CI/CD (Continuous Integration, Delivery and Continuous Deployment) has fast grown to become a popular app development practice. CI/CD can not only reduce the app development efforts and time but also the costs.
Mobile app development process has transformed over the years. Building a native mobile app, iOS or Android, took a lot of time and efforts. The introduction of hybrid app development significantly reduced the development time and costs of building apps as you could now build once and deploy it across mobile platforms. Now as mobile app development evolved, we needed a much faster and easier way to build apps. Enter CI/CD implementation in hybrid app.
What is CI/CD?
CI involves building & testing the new code changes to an app continuously and then merging it to a shared repository. Normally, this practice happens minimum once a day and a maximum of unlimited times in a day. This helps developers in identifying errors
in the code at an early stage. If the code passes the test, then the changes to the app is automatically implemented. If the code fails, the test then the developer can fix it and retest it. CD involves deploying every change that passes the test to production immediately.
CI/CD Workflow
| Continuous Integration | Continuous Delivery | Continuous Deployment | ||
| Build | Test | Merge | Automatic Release | Automatic Deployment |
With CI/CD implementation in app development, any developer or tester in the team can trigger a build remotely by pushing a new code change and deploy it for QA or production.
How CI/CD helps Hybrid App Developers?
CI/CD implementation in hybrid app development can bring a range of benefits to your hybrid app development team including-
- High quality code
- Prevention of compilation errors
- Early identification of bugs and fixing
- Complete visibility of the development environment to the team
- Faster feedback loop
- No build errors
- No waiting time for the testing team
- No manual release preparation
- Deployment automation
Best Practices in CI/CD Implementation
CI/CD has several benefits, but successful implementation is the key to realizing the benefits it offers. Here are a few best practices on how to implement CI/CD and to best serve your app development needs-
- Start with identifying processes to automate first as it takes time for an organization to know which process to automate and the challenges ahead.
- Secure your CI/CD environment as it offers access to your codebase and credentials to deploy. Isolating your CI/CD and placing them in secure networks is a good idea.
- CI/CD needs to be rapid with instant feedback. If you need to wait for a long time for your build to be tested in the QA environment, the flow will be disrupted. So, keep your CI/CD pipeline fast by prioritizing your fastest tests.
- Build only once as building the app at each stage would mean that tests were conducted on the different app versions in the previous stage.
- Limit the number of branches in your repository as CI/CD is set to track and test the changes to only a few branches.
Where to begin?
The primary goal of CI/CD implementation in Hybrid app development is to make the process of build, test and release faster. Besides that, CI/CD also helps you cut down your app development costs. At Gemini Consulting, we have helped many businesses leverage CI/CD in their app development efforts. If you want to set up a CI/CD implementation in your organization then our expert app development team can help you. To know more click here.
