Configuring Non-Production Pipelines

Learn how to configuring non-production pipelines to test the quality of your code before deploying to production environments.

Non-Production Pipelines

In addition to production pipelines which deploys to stagings and production environments, you can also set up non-production pipelines to validate your code.

There are two types of non-production pipelines:

• Code Quality Pipelines - These run code quality scans on the code in a git branch and executes the build and code quality steps.
• Deployment Pipelines - In addition to executing the build and code quality steps like the code quality pipelines, these pipelines deploy the code to a non-production environment.

Adding a New Non-Production Pipeline

Once you have set up your program and have at least one environment using the Cloud Manager UI, you are ready to add a non-production pipeline by following these steps.

1. Log into Cloud Manager at my.cloudmanager.adobe.com and select the appropriate organization and program.

2. Access the Pipelines card from the Cloud Manager home screen. Click on +Add and select Add Non-Production Pipeline.

   

3. On the Configuration tab of the Add Non-Production Pipeline dialog, select the type of non-production pipeline you with to add.

   • Code Quality Pipeline - Create a pipeline that builds your code, runs unit tests, and evaluates code quality but does NOT deploy.
   • Deployment Pipeline - Create a pipeline that builds your code, runs unit tests, evaluates code quality, and deploys to an environment.

   

4. Provide a Non-Production Pipeline Name to identify your pipeline along with the following additional information.

   • Deployment Trigger - You have the following options when defining the deployment triggers to start the pipeline.

     • Manual - Use this option to manually start the pipeline.
     • On Git Changes - This options starts the CI/CD pipeline whenever commits are added to the configured git branch. With this option, you can still start the pipeline manually as required.

5. If you choose to create a Deployment Pipeline you will also need to define the Important Metric Failures Behavior.

   • Ask every time - This is the default setting and requires manual intervention on any important failure.
   • Fail Immediately - If selected, the pipeline will be cancelled whenever an important failure occurs. This is essentially emulating a user manually rejecting each failure.
   • Continue Immediately - If selected, the pipeline will proceed automatically whenever an important failure occurs. This is essentially emulating a user manually approving each failure.

6. Click Continue.

7. On the Source Code tab of the Add Non-Production Pipeline dialog, you must select which type of code the pipeline should process.

   • Front End Code
   • Full Stack Code
   • Web Tier Config

The steps to complete the creation of your non-production pipeline vary depending on the option for Source Code you selected. Follow the links above to jump to the next section of this document to complete the configuration of your pipeline.

Front End Code

A front-end code pipeline deploys front-end code builds containing one or more client-side UI applications. See the document CI/CD Pipelines for more information about this type of pipeline.

To finish the configuration of the front-end code non-production pipeline, follow these steps.

1. On the Source Code tab, you must define the following options.

   • Eligible Deployment Environments - If your pipeline is a deployment pipeline, you must select to which environments it should deploy.
   • Repository - This option defines from which git repo the pipeline should retrieve the code.
   TIP

   See the document Adding and Managing Repositories to learn how to add and manage repositories in Cloud Manager.

   • Git Branch - This option defines from which branch in the selected the pipeline should retrieve the code.
     • Enter the first few characters of the branch name and the auto-complete feature of this field will find the matching branches to help you select.
   • Code Location - This option defines the path in the branch of the selected repo from which the pipeline should retrieve the code.

   

2. Click Save.

The pipeline is saved and you can now manage your pipelines on the Pipelines card on the Program Overview page.

Full Stack Code

A full-stack code pipeline simultaneously deploys back-end and front-end code builds containing one or more AEM server applications along with HTTPD/Dispatcher configuration. See the document CI/CD Pipelines for more information about this type of pipeline.

To finish the configuration of the full-stack code non-production pipeline, follow these steps.

1. On the Source Code tab, you must define the following options.

   • Eligible Deployment Environments - If your pipeline is a deployment pipeline, you must select to which environments it should deploy.
   • Repository - This options defines from which git repo the pipeline should retrieve the code.
   TIP

   See the document Adding and Managing Repositories to learn how to add and manage repositories in Cloud Manager.

   • Git Branch - This option defines from which branch in the selected the pipeline should retrieve the code.

     • Enter the first few characters of the branch name and the auto-complete feature of this field will find the matching branches to help you select.

   • Ignore Web Tier Configuration - When checked, the pipeline will not deploy your web tier configuration.

   • Pipeline - If your pipeline is a deployment pipeline, you can choose to run a testing phase. Check the options you wish to enable in this phase. If none of the options are selected, the testing phase will not be displayed during pipeline execution.

     • Product Functional Testing - Execute product functional tests against the development environment.
     • Custom Functional Testing - Execute custom functional tests against the development environment.
     • Custom UI Testing - Execute custom UI tests for custom applications.

   

2. Click Save.

The pipeline is saved and you can now manage your pipelines on the Pipelines card on the Program Overview page.

Web Tier Config

A web tier config pipeline Deploys HTTPD/Dispatcher configurations. See the document CI/CD Pipelines for more information about this type of pipeline.

To finish the configuration of the web-tier code non-production pipeline, follow these steps.

1. On the Source Code tab, you must define the following options.

   • Eligible Deployment Environments - If your pipeline is a deployment pipeline, you must select to which environments it should deploy.
   • Repository - This option defines from which git repo the pipeline should retrieve the code.
   TIP

   See the document Adding and Managing Repositories to learn how to add and manage repositories in Cloud Manager.

   • Git Branch - This option defines from which branch in the selected the pipeline should retrieve the code.
   • Code Location - This option defines the path in the branch of the selected repo from which the pipeline should retrieve the code.
     • For web tier config pipelines this is usually the path containing conf.d, conf.dispatcher.d, and opt-in directories.
     • For example, if the project structure was generated from the AEM Project Archetype, the path would be /dispatcher/src.

   

2. Click Save.

The pipeline is saved and you can now manage your pipelines on the Pipelines card on the Program Overview page.

Developing Sites with the Front-End Pipeline

With front-end pipelines, more independence is given to front-end developers and the development process can be accelerated.

Please refer to the document Developing Sites with the Front-End Pipeline for how this process works along with some considerations to be aware of in order to get the full potential out of this process.

Skip Dispatcher Packages

If you want dispatcher packages built as part of your pipeline, but do not want them published to build storage, you can disable publishing them, which may reduce pipeline run duration.

The following configuration to disable publishing dispatcher packages must be added via your project pom.xml file. It is based on an environment variable, which serves as a flag you can set in the Cloud Manager build container to define when dispatcher packages should be ignored.

<profile>
  <id>only-include-dispatcher-when-it-isnt-ignored</id>
  <activation>
    <property>
      <name>env.IGNORE_DISPATCHER_PACKAGES</name>
      <value>!true</value>
    </property>
  </activation>
  <modules>
    <module>dispatcher</module>
  </modules>
</profile>

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