Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are essential for modern software development. They automate the process of building, testing, and deploying applications, ensuring faster delivery and higher quality.

Why CI/CD for Ballerina?

Ballerina is designed for building cloud-native applications, making it a great fit for modern development practices. A CI/CD pipeline for Ballerina offers several benefits.

• Automate testing to catch bugs early.
• Build and package your application for deployment.
• Push your Ballerina modules to Ballerina Central or container registries.
• Ensure consistency across development, testing, and production environments.

With Ballerina, you gain the flexibility to implement CI/CD pipelines universally across automation-supporting platforms. Whether you prefer GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or another CI/CD tool, the core steps remain the same. Below are the sample configurations for popular platforms to get started quickly.

GitHub Actions for Ballerina

GitHub Actions is a powerful CI/CD tool integrated directly into GitHub repositories. Here’s how you can set up a pipeline for your Ballerina project.

1. In your repository, create a .github/workflows/ballerina-ci.yml file.

2. Below is an example workflow that tests, builds, and pushes your Ballerina project.

   name: Ballerina CI/CD Pipeline
   
   on: [push, pull_request]
   
   jobs:
     build-and-deploy:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
       steps:
         - name: Checkout Code
           uses: actions/checkout@v3
   
         - name: Set up Ballerina
           uses: ballerina-platform/ballerina-action@v1
           with:
             version: 2201.11.0 # Specify the Ballerina version
   
         - name: Cache Ballerina Dependencies
           uses: actions/cache@v3
           with:
             path: ~/.ballerina
             key: ballerina-deps-${{ hashFiles('**/Ballerina.toml') }}
             restore-keys: |
               ballerina-deps-
   
         - name: Run Tests
           run: bal test
   
         - name: Build Ballerina Project
           run: bal pack
   
         - name: Push to Ballerina Central
           run: bal push
           env:
             BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
   
         # Optional: Docker Build and Push
         - name: Build Docker Image
           run: bal build --cloud=docker
   
         - name: Push Docker Image
           run: | # Replace my-ballerina-app with your Docker image name
             echo "${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}" | docker login -u "${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}" --password-stdin
             docker push my-ballerina-app:${{ github.sha }}

• Dependency caching: Speeds up builds by caching Ballerina dependencies.
• Ballerina Central integration: Pushes modules to Ballerina Central using a secure token.
• Docker support: Builds and pushes Docker images if your project requires containerization.

To use this workflow, you need to add the BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN and DOCKER_USERNAME and DOCKER_PASSWORD secrets to your repository. Ballerina Central access token can be generated from Ballerina Central. Docker username and password can be obtained from Docker Hub.

GitLab CI/CD for Ballerina

GitLab CI/CD is another popular tool for automating software development workflows. Here’s how to set up a pipeline for a Ballerina project.

1. Create a .gitlab-ci.yml file in the root of your repository.

2. Add the following pipeline configuration to the file.

stages:
- test
- build
- push

variables:
   BALLERINA_VERSION: "2201.11.0" # Specify the Ballerina version

cache:
   key: ballerina-deps-$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG
   paths:
      - ~/.ballerina/

before_script:
   - apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl unzip
   - curl -L -o ballerina-$BALLERINA_VERSION-swan-lake-linux-x64.deb https://dist.ballerina.io/downloads/$BALLERINA_VERSION/ballerina-$BALLERINA_VERSION-swan-lake-linux-x64.deb
   - dpkg -i ballerina-$BALLERINA_VERSION-swan-lake-linux-x64.deb
   - bal version

test:
   stage: test
   script:
      - bal test

build:
   stage: build
   script:
      - bal build

push:
   stage: push
   script:
      - bal pack
      - bal push
   only:
      - main
   environment:
      name: production
   variables:
      BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN: $BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN

• Ballerina setup: Automatically installs the specified Ballerina version.
• Dependency caching: Caches dependencies to speed up builds.
• Ballerina Central integration: Pushes modules to Ballerina Central.

To use this workflow, you need to add the BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN secret to your repository. Ballerina Central access token can be generated from Ballerina Central.

Bitbucket pipelines for Ballerina

Bitbucket Pipelines is a CI/CD tool integrated into Bitbucket repositories. Here’s how to set up a pipeline for your Ballerina project.

1. Create a bitbucket-pipelines.yml file in the root of your repository.

2. Add the following pipeline configuration to the file.

   image: ballerina/ballerina:2201.11.0 # Specify the Ballerina version
   
   pipelines:
     default:
       - step:
           name: Run Tests
           caches:
             - ballerina
           script:
             - bal test
       - step:
           name: Build Project
           caches:
             - ballerina
           script:
             - bal pack
       - step:
           name: Push to Ballerina Central
           script:
             - export BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=$BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN 
             - bal push
   
     pull-requests:
       "**":
         - step:
             name: Build and Test PR
             caches:
               - ballerina
             script:
               - bal test
               - bal pack
   
   definitions:
     caches:
       ballerina: ~/.ballerina

• Dependency caching: Caches Ballerina dependencies for faster builds.
• Pull request support: Runs tests and builds for pull requests.
• Ballerina Central integration: Pushes modules to Ballerina Central.

To use this workflow, you need to add the BALLERINA_CENTRAL_ACCESS_TOKEN secret to your repository. Ballerina Central access token can be generated from Ballerina Central.

Best practices for Ballerina CI/CD pipelines

1. Use environment variables: Store sensitive data like tokens and credentials in environment variables or secrets.

2. Cache dependencies: Cache Ballerina dependencies to speed up builds.

3. Add notifications: Integrate notifications (e.g., Slack, email) to alert teams about build status.

4. Test across multiple Ballerina versions: Use matrix builds to test your project against multiple Ballerina versions.

5. Containerize your application: If your project requires containerization, add Docker build and push steps to your pipeline.

Setting up a CI/CD pipeline for your Ballerina project is a straightforward process that can significantly improve your development workflow. Whether you use GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, or Bitbucket Pipelines, automating your build, test, and deployment processes ensures faster delivery and higher-quality applications. By following the steps and best practices outlined in this article, you’ll be well on your way to building a robust CI/CD pipeline for your Ballerina projects.