Read the third part of the series here.
Cruise Control .Net
How quick and easy it to get started?
Cruise control .Net is installed using windows installer. It is an open source project and has been around for quite a while now. It has a web dashboard displaying the configured projects and its details. The entire configuration is done via config file. It has an xml configuration. Since it is an open source product it is free use. Overall all the setup is easy but configuration is more manual.
Which source control system can be integrated out of the box?
| Source Control Name | Cruise Control .NET |
| AccuRev | Yes |
| Alienbrain | Yes |
| BitKeeper | Yes |
| CA Software Change Manager | No |
| ClearCase | Yes |
| CMVC | No |
| CVS | Yes |
| Darcs | No |
| Dimensions | No |
| Git | Yes |
| GNU arch | No |
| GNU Bazaar | No |
| Integrity | Yes |
| Mercurial | Yes |
| Perforce | Yes |
| Plastic | Yes |
| PVCS | Yes |
| Sourceanywhere | Yes |
| StarTeam | Yes |
| Subversion | Yes |
| Surround | Yes |
| Synergy | Yes |
| Team Concert | No |
| Team Foundation Server | Yes |
| Vault | Yes |
| Visual SourceSafe | Yes |
| Others | File system, FTP, Robocopy |
What about Test coverage?
Cruise Control .Net can be configured with MSTest, Nunit tests. Configurations is done using command line. Hence we have to be proficient with command line and Nant.
What is the medium of build result notification?
There is multiple notifications configuration in Cruise Control .Net. CCTray is known more commonly. CCTray is a system tray notification which gives an easy way to isolate all build related notification. CCTray can be used as notification center and it can be displayed on large screen or monitor for the development teams.
How easy can we find help to troubleshoot?
Cruise Control .Net is an open source project. It has a decent documentation. It is also used widely in the community so help can be found there too. So the major reliability is on community.
Summary on few other categories:
| Name | CruiseControl.NET |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| License | BSD-style |
| Windows Builder | MSBuild, NAnt, Visual Studio |
| Other builders | Command Line |
| Notification | E-mail, CCTray, RSS |
| IDE Integration | Unknown |
| Other Integration | Unknown |
Conclusion:
Build Server for development team is definitely as good to have arsenal in your tool box. I can conclude two scenarios here:
- The first could be you are in a large organization with good Microsoft tools in hand like Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server. In this case you can take a call of having Team Foundation Build Server since it integrates well with the environment.
- Second could be a small team working for an open project with budgetary concerns on tools and need more customize options then going for Team City or CruiseControl.NET are a better option.
Hope this post helps you in your journey of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.
Bibliography:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_continuous_integration_software
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_automation
Vikram Shetty 
1 comment