Introduction

Code coverage tools are essential for assessing the effectiveness of test cases in software development. These tools help identify untested parts of an application, ensuring better test quality and minimizing the risk of defects in production. By integrating code coverage tools into the software development lifecycle, organizations can optimize their testing strategies, enforce coding standards, and increase software reliability. Below is a comprehensive list of the top 21 code coverage tools that assist in improving software reliability and test efficiency.

What is Code Coverage?

Code coverage is a metric that evaluates the extent to which the source code of a program is executed when a test suite runs. A high code coverage percentage indicates that a larger portion of the codebase has been tested, reducing the chances of undetected defects. Coverage can be measured in several ways:

• Statement Coverage: Determines if each statement in the code has been executed.
• Branch Coverage: Measures whether each branch of conditional statements has been tested.
• Function Coverage: Checks whether every function or method in the program has been executed.
• Path Coverage: Ensures that every potential execution path has been followed at least once.

Benefits of Code Coverage Tools

1. Enhances Code Quality – Identifies gaps in test cases, ensuring better test coverage.
2. Improves Software Security – Detects untested parts of security-critical applications, reducing vulnerabilities.
3. Boosts Developer Productivity – Helps developers focus on writing effective test cases.
4. Supports Regulatory Compliance – Many industries require high code coverage for certification.
5. Reduces Cost of Bugs – Prevents defects from reaching production, saving time and cost.

Top 21 Code Coverage Tools

1. JaCoCo

Major Feature: Provides detailed code coverage reports for Java applications, integrating seamlessly with build tools like Maven and Gradle.

JaCoCo (Java Code Coverage) is an open-source tool that offers robust code coverage analysis for Java projects. It measures line and branch coverage, presenting the data in comprehensive reports. Developers appreciate its integration capabilities with various IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that code quality is maintained throughout the development lifecycle.

2. Cobertura

Major Feature: Analyzes Java code to identify untested parts and generates visual coverage reports.

Cobertura is a free and open-source code coverage tool for Java applications. It instruments the bytecode to collect coverage data, providing insights into which parts of the codebase lack test coverage. Cobertura integrates well with build tools like Ant and Maven, and its reports help developers pinpoint areas that need additional testing, thereby enhancing overall code reliability.

3. Istanbul

Major Feature: Offers comprehensive code coverage analysis for JavaScript applications, especially those running on Node.js.

Istanbul is an open-source code coverage tool designed for JavaScript. It instruments code to track which parts are executed during testing, generating reports that highlight coverage metrics. Istanbul integrates seamlessly with testing frameworks like Mocha and Jest, providing developers with actionable insights to improve test effectiveness.

4. Clover

Major Feature: Delivers per-test coverage analysis for Java and Groovy applications, optimizing build processes.

Developed by Atlassian, Clover is a commercial code coverage tool that supports Java and Groovy. It provides detailed insights into test coverage, allowing developers to identify untested code paths. Clover’s per-test coverage feature helps in understanding the impact of individual tests, and its optimization capabilities can lead to faster build times by selectively running only the necessary tests.

5. OpenCover

Major Feature: Provides code coverage analysis for .NET applications, supporting both branch and statement coverage.

OpenCover is an open-source code coverage tool for .NET frameworks. It works by profiling applications during test execution to determine which parts of the code are exercised. OpenCover integrates with various testing frameworks like NUnit, MSTest, and xUnit, and its output can be utilized by reporting tools to visualize coverage data, aiding developers in enhancing test completeness.

6. NCover

Major Feature: Offers advanced code coverage metrics and reporting for .NET applications.

NCover is a commercial code coverage tool tailored for .NET developers. It provides detailed coverage metrics, including branch and sequence point coverage, helping teams ensure that their tests adequately cover the codebase. NCover’s reporting capabilities offer insights into code quality and test effectiveness, facilitating informed decision-making in the development process.

7. dotCover

Major Feature: Integrates with Visual Studio to provide on-the-fly code coverage analysis for .NET applications.

