How do you combine the need to perform on-demand builds with Continuous Integration using voice commands?

For about six months now, I’ve been an ardent user of Jott. Jott transcribes voice to text and is an extremely useful utility for creating items on my todo list (especially as I commute in the DC area ). Recently, I linked this useful tool to something else I do quite often, running on-demand deployments. The solution is part useful tool and, quite frankly, part gimmick. I came up with the idea after watching an episode of the television show 24. Here’s how it works:

1. I dial an 800 number provided by Jott from my cell phone. When prompted, I say “Build Stage” and hang up. Jott sends my transcribed voice to my email account.
2. On a scheduled basis, an Ant script parses my email searching for keywords. It finds “Build Stage”, so it runs an Ant target to execute a remote deployment in the Stage environment.

Here are the tools to make it all work:

1. Jott (or any tool capable of transcribing voice to text)
2. Cygwin w/ fetchmail
3. Ant
4. Schedule to run via your CI server
5. POP-enabled email

Sign up with Jott

Go to Jott.com and register to use this free service.

Download Cygwin

See the instructions on how to use Cygwin, fetchmail and pop-enabled GMail to read your email via the command line. These instructions describe how to create backups of your GMail using the fetchmail utility. You can follow the same instructions, however the reason we’re doing this is to create a text file that is readable by a headless process via Ant so that we don’t need to open a browser or email client to have Ant read the email contents. Although the instructions are for GMail, the point is to pop-enable your email so you should be able to use other email services that provide POP capabilities.

You should also run fetchmail as a daemon process so that it gets your email as soon as it’s sent.

Create an Ant target to parse your fetchmail email

Using Ant, load the fetchmail file (which contains your email text) and parse the file using regular expressions to search for keywords. If the keyword is found, set a property. Then, use this property to conditionally run a target that executes a build.

…

<target name=”parse-email”>

<loadfile srcfile=”C:/cygwin/var/spool/mail/[your email file]” property=”stageBuild”>
<filterchain>
<linecontainsregexp>
<regexp pattern=”Stage*”/>
</linecontainsregexp>
</filterchain>
</loadfile>

</target>

…

Schedule to execute your Ant script periodically

Call the Ant script above from your CI server (like Hudson or CruiseControl). Run it on a frequent basis, such as every minute or so, so that soon thereafter your voice command is transcribed, the build is executed.

More…

I came up with this idea in the past week and I know there are more robust ways of implementing it. Also, I glossed over some of the details. For instance, instead of using a CI server, you could simply run a scheduled task to run the Ant script that parses your email. Further, in a *nix environment, you obviously wouldn’t need to use Cygwin at all and, instead, use the native utilities. Also, the regular expressions can be further refined so that there are no false build executions. In any case, I hope this gets your creative juices flowing and you come up with ideas that extend this any further. Please let me know what you discover and share it with the community.

I am very pleased that renowned Continuous Integration and Developer Testing expert, Paul Julius, has joined Stelligent Incorporated (my employer). Paul and Jay Flowers are recent additions to our impressive team of experts.

Paul is a co-founder of the CruiseControl Continuous Integration server and has a passion for improving the state of the software industry. Paul is also a co-founder of the wildly popular CITCON conferences hosted on three continents every year. Along with Martin Fowler, he wrote one of the forewords of the Continuous Integration book that I coauthored. I look forward to working with Paul as he joins Stelligent. He blogs at www.pauljulius.com/blog/ and will soon be blogging at our popular company blog, TestEarly.com.

Stelligent is the leader in Agile Software Production. We work with large Fortune 500 and government organizations around the world. We help development teams employ techniques such as build automation, continuous integration, release engineering, automated developer testing and inspections into the daily process of developing software rather than waiting later in the lifecycle. Our goal is always to accelerate the delivery of highly reliable software for our customers.

My employer, Stelligent, is hosting a roundtable discussion on TDD at our offices in Reston, Virginia called “TDD horror stories” on Tuesday, October 30th.

