When users open a website on the Internet, they see a ready product.

But to have a possibility to see the product or use it, it’s needed not only to develop software code but also, build a project and raise it on the application’s server side (and to test it).

Further, we’ll analyze a software build process that can be done either manually or with the help of special applications called [highlight dark=”no”]build automation tools[/highlight].

How a build automation tool works

All build automation tools work in the same way.

Common functions are:

• Software code compilation (testing for common syntax errors);
• Directory creation/deletion;
• File structuring.

Of course, there are better programs that help automatically retrieve dependencies in a library or perform automated testing.

But how can a build automation tool understand what a user wants from it?

Only by using [highlight dark=”no”]linking[/highlight].

Developers describe in it what a build automation tool must do.

To make it clear, let’s analyze how a build automation tool works using the Ant tool as an example.

This tool is widely used for linking Java projects.

So the Ant linking file is a typical XML document.

Its structure consists of 4 main parts:

1. Project;
2. Settings;
3. Points;
4. Task.

All linking files contain a project and one target, at least.

A certain task is located inside the target — what exactly needs to be done by a system if this target is called.

How building should be launched

It primarily depends on the selected build automation tool.

But it’s usually an automation tool’s name and a target’s name launched by a user.

For Ant, it will look like this:

Ant name_of_target

There may be numerous targets:

ant name_of_target_1 name_of_target_2 name_of_name_3

A specific feature of Ant is that a user has the possibility to call a target in any way:

ant dolore
ant lorem
ant passam

But we need to understand that not only 2-3 testers can work with test cases but also entry-level QA engineers can do this, therefore, a target name should be clear.

So we recommend using common names:

• Clean — project clearing; deleting data that are left after compilation. This helps to make a project look in the same way as in a repository;
• Compile — compiling source software code;
• Test — starting test execution;
• Install — installing packages in a local repository.

Popular build automation tools

For Java — Ant, Gradle, Maven.
.Net — Nant.
Ruby — Rake.
Microsoft Visual Studio — MSBuild.

Instead of conclusion

When a developer writes source code — they simply develop a set of files with certain text.

To transform these files into a working application, it’s needed to take some actions:

1. Compile a project;
2. Unite classes into the JAR file or another library;
3. Install a set of dependencies;
4. Launch a certain class or several classes at once.

And only afterwards, a ready software is created.

[highlight dark=”no”]Of course, a set and an order of actions depend on a certain project task.[/highlight]

Actions can be done manually but it’s easier to do this with the help of ready solutions (for example, when you need to urgently provide pen testing services) — namely, by using a build automation tool.

And only in this case, everything will work properly — by running 1 command only.