Developed by JetBrains, dotCover is a code coverage tool that integrates directly into Visual Studio. It offers real-time coverage analysis, allowing developers to see which parts of their code are covered by tests as they write them. dotCover supports various unit testing frameworks and provides detailed reports, making it easier to identify untested code and improve overall test quality.

8. BullseyeCoverage

Major Feature: Delivers detailed branch and function coverage analysis for C and C++ applications.

BullseyeCoverage is a commercial code coverage tool designed for C and C++ developers. It provides precise coverage metrics, including statement and branch coverage, helping teams identify untested parts of their applications. BullseyeCoverage integrates with various build systems and supports cross-platform development, making it suitable for complex software projects.

9. Gcov

Major Feature: A GNU tool that provides code coverage analysis for C and C++ programs.

Gcov is a test coverage program used in the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). It analyzes programs to determine which parts of the code are executed during a run, providing insights into code coverage. Gcov works by instrumenting the code during compilation, and when the program runs, it generates coverage data that can be analyzed to improve test effectiveness.

10. Codecov

Major Feature: A cloud-based service that provides code coverage reports and integrates with various CI/CD pipelines.

Codecov is a popular code coverage tool that supports numerous programming languages and integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines. It provides detailed coverage reports, highlighting untested code and offering insights to improve test suites. Codecov’s dashboards and pull request comments help teams maintain high code quality by ensuring adequate test coverage before merging changes.

11. GCOV

GCOV is a GNU tool for measuring C and C++ code coverage.

Major Features:

• Supports branch, function, and statement coverage
• Generates detailed coverage reports
• Works with GCC compiler
• Used in embedded system testing

12. JSCover

JSCover is a JavaScript code coverage tool.

Major Features:

• Measures function, statement, and branch coverage
• Works with Node.js and browser-based JavaScript
• Generates HTML reports
• Supports instrumentation via command line

13. Testwell CTC++

Testwell CTC++ is a C, C++, Java, and C# code coverage tool.

Major Features:

• Measures function, decision, condition, and MC/DC coverage
• Works on embedded systems
• Supports all major compilers
• Provides low overhead in performance

14. NCover

NCover is a commercial tool for .NET code coverage.

Major Features:

• Measures branch, sequence point, and cyclomatic complexity
• Generates interactive HTML reports
• Supports .NET Core and .NET Framework
• Works with Visual Studio and Azure DevOps

15. dotCover

dotCover is a .NET code coverage tool by JetBrains.

Major Features:

• Integrates with Visual Studio and Rider IDE
• Provides statement-level coverage metrics
• Supports continuous testing
• Offers detailed report generation

16. Devel::Cover

Devel::Cover is a Perl code coverage tool.

Major Features:

• Supports statement, branch, condition, and subroutine coverage
• Provides HTML and text-based reports
• Works with Perl testing frameworks
• Open-source and actively maintained

17. Coverage.py

Coverage.py is a Python code coverage tool.

Major Features:

• Supports branch and line coverage
• Works with unit tests and functional tests
• Generates HTML and XML reports
• Integrates with Django and Flask projects

18. NYC (Istanbul’s CLI Tool)

NYC is the command-line interface for Istanbul.

Major Features:

• Supports ES6+ JavaScript
• Provides CLI-based test coverage reporting
• Works with Mocha, Jest, and Ava
• Generates HTML and JSON reports

19. Cloverage

Cloverage is a Clojure code coverage tool.

Major Features:

• Measures function and branch coverage
• Generates detailed reports
• Works with Leiningen and Boot
• Open-source and lightweight

20. Squish Coco

Squish Coco is a C/C++ code coverage tool.

Major Features:

• Provides statement, branch, and MC/DC coverage
• Works with embedded systems and real-time applications
• Generates detailed analytics
• Supports cross-platform testing

21. AxoCover

AxoCover is a code coverage tool for .NET projects.

Major Features:

• Provides branch and statement coverage
• Integrates with Visual Studio
• Works with MSTest, NUnit, and xUnit
• Generates detailed test reports

Conclusion

These 21 code coverage tools help developers improve software quality, detect untested code, and enhance testing strategies. Whether you’re working with Java, Python, JavaScript, C++, .NET, or embedded systems, there’s a tool for you.