TDD, or Test-Driven Development, is a great companion topic to Continuous Integration as your integration is rarely useful without running a suite a automated developer tests.

It’s another wine (brought to you by Savoy-Lee wineries) and cheese party. Stelligent is also raffling off a an iPod shuffle

From TestEarly:

I often run into teams who attempted to jump skull first into TDD and eventually threw their bones up in frustration when either schedules became scary or they ran into scenarios too frightening to test. Are there areas where test-driven development gives you the spooks?

As you can see, it’ll be fun!

When: Tuesday, October 30th from 5:30 PM to 7 PM

Where: Stelligent’s haunted headquarters (map)

Who: Developers, Technical Leads, Architects, Project Managers, Testers…Anyone involved in software development

You must RSVP.

Run Private Builds is the latest video in the 46 practices series for Continuous Integration. It’s part of seven development team practices that is described in chapter 2 - Introducing Continuous Integration .

By running a private system build on your workstation prior to committing code to the version control repository, you can reduce integration build errors. What’s more, I discuss other approaches such as personal builds and delayed commits. Finally, I demonstrate an example of running a private build which includes integrating changes from other developers prior to committing your source code to the version control repository. If you’re looking for more information and other videos and examples, go to the main site of IntegrateButton.com

JavaRanch reviewed Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk and gave it a “whopping 10 out of 10 horseshoes“.

From JavaRanch: “This is an excellent book and the website adds to it! [It] reinforced the book nicely because it was like a guru explaining his experiences. It also goes into much more detail than the book has room for on each topic. … Each chapter ends with questions to get you thinking about CI in YOUR process.”

It was great to see so many of you that attended the Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk book signing this past Thursday at the Barnes and Noble in Reston, Virginia.

I had the pleasure of meeting old friends, colleagues and acquaintances along with many new people. I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to say hello to everyone, but thank you for attending.

Thanks again to Stelligent (my employer) and 5AM Solutions for hosting such a fun event.

The Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, CITCON Europe 2007, is fast upon us and I’m sure it’ll be another great one. This year it’s in Brussels, Belgium. I will be attending this year and hope to bring a group from the states to the event. I’m an alumnus of CITCON North America (The inaugural in Chicago, 2006 and the most recent in Dallas in April of this year).

CITCON follows an OpenSpace format which means there is no single speaker, per se. Instead, it’s an exchange of ideas based on an initial topic and agenda. It works amazingly well and you’ll learn a ton, especially with the caliber of people that attend a CITCON.

Other than your personal travel accommodations, attendance at CITCON is free. On Friday evening, there is an initial meet/greet and topic ideas are shared. Saturday is full of five one-hour sessions. Your brain will be mush by the end, so many get together for food and drink on Saturday evening. Because it’s on the weekend, many of the people that attend CITCON are very passionate about Continuous Integration and Testing. I always learn a lot when attending and I’m sure you will too. Register now! Space is limited to 100 registrants.

If you’re a fan of Continuous Integration (and local to the Washington DC area) you’ll want to clear your calendar this Thursday evening, August 30th, to celebrate with Andy, Steve and I for our book signing of Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk at the Reston, VA Barnes and Noble bookstore. I think both of my contributors will be there as well!

Book signing at Barnes and Noble (map)
with Paul Duvall (that’s me!), Andrew Glover, and Steve Matyas

1851 Fountain Drive
Reston, VA 20190
Thursday, August 30th
7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

Immediately following the signing, Stelligent and 5AM Solutions are throwing a release party at McCormick & Schmick’s. So…if the book isn’t enough to get you out of the house, the complimentary drinks and appetizers should :)

Release party at McCormick & Schmick’s
Reston Town Center
9:00 - 11:00 p.m.

If you’re interested, please make sure to RSVP prior to August 28th. Oh, and feel free to spread the word, far and wide!