Continuous Integration for PowerBuilder

Automate your CI/CD workflow

Jenkins, GitLab, Azure DevOps for PowerBuilder


Using an Automation Server, such as Jenkins, for Continuous Integration with PowerBuilder

An automation server is meant to automate building, testing, and deploying tasks.

It helps implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery with your PowerBuilder applications. There are numerous automation servers like Jenkins, GitLab, AzureDevops, AWS Code Commit.

Creating a Continuous Integration Workflow (or Pipeline) with an automation server any requires configuring several consecutive jobs/tasks. It will trigger each task as specified - for instance when a new build is available - and provide feedback about its execution.

In some cases, a plugin is available to simplify the integration/configuration of a given tool.

Step 1: Automated Build Generation with an automation server

A job can fetch the PowerBuilder code and the PBLs from GIT or SVN repositories.
Then, using PBAutoBuild, the automation server can generate a PowerBuilder or PowerServer build.

If you are using PowerBuilder 2019 or 2017, please refer to this article to learn how to use the previous tool "PowerBuilder Compiler".

Step 2: Automated Code Inspection with Visual Expert

Your automation server can automate code inspections, either by calling Visual Expert in command line, or by using a Visual Expert plugin if you're using Jenkins.

Step 3: Automated Testing with AscentialTest & Jenkins

You can automate the tests of your PowerBuilder and PowerServer apps, either by calling AscentialTest in command line, or by using the AscentialTest Jenkins plugin.