Which tool do you use for code coverage? Let us know in the comments!

The post Top 21 Code Coverage Tools and Their Major Features appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Certainly! Here’s an in-depth overview of the Top 21 Collaboration Tools, each presented with a detailed description of its major features.

1. Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is a comprehensive suite of productivity applications that facilitate seamless collaboration across teams.

Major Features:

• Real-Time Co-Authoring: Multiple users can simultaneously edit documents in applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, enhancing collaborative efficiency.
• Integrated Communication: With Microsoft Teams, users can engage in instant messaging, video conferencing, and file sharing within a unified platform.
• Cloud Storage: OneDrive offers secure cloud storage, ensuring easy access and sharing of files across devices.
• Advanced Security: Robust security features protect data integrity and privacy, crucial for organizational collaboration.
• Extensive Integrations: Seamlessly integrates with various third-party applications, enhancing workflow customization.

2. Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a cloud-based suite designed to enhance team collaboration and productivity.

Major Features:

• Collaborative Document Editing: Tools like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides allow multiple users to edit documents in real-time.
• Gmail Integration: Provides a robust email platform with seamless integration into other Google services.
• Shared Calendars: Facilitates scheduling and time management with shared calendars.
• Cloud Storage with Drive: Offers substantial cloud storage for easy file access and sharing.
• Third-Party App Support: Integrates with a wide range of applications to extend functionality.

3. Slack

Slack is a channel-based messaging platform that streamlines team communication and collaboration.

Major Features:

• Organized Channels: Allows creation of channels for different teams or projects, keeping discussions focused.
• Direct Messaging: Enables private conversations between team members.
• File Sharing: Supports sharing of various file types directly within conversations.
• Integration Capabilities: Integrates with numerous tools like Google Drive, Trello, and Zoom to enhance workflows.
• Search Functionality: Robust search features help locate past conversations and shared files efficiently.

4. Zoom

Zoom is a leading video conferencing tool that facilitates virtual meetings and webinars.

Major Features:

• High-Quality Video and Audio: Provides reliable video and audio quality for virtual meetings.
• Screen Sharing: Allows participants to share their screens, enhancing collaborative discussions.
• Breakout Rooms: Enables splitting meetings into smaller groups for focused discussions.
• Recording Capabilities: Offers options to record meetings for future reference.
• Virtual Backgrounds: Allows customization of meeting backgrounds, adding a professional touch.

5. Asana

Asana is a project management tool designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work.

Major Features:

• Task Assignment: Enables assigning tasks to team members with due dates and priority levels.
• Project Timelines: Visualizes project schedules with Gantt-style timelines.
• Workload Management: Helps balance team workloads to prevent burnout.
• Automation Rules: Automates routine tasks to streamline workflows.
• Integration Support: Connects with tools like Slack, Outlook, and Google Drive for enhanced functionality.

6. Trello

Trello utilizes a card and board system to help teams manage projects in a visually intuitive way.

Major Features:

• Kanban Boards: Visualizes tasks through customizable boards and cards.
• Drag-and-Drop Interface: Allows easy movement of tasks between different stages.
• Labels and Tags: Enables categorization of tasks for better organization.
• Power-Ups: Enhances functionality with add-ons like calendar views and integrations.
• Collaboration Tools: Facilitates commenting on cards, attaching files, and mentioning team members for seamless communication.

7. Miro

Miro is a digital whiteboard platform that enables teams to collaborate visually.

Major Features:

• Infinite Canvas: Provides an unlimited canvas for brainstorming and planning.
• Pre-Built Templates: Offers a variety of templates for workflows, mind maps, and diagrams.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Allows multiple users to work simultaneously on the same board.
• Sticky Notes and Drawing Tools: Facilitates idea capture and visualization.
• Integration Options: Integrates with tools like Slack, Jira, and Google Drive to enhance workflows.

8. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that combines chat, meetings, file sharing, and app integration.

Major Features:

• Team Channels: Organizes conversations into channels for different projects or topics.
• Video Conferencing: Supports high-quality video meetings with screen sharing capabilities.
• File Collaboration: Allows real-time collaboration on Office documents within the platform.
• App Integrations: Integrates with a wide range of apps to customize workflows.
• Security Features: Provides enterprise-grade security and compliance options.

9. Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a work management platform that combines the ease of use of a spreadsheet with robust collaboration features.

Major Features:

• **Grid, Gantt, and

The post Top 21 Tools for Collaboration Tools in 2026 appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Effective documentation is essential for software development, project management, and knowledge sharing. With the right tools, teams can create, maintain, and collaborate on documents more efficiently. Below, we explore the top 21 documentation tools, each with its major features to help you choose the best fit for your organization’s needs.

1. Confluence

Major Features:

• Real-time Collaboration: Allows teams to collaborate in real-time on documents and pages.
• Integration with Jira: Seamlessly integrates with Jira for linking documentation with tasks and tickets.
• Customizable Templates: Offers pre-built templates for creating meeting notes, project plans, and knowledge bases.
• Access Control: Provides detailed permissions to control who can view or edit documents.
• Cloud-based: Available both on the cloud and on-premises.

2. Google Docs

Major Features:

• Real-time Editing: Multiple users can edit the document simultaneously.
• Version History: Keeps track of all changes, enabling users to revert to previous versions.
• Offline Mode: Allows editing without an internet connection.
• Easy Sharing: Provides quick and flexible document sharing options with granular access control.
• Integration with Google Workspace: Integrates smoothly with Gmail, Google Drive, and other Google tools.

3. Notion

Major Features:

• All-in-One Workspace: Combines notes, tasks, wikis, and databases in one tool.
• Customizable Templates: Offers ready-made templates for various use cases like meeting notes, product planning, etc.
• Collaborative Workspaces: Enables collaboration in real-time on documents and pages.
• Database Features: Allows you to create, manage, and filter databases for better organization.
• Cross-Platform: Works on web, desktop, and mobile.

4. Microsoft OneNote

Major Features:

• Multi-Device Sync: Syncs notebooks across different devices, including Windows, Mac, and mobile devices.
• Organizational Structure: Supports hierarchical note-taking with notebooks, sections, and pages.
• Drawing Tools: Provides sketching and drawing capabilities.
• Audio & Video Recording: Allows for embedding media in notes.
• Collaboration Features: Share and collaborate with others in real time.

5. Markdown

Major Features:

• Simple Syntax: Lightweight and easy-to-learn markup language for creating structured documents.
• HTML Conversion: Can be converted to HTML for web use.
• Portable: Easily integrates with multiple platforms and editors.
• Text-based: No distractions, just plain text formatting.
• Widely Supported: Used by many software development platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.

6. DokuWiki

Major Features:

• Easy to Use: Simple and lightweight, perfect for creating structured documentation.
• Plugin Support: Offers various plugins to extend functionality (e.g., for creating charts, diagrams, etc.).
• Access Control: Allows user management and role-based permissions.
• Search Functionality: Includes a powerful search feature for quickly finding documentation content.
• Self-hosted: An open-source solution that can be self-hosted.

7. Zoho Wiki

Major Features:

• Organized Structure: Provides a user-friendly interface for organizing documents.
• Collaboration Tools: Allows team members to contribute, comment, and collaborate on documents.
• Customizable: Offers branding and customization options for teams.
• Knowledge Base: Provides an easy-to-use knowledge base for your team.
• Version Control: Keeps track of document revisions and updates.

8. Read the Docs

Major Features:

• Open-Source: Provides free hosting for open-source project documentation.
• Versioning Support: Supports multiple versions of documentation, which is ideal for software projects.
• Automatic Build: Automatically generates and builds your documentation from reStructuredText or Markdown.
• Search Functionality: Offers robust search for documentation content.
• Integration with GitHub: Easily integrates with version control systems like GitHub for continuous updates.

