**Course Title:** Mastering Zend Framework (Laminas): Building Robust Web Applications **Section Title:** Deployment and Continuous Integration **Topic:** Setting up CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI In this topic, we will cover the basics of Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines and how to set them up using GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD. We will also discuss the benefits of CI/CD and how to choose between GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD. **What is CI/CD?** Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment is a software development practice that ensures software changes are tested and deployed in a smooth, predictable manner. CI/CD involves building, testing, and deploying code changes to production, automating these processes through various tools and technologies. **Benefits of CI/CD:** * Improved quality: Continuous testing ensures that code changes meet certain standards before deployment. * Reduced time-to-market: With automated deployment, teams can deploy new features faster. * Improved reliability: Continuous testing helps detect issues earlier, reducing downtime. * Enhanced collaboration: CI/CD enables team members to review and comment on code changes, promoting better collaboration. **CI/CD Tools:** We will cover two popular CI/CD tools in this topic: * GitHub Actions (GA): GitHub's integrated CI/CD solution, providing a comprehensive suite of automation features. * GitLab CI/CD: A feature-rich CI/CD platform built on top of GitLab's repository platform. **GitHub Actions Overview** GitHub Actions provides a wide range of pre-built runners for executing tests, running code analyses, and triggering automated deployments. We'll focus on using the ` workflow file` syntax to define custom CI/CD pipelines. Example workflow file (`CI.yaml`) using GitHub Actions: ```yml name: CI Pipeline on: [push] jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Checkout code uses: actions/checkout@v2 - name: Install dependencies run: composer install - name: Run unit tests run: composer run phony-script-tests - name: Build and deploy run:./deploy ``` This example pipeline will build the application, run unit tests, and deploy to production after every code push. **GitLab CI/CD Overview** GitLab CI/CD offers advanced automation features, including multibranch pipelines, jobs, and dependencies. We'll cover setting up a basic CI/CD pipeline using GitLab CI/CD. Example `.gitlab-ci.yml` file using GitLab CI/CD: ```yml image: docker:latest stages: - build - deploy variables: BUILD_DATE: "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")" build: stage: build script: - composer install - composer run phony-script-tests deploy: stage: deploy script: -./deploy ``` This example pipeline uses Docker and deploys the application to production. **Setting up GitHub Actions vs. GitLab CI/CD:** Both tools are popular and capable. Here are some factors to consider when deciding between them: * **Free tiers**: GitHub offers a more extensive free tier (10,000 runs/month), making it more accessible for individual projects and small teams. GitLab offers a basic free tier, but it has limited usage and no Docker runner support. * **Ease of use**: GitHub Actions has a more intuitive interface and better support for Docker. * **Features**: GitLab CI/CD has more advanced features, including multibranch pipelines, dependencies, and integrations with GitLab repositories. * **Security**: GitHub provides robust security features, including built-in code review, commit checking, and webhooks. GitLab CI/CD offers security features as well, including secure tokens and secret storage. **Next Steps:** To take advantage of this CI/CD pipeline, we need to make a few additional setup changes. You should check [these tutorials](https://github.com/settings/tokens) on how to store the deployment tokens in an encrypted repository setting. The second change we must do, to properly update and make these setup processes public or set your git token accordingly for using github. Lastly, as per usual: comment here or at [your question post page](link if this will give others access on commenting too and so others too know).