Continuous Integration: Source Code Management

Name: Continuous Integration: Source Code Management
Author: Steven Burnley

Learn how source code management provides the foundation for continuous integration

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Stephen Burnley, and in these lessons, you will learn about source code management tools. If we look at this Azure board in the DevOps portal, you can see that we track requirements that are part of customer requests or stakeholder requests in attempt to make the best software application that our team can. These requirements have to be managed, estimated, and allocated to developers so that they can complete these in their sprints. Version Control Systems gives you the ability to have a centralized source code location. This is usually on a server inside your existing data center on-premises inside your company, or you may choose to store your source code in the Cloud. The advantages of storing the source code in the Cloud is that many developers are able to access this, see each other's changes, and make contributions. A Version Control System also provides several other benefits, including conflict resolution. Developers are able to view the changes that each other make to files, and there are many built-in tools for merging changes together. This helps developers understand who is working on what, and they can see each other's changes to make sure that their changes are compatible. A good centralized source code management tool also provides multiple versions of all files as they are saved. This allows you to perform rollback and undo operations when source code has been modified in a negative way. If you find bugs or change your strategies, you can go back to prior files in most Version Control Systems. Also, your source code is very valuable. Therefore, it's very common for organizations to protect this very important asset by providing backup copies of these resources for disaster recovery scenarios. Some of the additional advantages of implementing a centralized Version Control tool is that you have many options to integrate these with third-party tools. You could integrate this with tools that manage requirements or tools that work with developers to check in, check out, and modify these files in a safe way. You could also implement team communication tools. Collaboration between developers is an important part of software development. All communication does not have to be in real-time, in meetings or on telephone calls. By being able to embed feedback and communication between team members directly in the source code, you save developers a step and allow you to create better results in a shorter period of time. You can also look at the productivity of your development team through insight, measurement, and accountability tools. Because you are saving all of your files to a centralized location, all of these modifications can be tracked. You're able to see how many developer modifications are made over a period of time, how often files are worked on, how often files have to be modified again for bugs and additional types of metrics. You can automate the compiling and deployment of your code, this saves time and provides an extra level of consistency. Therefore, a centralized source code management tool is the foundation of a DevOps process. With this centralized collaborative tool, it is likely that you will have developers that want to work on different parts of the application at different times, or perhaps even different versions of the application for development of future features. This requires the concept of branching. If a bug is found in your production application, developers will not modify that direct source code. Instead, in a mature DevOps environment, developers will create a branch of the source code, which is essentially a copy. Developers can then fix the bug, test it, make sure it works, and if it does, that branch can be merged back into the master and become version .2. New versions of the software, which would include additional features and upgrades that you plan to add to your software, also become a new branch. This allows your development team to maintain the version of the source code that's in production and also contribute to a new version of the software application. When features are complete, developers make pull requests and commit their source code to the centralized tool. That's where the DevOps process of continuous integration and continuous delivery begins to compile and deploy the software application and initiate testing procedures. This can automate the compiling, deployment, and testing of your applications, allowing you to have multiple developer teams that can work on different features or different upgrades at the same time and continue to open up the possibility that they won't be able to merge their changes back into the master when they are complete. This is a modern software development methodology of using a centralized source code tool and the concept of branching. The branching approach separates new feature development from production code and allows development teams to maintain production operations and hot fixes while continuing to improve the application. Stay tuned for the next lesson, where we will look at how the Azure repo stores files, tracks commitments from developers, and allows programmers to check out code to make modifications on their individual developer workstations. Thanks for watching.

Intermediate Provider : Steven Burnley 3 Lessons · 23m in English

Course Description

Azure Repos offers features such as branch management, pull requests, code reviews, and built-in continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipelines. It integrates seamlessly with other Azure DevOps services, enabling teams to manage their entire application lifecycle from planning to deployment. GitHub, on the other hand, is a popular web-based platform for hosting and managing Git repositories. It provides a user-friendly interface and a wide range of collaborative features. Individuals and teams can their code repositories publicly or privately, making GitHub a versatile platform for open-source projects, as well as closed development. GitHub offers features like issue tracking, pull requests, code reviews, and project boards, all of which enable effective collaboration among team members. GitHub also supports CI/CD integration with various tools and services, making it a comprehensive platform for end-to-end software development.

In this course on Continuous Integration: Source Code Management, you will learn about Azure Repos and how to use it for code collaboration, change tracking, and repository hosting. We will also discuss GitHub and demonstrate why it is widely used by developers for open-source projects and collaboration. By the end of this course, you will understand that both platforms offer robust features for code management and team collaboration in software development.

What You'll Learn

Explain how to use source code management tools
Code in the Azure DevOps Portal using Azure Repos
Access code stored outside Azure DevOps in GitHub
Use Azure Repos for code collaboration, change tracking, and repository hosting
Recognize why GitHub is widely used by developers for open-source projects and collaboration

Key Takeaways

Azure Repos offers branch management, pull requests, code reviews, and built-in CI/CD pipelines, and integrates with other Azure DevOps services to manage the application lifecycle from planning to deployment.
GitHub is a web-based platform for hosting and managing Git repositories, letting individuals and teams keep code public or private for both open-source and closed development.
GitHub provides collaborative features such as issue tracking, pull requests, code reviews, and project boards, and supports CI/CD integration with various tools and services.
Both Azure Repos and GitHub offer robust features for code management and team collaboration in software development.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

The course covers source code management, using Azure Repos for code collaboration, change tracking, and repository hosting, and using GitHub for hosting and managing Git repositories for open-source projects and collaboration.

Which platforms will I learn about in this course?

You will learn about Azure Repos and GitHub, and by the end you will understand that both platforms offer robust features for code management and team collaboration in software development.

What lessons are included in this course?

The course includes three lessons: Source Code Management Process and Tools, Azure Repos, and GitHub.

What skills does this course help build?

It helps build skills in Continuous Integration, Git (Version Control System), GitHub, Managed Code, Source Code Control Systems, and Version Control.