9. GitBook

Major Features:

• Collaborative Editing: Multiple team members can collaborate on documentation in real time.
• Version Control: Integrates with GitHub for version control.
• Customizable Themes: Offers options to customize the look and feel of your documentation.
• Markdown Support: Supports Markdown syntax for writing content.
• Cloud-Based: Fully cloud-based for easy access and sharing.

10. Quip

Major Features:

• Real-Time Collaboration: Supports live editing and chat functionality within documents.
• Integrated Spreadsheets: Includes spreadsheet capabilities for better data management.
• Task Lists: Allows for task assignments and tracking within documents.
• Mobile Support: Full-featured mobile app for on-the-go collaboration.
• Security Features: Includes encryption and data protection for secure sharing.

11. Slab

Major Features:

• Knowledge Base: Focuses on building a collaborative internal knowledge base.
• Integrations: Integrates with tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Zapier.
• Search Capabilities: Features a powerful search tool for finding information quickly.
• Rich Content Support: Supports images, code snippets, and videos.
• Team Collaboration: Teams can comment and provide feedback on shared documents.

12. Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware

Major Features:

• Customizable: Offers a lot of customization for creating wiki-style websites or documentation systems.
• Group Collaboration: Allows multiple users to create, edit, and manage content collaboratively.
• Multi-language Support: Supports multiple languages for global collaboration.
• Extensive Feature Set: Includes forums, chat, calendars, and task management features.
• Access Control: Granular permission settings for different users and roles.

13. MediaWiki

Major Features:

• Free and Open-Source: Widely used for creating large-scale wiki documentation.
• Collaborative Editing: Facilitates multiple users working on content simultaneously.
• Category Management: Organizes content by categories for easier navigation.
• Extensive Extensions: Has many extensions for additional features, such as visual editing and anti-spam measures.
• Support for Large Content: Efficiently handles large and complex documentation.

14. Evernote

Major Features:

• Cross-Platform Sync: Syncs across devices and platforms, including mobile, web, and desktop.
• Note Organization: Allows you to organize notes into notebooks with tags for easy search.
• Audio and Media: Supports embedding images, audio recordings, and PDFs.
• Document Scanning: Ability to scan and store physical documents as searchable files.
• Collaboration: Share notes and notebooks with others for collaborative work.

15. OneNote

Major Features:

• Notebook Organization: Users can organize notes into sections and pages.
• Cross-Device Sync: Syncs across multiple devices for seamless access.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Multiple users can edit and contribute to the same notes.
• Audio and Video Recording: Record meetings, lectures, or ideas directly within notes.
• Cloud Integration: Part of Microsoft’s Office 365 suite, offering excellent cloud storage integration.

16. Notion

Major Features:

• All-in-One Workspace: Combines documents, wikis, project management tools, and databases in one tool.
• Customizable Templates: Provides a variety of templates for personal and team use.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Share and edit documents collaboratively.
• Cross-Platform: Works on desktop, mobile, and the web.
• Content Blocks: Allows easy customization of pages using various content blocks (e.g., text, images, code snippets).

17. Markdown

Major Features:

• Simple Syntax: Lightweight markup language for creating formatted documents.
• Easy Integration: Works seamlessly with most modern tools and platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
• Plain Text: Keeps documents in plain text, making them easy to store and transfer.
• Converts to HTML: Markdown can be converted into HTML for use in web pages.
• Widely Used in Development: Ideal for documentation within code repositories.

18. Google Docs

Major Features:

• Real-Time Collaboration: Multiple users can edit the document at the same time.
• Version History: Keeps track of all changes, allowing users to revert to previous versions.
• Easy Sharing: Simple and flexible document sharing with granular permission control.
• Offline Access: Edit documents offline and sync changes once online.
• Voice Typing: Offers voice typing for hands-free documentation creation.

19. Miro

Major Features:

• Collaborative Whiteboard: Ideal for team brainstorming and documentation planning.
• Pre-Built Templates: Provides templates for user stories, workflows, mind maps, and more.
• Integrations: Integrates with Slack, Google Drive, and other tools for seamless workflows.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Users can collaborate on a shared board in real time.
• Sticky Notes and Comments: Easy to add comments and sticky notes for collaborative discussions.

