The build environment build-environment

Learn about the specialized build environment that Cloud Manager users to build and test your code.

Environment details details

Cloud Manager’s build environments have the following attributes.

HTTPS Maven repositories https-maven

Cloud Manager 2023.10.0 began a rolling update to the build environment (completing with 2023.12.0 release), which included an update to Maven 3.8.8. A significant change introduced in Maven 3.8.1 was a security enhancement aimed at mitigating potential vulnerabilities. Specifically, Maven now disables all insecure http://* mirrors by default, as outlined in the Maven release notes.

As a result of this security enhancement, some users may face issues during the build step, particularly when downloading artifacts from Maven repositories that use insecure HTTP connections.

To ensure a smooth experience with the updated version, Adobe recommends that users update their Maven repositories to use HTTPS instead of HTTP. This adjustment aligns with the industry’s growing shift towards secure communication protocols and helps maintain a secure and reliable build process.

Using a specific Java version using-java-version

By default, projects built by the Cloud Manager build process use the Oracle 8 JDK. Customers wishing to use an alternate JDK have two options.

Maven Toolchains maven-toolchains

The Maven Toolchains plug-in lets projects select a specific JDK (or toolchain) to use in the context of toolchains-aware Maven plug-ins. This process is done in the project’s pom.xml file by specifying a vendor and version value. A sample section in the pom.xml file is the following:

        <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-toolchains-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.1</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>toolchain</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
    <configuration>
        <toolchains>
            <jdk>
                <version>11</version>
                <vendor>oracle</vendor>
            </jdk>
        </toolchains>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

This process causes all toolchains-aware Maven plug-ins to use the Oracle JDK, version 11.

When using this method, Maven itself still runs using the default JDK (Oracle 8) and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is not changed. Therefore, checking or enforcing the Java version through plug-ins like the Apache Maven Enforcer Plug-in does not work and such plug-ins must not be used.

The currently available vendor/version combinations are:

Alternate Maven execution JDK version alternate-maven

It is also possible to select Oracle 8 or Oracle 11 as the JDK for the entire Maven execution. Unlike the toolchains options, this changes the JDK used for all plug-ins unless the toolchains configuration is also set, in which case the toolchains configuration is still applied for toolchains-aware Maven plug-ins. As a result, checking and enforcing the Java version using the Apache Maven Enforcer Plug-in works.

To do this process, create a file named .cloudmanager/java-version in the Git repository branch used by the pipeline. This file can have either the content 11 or 8. Any other value is ignored. If 11 is specified, Oracle 11 is used and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-11.0.22. If 8 is specified, Oracle 8 is used and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_401.

Environment variables environment-variables

Standard environment variables standard-environ-variables

In some cases, you may find it necessary to vary the build process based on information about the program or pipeline.

For instance, when using a tool like gulp for JavaScript minification, you might prefer different minification levels for development versus staging and production environments.

To support this, Cloud Manager adds standard environment variables to the build container for every execution.

Standard environment variable availability availability

Standard environment variables can be used in a number of places.

Author, preview, and publish environments author-preview-publish

Both regular environment variables and secrets can be used in the authoring, preview, and publishing environments.

Dispatcher dispatcher

Only regular environment variables can be used with the Dispatcher. Secrets cannot be used.

However, environment variables cannot be used in IfDefine directives.

OSGi configurations osgi

Both regular environment variables and secrets can be used in OSGi configurations.

Pipeline variables pipeline-variables

In some cases, your build process may depend on specific configuration variables that would be inappropriate to place in the Git repository or need to vary between pipeline executions using the same branch.

Cloud Manager allows for these variables to be configured through the Cloud Manager API or Cloud Manager CLI on a per-pipeline basis. Variables may be stored as either plain text or encrypted at rest. In either case, variables are made available inside the build environment as an environment variable, which can then be referenced from inside the pom.xml file or other build scripts.

To set a variable using the CLI, run a command similar to the following.

$ aio cloudmanager:set-pipeline-variables PIPELINEID --variable MY_CUSTOM_VARIABLE test

Current variables can be listed using a command similar to the following.

$ aio cloudmanager:list-pipeline-variables PIPELINEID

Variables must adhere to certain limitations.

When used inside a Maven pom.xml file, it is typically helpful to map these variables to Maven properties using a syntax similar to the following.

        <profile>
            <id>cmBuild</id>
            <activation>
                <property>
                    <name>env.CM_BUILD</name>
                </property>
            </activation>
            <properties>
                <my.custom.property>${env.MY_CUSTOM_VARIABLE}</my.custom.property>
            </properties>
        </profile>

Installing additional system packages installing-additional-system-packages

To function fully, some builds require additional system packages to be installed. For example, a build may invoke a Python or Ruby script and, as a result, need to have an appropriate language interpreter installed. This scenario can be done by calling the exec-maven-plugin to invoke APT. This execution should generally be wrapped in a Cloud Manager-specific Maven profile. For example, to install Python you can do the following:

        <profile>
            <id>install-python</id>
            <activation>
                <property>
                        <name>env.CM_BUILD</name>
                </property>
            </activation>
            <build>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                        <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>1.6.0</version>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>apt-get-update</id>
                                <phase>validate</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>exec</goal>
                                </goals>
                                <configuration>
                                    <executable>apt-get</executable>
                                    <arguments>
                                        <argument>update</argument>
                                    </arguments>
                                </configuration>
                            </execution>
                            <execution>
                                <id>install-python</id>
                                <phase>validate</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>exec</goal>
                                </goals>
                                <configuration>
                                    <executable>apt-get</executable>
                                    <arguments>
                                        <argument>install</argument>
                                        <argument>-y</argument>
                                        <argument>--no-install-recommends</argument>
                                        <argument>python</argument>
                                    </arguments>
                                </configuration>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </build>
        </profile>

This technique can also be used to install language specific packages. That is, using gem for RubyGems or pip for Python Packages.