Continuous Deployment Pipeline Pattern

2.1 Definitions

• Continuous Integration (CI): The practice of automatically testing and merging code changes into a shared repository.
• Continuous Deployment (CD): The automated release of software changes to production after passing predefined tests.
• Deployment Pipeline: A series of automated processes that software changes go through from development to production.

3.1 Steps in a Continuous Deployment Pipeline

1. Code Commit: Developers push code changes to a shared repository.
2. Automated Build: The code is automatically built to ensure it compiles successfully.
3. Automated Testing: Unit tests, integration tests, and UI tests are run to validate the code.
4. Staging Deployment: The build is deployed to a staging environment for further testing.
5. Production Deployment: If all tests pass, the code is automatically deployed to the production environment.

4.1 Recommended Best Practices

• Ensure all tests are automated and run on every commit.
• Maintain a single source of truth for the codebase.
• Use feature flags to manage new features in production.
• Monitor deployments and application health post-release.
• Implement rollback strategies for quick recovery in case of failures.

5.1 Sample CI/CD Configuration with GitHub Actions

name: CI/CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Checkout Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Set up Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v2
      with:
        node-version: '14'

    - name: Install Dependencies
      run: npm install

    - name: Run Tests
      run: npm test

    - name: Deploy to Production
      run: npm run deploy
      env:
        NODE_ENV: production
        DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}