This is an implementation/backend for Buildbot continuous Integration system, based on OpenERP. We use OpenERP as a database; store the configuration and build results there. Then, OpenERP can provide an instant GUI for all those, as well as extra business logic in analyzing the results and correlating the Buildbot data with project management models.

This project, and the initial design choices, were performed by devs at OpenERP SA, when they had wanted to setup a CI for their own project's testing. Initially, and up to v2.x, it was only designed to perform a single kind of test against an OpenERP testing server. A rough addon was put on a "master" openerp instance to store the results.

At 2010, v3 had been conceived: generalize on the idea, let this system perform multiple tests, on projects other than OpenERP itself. Also, let the OpenERP models control the Buildbot configuration as well (rather than having it hard-coded in a python file).

The v3 idea had been blocked until the summer of 2011, when it was eventually implemented. Now, this project is used to help with anything that starts from a code repository and involves an automated procedure:

• building of RPMs (directly from repos)
• trivial testing of code commits (eg. Lint)
• mirroring of Git <-> Bzr repos
• testing a variety of OpenERP setups (per branch, setup, set of tests)

./openerp_buildbot_slave/base_quality_interrogation.py

This single file deserves a special mention, maybe a book on its own.

It used to be under server/bin/addons of the OpenERP-server project, when I realized that a testing tool should not depend on the checkout of a server version. So, moved it here, where it remains persistent across server branches.

This tool is a general-purpose testing Swiss-army-knife for OpenERP. Originally written to issue a hard-coded test against the server (in a destructive-nasty manner) but now changed almost entirely. Buildbot uses it, but BQI is designed to be used standalone, too. You only need that file in your development setup, please also find its documentation embedded in the file.

That's the least documented/evolved part, since it has only happened twice in the history of this project. Please be tolerant.

OpenERP-buildbot DOES require 'pg84' or 'F3' series of the server. It's a matter of performance that the official servers cannot deliver.

You must at least install the "software_dev" addon, supplied in this project in your openerp database. The "software_dev_mirrors" is only needed if you intend to do DVCS mirroring.

Then, roughly speaking, you'd need to setup a buildmaster and a few buildslaves. So far, you need the xrg-0.8 branch of buildbot, as only this decouples the built-in SQL connector. Install python-buildbot's master and slave, as site-packages, to your nodes.

At the master, there is only one file "master.cfg" to configure, where you will only need to setup the connection to the openerp-f3 server.

For each builslave, you should setup the "buildbot.tac" file with connection details and a password. Accordingly, you should enter the name/password in the "buildslaves" of the OpenERP GUI.

Then, the hard part is, to setup repositories, projects, components and tests for the code you wish to build/test. (to be written)

Once the configuration is changed, you must issue the "reload" command to the buildbot master. This is either through a SIGHUP to the master process or a Reconfigure async request through the OpenERP GUI. It may also take a while to refresh the configuration, a limitation of buildbot 0.8 design.

Several ideas have been accumulated, candidates for further development:

• Port to latest Buildbot API. Buildbot has been changing too much lately and I had not been able to catch up. Once it settles somewhere, it would be a nice chance to exploit its new features.
• Exploit the Web-GUI of OpenERP-F3 . Instead of the literally "twisted" framework buildbot uses (which has I/O issues), serve the dashboards directly from F3 and expand them.
• Finish the .spec file so that openerp-buildbot can easily install from RPMs
• Be able to reconfigure builders on the fly (with newer buildbot API, perhaps)
• Support Mercurial repos (must be easy)
• Support SVN repos (may be hard, even impossible to mirror)
• Finish the push mechanism to upstream repos (a bit tricky with authentication)
• Statistically analyze the test results, connect to 'project' and 'hr'. Some work already started there.
• Connect to the GitHub API, so that pull requests, issues can be sync between the build DB and the site. A few tests already done w. Launchpad, too.
• Deactivate the buildbot's notifications, move them instead to "messaging" of F3, and thus support a richer set of possibilities.

Versions v1, v2 developed by OpenERP SA. v2.5, v3.x by Panos Christeas - Twitter E-mail