🚀 Setting an Automated Pipeline: A Step-by-Step Guide 🛠️

In today’s fast-paced development world, automation is the key to delivering high-quality software faster and with fewer errors. An automated pipeline ensures that code goes through continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) smoothly, without manual intervention. In this blog, we’ll explore essential tools, their features, and step-by-step instructions to set up an automated pipeline with test case execution and Rubocop code checks. ✅

🔑 What is an Automated Pipeline?

An automated pipeline is a set of processes that take your code from development to production in an automated manner. It typically includes stages like:

• Code build 🏗️
• Automated testing 🧪
• Static code analysis 🔍
• Deployment 🚢

This reduces manual errors and keeps the development cycle consistent.

🛠️ Tools for Automated Pipelines

1. Jenkins 🤖

Features:

• Open-source automation server
• Supports plugins for almost any tool
• Highly customizable for CI/CD

Usage in pipeline:

• Build jobs
• Run automated tests
• Integrate with Rubocop for Ruby code linting

2. GitHub Actions ⚡

Features:

• Built into GitHub
• Easy YAML-based workflow definitions
• Great for open-source and small-to-mid projects

Usage in pipeline:

• Trigger workflows on push or pull_request
• Run RSpec tests
• Run Rubocop checks

3. GitLab CI/CD 🦊

Features:

• Fully integrated with GitLab repositories
• Easy-to-write .gitlab-ci.yml
• Built-in Docker support

Usage in pipeline:

• Define stages: test, lint, deploy
• Run jobs in isolated environments

4. CircleCI 🔄

Features:

• Cloud-based, easy integration with GitHub/Bitbucket
• Fast parallel job execution
• Great dashboards

Usage in pipeline:

• Build and test Ruby apps
• Run Rubocop as part of the lint stage

⚙️ Setting Up a Simple Pipeline (Example with GitHub Actions)

Let’s go step by step to set up a pipeline that:

1. Runs RSpec test cases 🧪
2. Runs Rubocop checks 🔍

Step 1: Create a Workflow File

Inside your Rails app, create:

mkdir -p .github/workflows
nano .github/workflows/ci.yml

Step 2: Define the Workflow

name: CI Pipeline

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:13
        ports: [5432:5432]
        env:
          POSTGRES_USER: postgres
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
          options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5

          steps:
          - uses: actions/checkout@v3

          - name: Set up Ruby
          uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
          with:
          ruby-version: 3.2
          bundler-cache: true

          - name: Install dependencies
          run: bundle install --jobs 4 --retry 3

          - name: Setup Database
          run: |
          cp config/database.yml.github config/database.yml
          bundle exec rails db:create db:schema:load

          - name: Run Tests (RSpec)
          run: bundle exec rspec

          - name: Run Rubocop
          run: bundle exec rubocop

🧪 Example Test Case Run

Suppose we have a simple RSpec test:

# spec/models/user_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'

describe User, type: :model do
  it "is invalid without a name" do
    user = User.new(name: nil)
    expect(user.valid?).to eq(false)
  end
end

When you push your code, GitHub Actions will automatically run this test. If the test fails ❌, the pipeline breaks. If it passes ✅, it continues to the Rubocop stage.

🔍 Example Rubocop Check

Rubocop ensures coding standards are followed. For example, if you wrote:

def badMethodName
  puts "hello"
end

Rubocop will flag it as:

Naming/MethodName: Use snake_case for method names.

The pipeline will fail until corrected.

🎯 Bonus Tips for Perfect Pipelines

• ✅ Use caching to speed up builds (bundle caching in Ruby)
• ✅ Run tests in parallel for large projects
• ✅ Add security scans (e.g., Brakeman for Rails)
• ✅ Use code coverage reports (SimpleCov)

🚀 Wrapping Up

Automated pipelines save time, reduce errors, and enforce clean code. Whether you use Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, or CircleCI, the core idea remains the same:

• Test everything 🧪
• Lint everything 🔍
• Deploy smoothly 🚢

By setting up a pipeline that runs RSpec tests and Rubocop checks, you ensure your Rails app stays reliable and clean. 💎