CI/CD for Node.js

📚 Learn more about Node.js action features, integrations and alternatives.

Buddy lets you create delivery pipelines that build, test and deploy your Node.js application on a single push to a branch. The pipelines consist of actions that you can configure depending on your needs.

Node pipeline exampleNode pipeline example

Configuration is very easy and takes only a couple of minutes.

1. Select your Git repository

Buddy supports all popular Git hosting providers, including GitHub, Bitbucket, and GitLab. You can also use your own private Git server, or host code directly on Buddy.

Supported Git providersSupported Git providers

2. Add a new delivery pipeline

Enter the pipeline's name, select the trigger mode, and define the branch from which Buddy will fetch your code:

Exemplary pipeline settingsExemplary pipeline settings

Trigger modes

  • Manually (on click) — recommended for Production
  • On events (automatic) — recommended for Development
  • On schedule (on time interval) — recommended for Staging/Testing
Event-based triggers allow you to run pipelines whenever a push is made to any branch in the repository, or whenever a branch, tag or a pull request is created or deleted. On event pipeline trigger modeOn event pipeline trigger mode

3. Add actions

Buddy lets you choose from dozens of predefined actions. In this example, we'll add 4 actions that perform the following tasks:

  • Build and test Node.js app: download dependencies (npm, yarn, etc.), run tests, compile assets (npm tasks, webpack, etc.)
  • Upload code to server together with compiled assets
  • Restart application
  • Send notification to Slack

3.1 Build your Node.js application

Build actions in Buddy are run in isolated containers run from official Docker images. When the pipeline is run, Buddy pulls the container, runs build commands, and uploads the results to the pipeline filesystem.

The main tab lets you determine the commands to execute. The default commands are:

npm install
npm test$$

Default build commandsDefault build commands

If your tests require a database to run, you can attach it in the Services tab: Services tabServices tab

3.2 Deploy application to server

The compiled application needs to be uploaded to the server. Head to the Transfer section and select your upload action (SFTP in our case):

File transfer actionsFile transfer actions

When adding the action, you can choose what and where should be uploaded:

SFTP action configurationSFTP action configuration

3.2.1 Node modules

Make sure to add node_modules to the ignore paths (Transfer tab) - we will install them on the server after the deployment in the next step. Ignore paths configIgnore paths config

3.3 Install modules & restart application

Once the app is deployed, you can run additional commands on your server with the SSH action:

SSH action selectionSSH action selection

In this case, we shall run npm install and restart the application with a script:

Restarting the applicationRestarting the application

3.4 (Optional) Send notification to Slack

You can configure Buddy to send your team a message after the deployment. In this example we'll use Slack:

Notification actionsNotification actions

If you add this action in the On Failure tab, Buddy will only send the message if something goes wrong with your build or deployment. On failure notificationOn failure notification

4. Summary

Congratulations! You have just automated your entire delivery process 🍾🙌. Make a push to the selected branch and watch Buddy fetch, build, and deploy your project. With Continuous Delivery applied, you can now focus on what's really important: developing awesome apps! 🔥

Bear in mind that this article is only a brief example of what Buddy can do. You can create additional pipelines for staging and production environments, integrate with your favorite services (AWS, Google, Azure), trigger tests on pull requests, build Docker images, and push them to the registry—the possibilities are unlimited.
If you want us to create a delivery pipeline for your project, drop a line to support@buddy.works – we'll be happy to help!

Last modified on September 22, 2023

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