The evolution of Buddy: Bigger, Faster, Slicker 🎨

The last couple of months have been a busy time for the team, during which we focused on rebuilding Buddy upon the new system scaffold. Below you will find a six-month summary of all major changes to the Buddy's UI, together with a word of explanation on each. It's time to grab a drink and feast your eyes – let's go!

Project list

The projects view, also known as the dashboard, is the place from which every great journey begins. Once populated with projects, it turns into a thriving hub from which you can decide where to depart next. Or, to put it less poetically, open your project and get down to work.

The new dashboard was designed to provide essential information of the projects within: the type of the Git provider, the status of the last pipeline run, the total number of runs in the last two weeks (upon hovering the mouse), and the time since the last update.

Dashboard: Project tiles

Pipelines & actions

Pipelines are the core feature of Buddy, allowing developers to introduce CI/CD to the delivery process for faster deployments and better quality code. On the design side, the pipelines have been tuned down to match the format of the system frame; however, without losing any essential information.

List of pipelines

Once the pipeline is triggered, you can follow the progress in real-time in the Run tab on the new execution view:

Pipeline run details

The configuration tabs at the top have been slimmed down for better clarity, while the actions now have bigger icons and less conspicuous on/off switch:

Actions in a pipeline

Below the tabs, you can find six sections called pipeline scenarios. The actions in these sections are run depending on the status of the pipeline.

For example, if your pipeline is waiting for manual approval from one of the senior devs, you can add a notification action to the Wait for Human scenario that will send a message to the admin channel:

Conditional notification in a pipeline

Last but not least, we have the pipeline settings tab – massively expanded, with two new tabs:

• Run if – holding pipeline's trigger conditions
• Permissions – allowing you to fine-tune pipeline access.

Pipeline settings

Queue

The new Queue tab lets you view all – you guessed it – queued pipeline runs. Provided that you are permitted to access the pipeline, of course; if not, the restricted runs are blurred:

Pipeline queue

Code

The code allows you to browse the contents of your repository, including files, commits, branches, and tags. The tab also provides the list of webhooks delivered from the Git provider with details in JSON form – a useful feature in case your repo gets desynchronized due to some networking issue.

Code tab for synchronized repositories

If you host your source code on Buddy, the tab also gives you full R/W access over the repository, including merges and branch management:

Code tab for Buddy hosting

Integrations

At the moment, Buddy integrates with 40 entities: from Git providers to IaaS and PaaS to monitoring and notification services. All of them can be added and configured in the Integrations panel, its tiles now a bit squeezed to fit your favorite tools:

Available integrations

When adding an integration, the new configuration panel allows you to easily connect to the service with your preferred authorization mode, including role assumption and OIDC (depending on the service):

Integration configuration panel

You can also restrict integrations to the currently opened projects for easier management:

List of integrations in a project

People

The new People tab lets you easily browse all workspace members, add them to groups, and assign roles. It's neat, clean, and pretty self-explanatory – not much to add here! 🤷🏼‍♂️.

People tab

Variables, keys & assets

This panel lets you store sensitive data, such as API keys, server credentials, or provisioning profiles for iOS development. The view has been cleared up with each entry receiving a telling icon. You can also sort the list by prefix, scope, type, and settability:

List of variables, keys & assets

Switching to the Default tab, on the other hand, will display the complete list of default variables that you can use, e.g. to customize your builds and keep your team informed on the progress in the project:

List of default environment variables

My ID

This mysteriously sounding phrase is what we otherwise call user settings. It can be accessed by clicking the avatar in the top right corner. The settings include authentication details, SSH keys, registered apps, the list of workspaces to which the user belong, and billing details. All tabs in My ID retained their existing features, while receiving new slick looks with improved navigation and a more descriptive layout.

My ID settings

And, of course, do not forget about picking the right color for your workspace to satiate that bit of artistic extravaganza deeply nested in every one of us! 🧑🏼‍🎨

List of accessible workspaces

Afterword

We sincerely hope you like the direction in which Buddy is evolving! As always, we are looking forward to your feedback and suggestions on what we can add and/or improve. Now, towards new horizons! 🫡