Getting Started with CircleCI

CircleCI is a CI/CD platform that assists software development teams in automating their build, test, and deployment processes. It has an easy-to-use interface and supports a number of programming languages, including Python, Java, Ruby, and Node.js. This article will introduce CircleCI to beginners and walk you through the process of creating your first project.

What is CircleCI?

CircleCI is a cloud-based CI/CD platform that helps development teams automate their build, test, and deployment processes. With CircleCI, you can build, test, and deploy your code automatically every time you push a change to your repository. This helps to catch errors early in the development process, and ensures that your code is always ready to be deployed.

CircleCI offers a variety of features, including:

• A wide range of programming languages and frameworks are supported. Integration with well-known version control systems such as GitHub and Bitbucket.
• An easy to use interface that makes it simple to set up and manage your projects.
• Automated testing and deployment, so you can catch errors early and deploy your code with confidence.
• Scalability, so you can easily add more resources as your project grows.
• To get started with CircleCI, you will need to create an account and set up a project.

Steps to Get Started

Create an account

To create an account, go to the CircleCI website and click the "Sign Up" button. You can sign up using your GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab account.

Create a project

Once you have created an account, you can create a new project by clicking the "Add Projects" button on the dashboard. Select the repository that you want to use, and follow the instructions to set up the project.

Set up your first build

To set up your first build, you will need to add a CircleCI configuration file to your repository. This file should be named ".circleci/config.yml" and should contain the instructions for CircleCI to build, test, and deploy your code.

Configure your project

After you have created your project, you will need to configure it. CircleCI uses a YAML configuration file to define the build, test, and deployment process for your project. You can create this file manually or use one of the pre-built templates provided by CircleCI.

Here is an example configuration file for a Python project

version: 2
jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: python:3.7
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: pip install -r requirements.txt
      - run: pytest

This configuration file tells CircleCI to use the Python 3.7 Docker image, install the project's dependencies using pip, and run the project's tests using pytest.

To add this configuration file to your repository, create a new file named ".circleci/config.yml" and paste the contents of the configuration file into it. Commit this file to your repository and push the changes to GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab.

Once you have added the configuration file to your repository, CircleCI will automatically detect it and start building your project. You can monitor the progress of your build on the CircleCI dashboard.

Why CircleCI over Jenkins

1. Simplicity: CircleCI is a cloud-based service that is easy to set up and use, while Jenkins requires more configuration and maintenance.
2. Speed: CircleCI can often run builds faster than Jenkins, especially when using its machine executor or Docker layer caching.
3. Scalability: CircleCI can automatically scale up or down to handle varying workload demands, while Jenkins requires manual configuration to add or remove worker nodes.
4. Security: CircleCI provides built-in security features such as automatic container scanning, which Jenkins requires additional plugins and configuration to achieve.
5. Integration: CircleCI has seamless integration with GitHub, Bitbucket, and other version control systems, making it easier to set up and use with your existing workflow.

Conclusion

CircleCI is a powerful CI/CD platform that can help your development team automate your build, test, and deployment processes. With support for a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, and integration with popular version control systems, CircleCI makes it easy to get started with continuous integration and deployment.

References

https://medium.com/hackernoon/continuous-integration-circleci-vs-travis-ci-vs-jenkins-41a1c2bd95f5

https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-setup-continuous-integration-ci-with-react-circleci-and-github-e0efd5040b03

Author's

The article is written by
Ranjit Odedra and Priya Makadia — Student's at Charotar University of Science and technology.