departments and focused on sharing personal career stories to build connections and find common themes such as overcoming burnout and leveraging personal relationships for career advancement. CircleSHEi is committed to creating access points for skill development, ensuring women’s voices are heard, and addressing industry issues through actions, all while being open to individuals of all genders and backgrounds. The group also plans to collaborate with QueerSphere for a joint volunteer or charity event as part of their ongoing efforts to celebrate Women’s History Month and give back to their communities.

The text provides a detailed walkthrough of setting up an automated Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) process for developing a new CircleCI orb, using the example of an Azure CLI orb. It outlines two main workflows within the orb's configuration file: one for basic validation and dev publishing, and another for integration testing and potential production deployment. The process emphasizes the use of CircleCI's Orb Tools to simplify the development and testing of orbs, including automated linting, packing, publishing, and integration testing. The integration testing workflow is triggered by git tags to ensure thorough testing without manual intervention, and it supports dynamic publishing based on the type of changes made to the orb's source code. The narrative stresses the importance of using semantic versioning for promoting dev orbs to production versions and highlights the flexibility and efficiency gains offered by this automated approach.