Getting started with continuous integration and WordPress

These are the slides from a talk given at WordCamp San Diego 2018.

Writing high-quality WordPress code is hard to do. It requires constant effort on our part and good self-awareness to know when we slipped up. But, if your business has any sort of success (which we all want!), you're going to work with more and more people. And many of them are likely to touch with your code.

This is going to put a strain on your development processes. It becomes harder to maintain a certain level of code quality. And you’re no longer the only person pushing code. You're now part of a team and you need a way to standardize all of the things you once did on your own.

That's the goal of continuous integration. It lets you automate your different development workflows from testing to deployment. This ensures that the quality of your code stays consistent.

This talk will go over the basics of continuous integration. We'll also go over some of the tools that are available. And then we'll finish by looking at how you put these tools together to create your own continuous integration environment.

You can read the companion article at: https://carlalexander.ca/continuous-integration-wordpress

Transcript

1. Getting started with continuous integration and WordPress
2. Carl Alexander
3. @twigpress
4. carlalexander.ca
6. Growing pains
7. Writing high-quality WordPress code is hard to do Growing pains
8. Requires constant effort Growing pains
9. Even harder on a team Growing pains
10. No longer alone pushing code Growing pains
11. Need to standardize Growing pains
12. Goal of continuous integration Growing pains
13. Ensures code quality stays consistent Growing pains
14. Minimizes maintenance work Growing pains
15. Automates your different development workflows Growing pains
16. What is it?
17. Part of a larger practice What is it?
18. What is it? Continuous deployment
19. What is it? Continuous integration
20. Processes
21. Processes Continuous integration
22. Checks out code from your repository Processes
23. Compiles your JavaScript or preprocessed CSS Processes
24. Processes Continuous integration
25. Can mean different things to different people Processes
26. Runs unit tests Processes
27. Processes Continuous integration
28. This is where things can vary Processes
29. Not everyone has a staging server Processes
30. Not everyone does acceptance testing Processes
31. Prerequisites
32. Continuous integration can’t exists on its own Prerequisites
33. Relies on other processes and tools to do its job Prerequisites
34. Version control system Prerequisites
35. Automated test suite Prerequisites
36. Automated test suite Prerequisites
37. Code quality tools Prerequisites
38. Why do we need it?
39. We want to commit code often Why do we need it?
40. Lots of benefits to doing it Why do we need it?
41. Not without issues either Why do we need it?
42. Can’t let it affect code quality Why do we need it?
43. Need to prevent errors Why do we need it?
44. Helps prevent both issues Why do we need it?
45. Questions
46. Piecing it together
47. Two types of continuous integration workflows Piecing it together
48. Local
49. Why would you want to put together a local workflow? Local
50. Easier to get up and running Local
51. Lets you test things on your own Local
52. Still useful if you move to a service Local
53. GrumPHP Local
54. Best (and only) tool Local
55. Runs code quality tools whenever you commit code Local
56. Uses git hooks to do it Local
57. Can’t commit code without tools running Local
58. Same as if it was done elsewhere Local
59. Has limitations Local
60. Hosted services
61. Systems hosted in the cloud Hosted services
62. Very broad category Hosted services
63. Will look at the ones with WordPress support Hosted services
64. A lot of the common features Hosted services
65. Free tier Hosted services
66. Important when evaluating Hosted services
67. Often don’t need more than that Hosted services
68. Different levels of support for open source projects Hosted services
69. YAML configuration Hosted services
70. Easy to read Hosted services
71. Integrates with your version control system Hosted services
72. Needs to know when someone commits code Hosted services
73. Validate commits on different branches Hosted services
74. Only supports git Hosted services
75. WP-CLI support Hosted services
76. Comparing services
77. Comparing services • Bitbucket Pipelines • Buddy • CircleCI • GitLab CI • Travis CI
78. Bitbucket Pipelines Comparing services
79. Buddy Comparing services
80. Comparing services
81. Comparing services
82. CircleCI Comparing services
83. GitLab CI Comparing services
84. Travis CI Comparing services
85. Questions
86. Your first workflow
87. WP-CLI scaffold command Your first workflow
88. $ wp scaffold plugin-tests my-plugin --ci=<service> Your first workflow
89. $ wp scaffold theme-tests my-theme --ci=<service> Your first workflow
90. What do you get? Your first workflow
91. Continuous integration configuration file Your first workflow
92. Rules for PHP code sniffer Your first workflow
93. Configuration file for PHPUnit Your first workflow
94. Connect your repository to your chosen service Your first workflow
95. Workflow consists of two processes Your first workflow
96. Checks for code style issues Your first workflow
97. Runs WordPress unit tests Your first workflow
98. Does this on a mix of PHP and WordPress versions Your first workflow
99. Varies depending on the continuous integration service Your first workflow
100. All the services support PHP 5.6 or newer versions Your first workflow
101. A modern approach
102. Huge topic A modern approach
103. Lots of different services A modern approach
104. You can customize them any way that you want A modern approach
105. Automate the processes that you already have A modern approach
106. WP-CLI is a great way to get started if you don’t have any A modern approach
107. Great foundation for any workflow A modern approach
108. Questions
109. Thank you!