20. ClickUp

Major Features:

• Project Management and Documentation: Combines project management with built-in documentation tools.
• Task Management: Allows for tasks to be assigned directly in documents and linked to specific goals.
• Collaboration Features: Commenting and mentioning team members within the documentation.
• Time Tracking: Tracks the time spent on specific tasks or documentation.
• Integration: Integrates with tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Trello.

21. GitBook

Major Features:

• Real-Time Collaboration: Enables real-time collaboration on documentation, especially for software projects.
• Markdown Support: Supports writing in Markdown, making it easy to format documentation.
• Versioning: Tracks document versions and allows rollbacks to previous versions.
• Custom Branding: Customize the look and feel of your documentation.
• API Access: Allows integration with other tools for automated document updates.

These top 21 documentation tools provide a wide array of features designed to improve productivity, collaboration, and content organization. Depending on your needs, these tools can help streamline documentation creation, improve team collaboration, and ensure that information is well-organized and easy to access.

The post Top 21 Tools for Documentation Tools in 2026 appeared first on scmGalaxy.

It is a DevOps platform by Microsoft also Azure DevOps is a software program by Microsoft which delivers endwise DevOps tool series for developing and deploying software.  It is also integrated with the greatest primary tools in the arcade and is a decent option for organizing a DevOps toolchain.

Features of Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps provides a variety of facilities covering the complete development life-cycle.  On the period of inscription these are features:

• Azure Boards: agile planning, work item tracking, visualisation and reporting tool.
• Azure Pipelines: a language, platform and cloud agnostic CI/CD platform with support for containers or Kubernetes.
• Azure Repos: provides cloud-hosted private git repos.
• Azure Artifacts: provides integrated package management with support for Maven, npm, Python and NuGet package feeds from public or private sources.
• Azure Test Plans: provides an integrated planned and exploratory testing solution.
• Azure DevOps can also be used to orchestrate third-party tools.

When was Azure DevOps First launched in the market?

Even though being launched in October 2018, Azure DevOps is not the fresh kid on the DevOps block.  Its extraction can be found all the way back to Visual Studio Team System which was launched in 2006. This is a developed product with a gorgeous feature-set that has above 80,000 internal operators at Microsoft.

What are the benefits of azure DevOps?

• Reliability: software as a service offering, Azure DevOps is trustworthy, ascendable and worldwide available. It is also supported by an SLA of 99.9% uptime and by 24×7 care.
• Access to the latest features: Azure DevOps operators get permission of access to new features every 3 weeks. Microsoft is apparent, have available the product roadmap and are dedicated to speedily iterating on the feature-set.
• End of the upgrade cycle: For groups running on-premises CI/CD tooling, improvements are a consistent headache. By moving to a SaaS model, you no longer need to concern about fixing and improvement the tool chain.

What Is Uses of Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps delivers combined features that you can access through your web browser or IDE client. You can use one or more of the following individual services according to your business needs:

Azure Repos Offers Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) or offers Git repositories for source control of your code.

Azure Pipelines offers to build and release facilities to support uninterrupted integration and delivery of your applications.

Azure Boards delivers a suite of agile tools to support planning and tracking work, code defects, and issues using Kanban and Scrum methods.

Azure Test Plans provides several tools to test your apps, including manual/exploratory testing and continuous testing.

Azure Artifacts Permits teams to share packages such as Maven, npm, NuGet, and more from public and private sources and integrate package sharing into your pipelines

You can also use the following collaboration tools:

Customizable team dashboards with configurable widgets to share information, progress, and trends

Built-in wikis for sharing information

Configurable notifications

Azure DevOps supports adding extensions and integrating with other popular services, such as Campfire, Slack, Trello, UserVoice, and more, and developing your own custom extensions.

Azure DevOps Services supports integration with GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server repositories. Azure DevOps Server supports integration with GitHub Enterprise Server repositories.

