Continuous integration
A modern development pipeline will need a continuous integration (CI) service. A CI service lets you run tasks whenever your project gets updated. These are usually used to automatically run tests in your project. CI services are used to automate:
- Running unit and integration tests
- Deploying to websites
- Generating builds (eg, mobile and desktop apps)
Popular CI services
There are many CI services available today. Most of them offer free plans for open source projects, with paid plans available for private projects. Here's a selection of some of the more popular ones at time of writing:
- Travis CI is popular among open source projects.
- Appveyor is useful for Windows projects.
- Codeship specializes in Docker.
- GitLab offers a CI service with its platform.
- Semaphore
- Circle
It doesn't really matter which CI solution you pick. What's important is that you use a CI to automate your testing and deployments. What you choose typically depends on the features you need and your budget.
Next: Let's use a CI to automate our tests.