TravisCI
TravisCI is a "continuous integration" (CI) cloud service. It is useful for Open SDG in a way that is typical of open-source projects: it "listens" for certain events in your Github repository, and then provides temporary virtual machines to perform various server-side tasks. Open SDG needs a CI tool to accomplish these things:
- Run each new proposed change through certain tests, to prevent regression bugs
- Build and deploy the platform to a "staging" environment whenever changes are made
- Build and deploy the platform to a "production" environment whenever a new release is made
Pros¶
- Although there are paid plans, TravisCI is free for open-source projects
- Built-in integrations with Github repositories
Cons¶
- Requires the creation of SSH keys to communicate with version control (eg, GitHub)
- Requires the installation of Ruby to set up SSH keys
Other than these very minor issues, TravisCI makes a good choice for Open SDG.
Set-up¶
TravisCI's tight integration with Github repositories makes it relatively simple to set up. More details can be found in the official TravisCI documentation.
Usage¶
Using TravisCI involves putting a configuration file (.travis.yml
) in your repository. For details on getting started, see the TravisCI documentation.
Note that although TravisCI has dedicated support for Github Pages, this approach is discouraged because it is coupled to a particular user's Github account.