Building a website is like building a house: developers create the blueprints with code, and engineers build it. Similarly, poor planning can ruin the construction of a new building, and poor communication or errors can slow down the progress of a new website. A guide is needed to keep communication clear and ensure a smooth software development cycle where tested code makes it to a successful live release.
Continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) is like a team that brings together code integration, testing, and deployment. Learn what CI/CD is and how it helps streamline the workflow in running an e-commerce website.
What is CI/CD?
Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery/deployment (CD) are a set of practices and tools designed to improve software quality throughout the development lifecycle by automating the building, testing, and deployment of applications.
CI/CD is not something that is introduced at the beginning of a project. Website constructionIt’s an “always on” approach that becomes an integral part of a software engineer’s daily work.
Examples of CI/CD pipeline tools include Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Travis CI, etc. They ensure a continuous flow of updates in a software production pipeline, from integrating code changes to delivering and deploying updates.
Continuous Integration vs. Continuous Delivery vs. Continuous Deployment
Continuous delivery tools build code, testStaging, deployment, and performance monitoring create a positive feedback loop that helps software development teams accelerate software improvements. Here’s how each phase works together:
Continuous integration tests code changes immediately
CI acts as the input side of a development pipeline, automatically and continuously merging code changes into a shared source code repository. In a typical CI scenario, as changes enter the repository, a static code analysis (SCA) tool analyzes the new code for issues such as unsafe code and then generates a detailed report for developers to address.
CI is like a checkpoint for new code changes, sending the code through a set of automated tests, including:
- Unit testing for individual code
- Integration testing of major component interactions
- Security Testing
- Regression testing
Regression testing ensures that features such as login, account management, product browsing, shopping cart, etc. work reliably. check outpayments also work as expected.
Continuous delivery pushes code to a staging environment
Continuous delivery takes CI one step further by moving tested code changes into a staging area that closely replicates the live production environment. During this part of the process, automated tests are run against the code changes. If any issues are found, they are reported to the development team. Once the code passes all CI tests, it is automatically packaged and deployed to this staging environment.
Continuous deployment releases code when it’s ready
Continuous deployment automates the final step, publishing the code directly to the live site after it has gone through all stages (CI and CD). Because this process can be automated, it is ideal for rapid releases and fast feedback. Instead of waiting for a single big update, this continuous process allows for regular small updates.
CI/CD and DevOps
CI/CD and DevOps are related but different concepts in the software development lifecycle: DevOps establishes a vision for better software development, and CI/CD is the set of tools you use to realize that vision. Let’s go into more detail about the difference between the two.
CI/CD
CI/CD, which focuses on continuous code integration and software delivery, has been around since the late 1990s but has become more widely adopted with the rise of DevOps. CI/CD has emerged as a practical means to achieve the goals set by DevOps. CI/CD automates the process of building, continuously testing, and deploying software updates within a DevOps framework, resulting in faster delivery and higher quality.
DevOps
DevOps gained popularity around 2010 when IT professionals were concerned about the disconnect between development and operations teams. DevOps sets out a vision for better software development through a holistic philosophy that encourages collaboration between development and operations teams. It breaks down silos to minimize conflicts and delays. DevOps encourages developers to share responsibility for code quality, performance, and security vulnerabilities as the code moves to production.
A DevOps approach benefits site developers by making them more responsive to user feedback, and it also helps operations teams push frequent updates and fixes to ensure smooth performance of their web storefronts.
What is IaC?
CI/CD is E-commerce website development This is achieved by implementing infrastructure as code (IaC), an approach in which you treat your website’s infrastructure (servers, databases, database scripts) just like your application code. While a CI/CD pipeline can manage application code changes without IaC, IaC automates infrastructure management and ensures consistency in website updates.
Let’s start by defining it: Website Infrastructure As code files. Many cloud platforms provide tools and services to define infrastructure (servers, databases) that can be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline. Platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP provide built-in CI/CD services or integrations with popular tools like Jenkins and GitLab to host a central repository to maintain code storage and version control.
Benefits of CI/CD in e-commerce
Here are eight key benefits you’ll gain from automating your software development, website update, and deployment processes through CI/CD:
Accelerate time to market
Competition waits for no one. E-commerceImproving your software requires rapid response to ongoing customer feedback, and CI/CD fosters agility, enabling you to rapidly deploy new features and bug fixes.
Reduced manual intervention
CI/CD automates repetitive tasks like building, testing, and deployment, eliminating the need for manual human intervention. This means less context switching (switching between coding, testing tools, and deployment configurations). Less code switching allows developers to focus on core activities like creating new features and fixing bugs. Automated deployment services also reduce human error.
Increased Productivity
Today’s CI/CD tools increase developer productivity. In traditional processes, the master branch (the primary branch in your version control system) was the only source of stable, deployable code. One mistake in the master branch can disrupt your live website, just like one accident on a one-lane bridge can stop all traffic.
In a modern approach to CI/CD, developer code is separated into separate branches that are tested separately before being merged into a staging branch. This staging environment replicates the live website but is not publicly accessible. New features can be tested and approved on the staging site before being deployed live, minimizing the risk of bugs.
A smoother customer experience
A streamlined development and deployment pipeline means code is released faster and applications and websites are more responsive. customer’s voiceA better user experience leads to more sales and repeat visits.
Bug Prevention
E-commerce storefronts rely on a variety of back-end tools and applications, but customers should be unaware of the complexities behind the scenes. A CI/CD pipeline produces higher quality code using automated tests. Bugs are fixed before they make it to the live website, Customer Experience.
Reduce development costs
CI/CD automation reduces the tedious tasks of coding and testing, making incremental code changes more efficient. This reduces the time it takes to release new code, lowering development costs. Fewer errors and faster deployments reduce your overall development budget.
More efficient workflow
A smooth and stable pipeline enables development teams to collaborate more closely with testers and operations. CI/CD automates repetitive tasks like testing and deployment, giving developers the freedom to innovate.
Developers don’t have to manually configure changes between staging and production environments. Because CI/CD relies on version control systems, it can consistently deploy the same code versions without manual intervention, allowing for faster and more consistent application and website updates.
Increased scalability
With CI/CD, E-commerce platform As business requirements change and traffic increases, CI/CD can automatically provision additional servers. It also supports a microservices architecture, allowing high-traffic services to scale independently. Automated performance testing tools can identify bottlenecks before deployment, so you can see if new features won’t scale before they impact end users.
CI/CD FAQs
What is a CI/CD pipeline?
A CI/CD pipeline is like a software assembly line: code updates are integrated and tested in a staging environment before being deployed to a production environment, either after manual review or automatically through continuous deployment.
What are some examples of CI/CD?
When a developer commits changes to a version control system, the CI process detects the new code, triggers a build, runs unit tests to ensure stability, and runs automated tests to verify user interaction and data correctness. After testing, the code is deployed to a staging environment where it is checked for bugs and usability before going live in production.
What does CI/CD mean?
CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment. It automates the software and web development process. Code changes are continuously merged and automatically tested, resulting in less context switching, faster releases, and fewer errors. This results in faster development velocity and a more reliable experience for e-commerce customers.
How does CI/CD work?
With every coding change, CI automates tests to make sure everything works together. If all tests pass, CD automatically delivers the update to a staging environment for review. Once approved, CI/CD can deploy the update to the live website, streamlining the entire process.
