@Farmbot team: would you tell us something about your deployment cycle?

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Hi @fafi, that’s a great question.

do you have a build server and some flags so you could easily switch between the dev-/production-environment

We do! Here is a basic overview for the API and OS:

Build System: API / Web App

For the API, we use Travis CI.
Most of the configuration values for the API are set through the use of ENV variables. A list of those variables can be found here. It’s important to note that the API is just a Rails app. So we can switch between prod / dev mode very easily by setting the RAILS_ENV variable. This is true for all rails apps. This also means we have three databases, production, development and test. Again, this is all standard stuff for a Rails application. You can read more about it here

Build System: FarmBot OS

For FarmBot OS, we use Circle CI as our build server. @connor did a writeup on the subject here. In the same way that the API is “just a Rails app”, FarmBot OS is a Nerves app, so it’s worth giving the Nerves documentation a read.

Please give us some insights how your development process

The API and OS have two slightly different setups.

Development Process: API / Web App

Typically, when I’m writing software for the API I:

  1. Start the server like usual (rails api:start/ rails mqtt:start)
  2. Write the features and tests and whatnot.
  3. Run the tests (rspec spec for Ruby code, npm run test for Typescript code)
  4. Commit my results and send a pull request to Github, which will run the continuous integration system.
  5. Once that passes Travis CI, we deploy it to a staging server where it is manually tested against a physical FarmBot in a real-world setup.

It’s important to note that I rarely need a running FarmBot to write API/Web App features. Most features can be written and tested in isolation without a running FarmBot. Sometimes, if I need to test against a FarmBot, I will burn FarmBot OS onto an SD card and plug in a Raspberry Pi on my desk (no steppers or perihperals).

Development Process: FarmbotOS

Typical Farmbot OS workflow:

  1. Start the application like normal (iex -S mix)
  2. Write the features and tests.
  3. Run the tests (mix test)
  4. Commit my results and send a pull request to Github, which will run the continuous integration system.

It’s important to note that FarmBot OS always need a running FarmBot API to write most features for Farmbot OS.

Hopefully, that gives you a better picture of how we write features for FarmBot on a day-to-day basis. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

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