Conclusion

Azure DevOps is a type of DevOps culture powered by Microsoft. It is the second most used and ranked DevOps program after AWS. It does provide you reliability; the latest features; options for upgrade cycle etc. Our ScmGalaxy does also provide Microsoft azure courses with the best of experienced trainers. For Azure, training, and certification you can visit our website DevOpsSchool. We provide all types of training and certification courses regarding DevOps and Microsoft.

The post What Is Azure DevOps? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

• max-aspect-ratio – The maximum ratio between the width and the height of the display area
• max-color – The maximum number of bits per color component for the output device
• max-color-index – The maximum number of colors the device can display
• max-device-aspect-ratio – The maximum ratio between the width and the height of the device
• max-device-height – The maximum height of the device, such as a computer screen
• max-device-width – The maximum width of the device, such as a computer screen
• max-height – The
• max-monochrome – The maximum number of bits per “color” on a monochrome (greyscale) device
• max-resolution – The maximum resolution of the device, using dpi or dpcmmaximum height of the display area, such as a browser window
• scan – The scanning process of the output device
• scripting – Is scripting (e.g. JavaScript) available? (added in Media Queries Level 4)

• max-width – The maximum width of the display area, such as a browser window

• min-aspect-ratio – The minimum ratio between the width and the height of the display area
• min-color – The minimum number of bits per color component for the output device
• min-color-index – The minimum number of colors the device can display
• min-device-aspect-ratio – The minimum ratio between the width and the height of the device
• min-device-width – The minimum width of the device, such as a computer screen
• min-device-height – The minimum height of the device, such as a computer screen
• min-height – The minimum height of the display area, such as a browser window
• min-monochrome – The minimum number of bits per “color” on a monochrome (greyscale) device
• min-resolution – The minimum resolution of the device, using dpi or dpcm
• min-width – The minimum width of the display area, such as a browser window
• monochrome – The number of bits per “color” on a monochrome (greyscale) device

• update-frequency – How quickly can the output device modify the appearance of the content (added in Media Queries Level 4)
• width – The viewport width
• orientation – The orientation of the viewport (landscape or portrait mode)
• overflow-block – How does the output device handle content that overflows the viewport along the block axis (added in Media Queries Level 4)
• overflow-inline – Can content that overflows the viewport along the inline axis be scrolled (added in Media Queries Level 4)
• pointer – Is the primary input mechanism a pointing device, and if so, how accurate is it? (added in Media Queries Level 4)
• resolution – The resolution of the output device, using dpi or dpcm

The post How to use different types of Media Features in CSS? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Basic selection criteria includes the following:

• Multiuser support—Tools are to be used concurrently by several users. They have to store all acquired information in a central, shared repository, and the SCM tool has to allow controlled parallel work on the different project documents.
• Intuitive GUI—Because the tools will be used throughout the project and not only by developers, an intuitive, easy-to-use graphical user interface is considered very important.
• Conformity to the organization’s development environment—The organization must define up front the hardware and software development platforms used. For example, the project may work on a heterogeneous network of Unix-based workstations (mainly Sun Sparc stations) and PCs. The workstations may be used for some part of the development and as a file server and communication server. The PCs may be using MS Windows 2000 NT. PCs and workstations may be interconnected using the NFS protocol (especially Sun PC-NFSpro on the PCs). The tool has to be able to store its shared repositories on a workstation and has to allow PC clients as well as workstation clients supporting the operating systems and protocols.
• Scalability—The tool should work equally well for smaller projects as for larger ones.
• Flexibility in integrating other software development tools—The tool must allow the integration of all the other development tools to provide a highly homogeneous environment. Especially the tools for design, implementation, and testing will have to co-operate on the common SCM repository.
• Ease of setup—The SCM tool should allow an easy installation and setup, and should be able to run nearly “out of the box.” It should contain predefined, immediately usable models describing the types of items, the life cycle, and the roles of the different users. The importance of existing projects and their directory structures should be made as easy as possible.
• Modifiable models—Though a working set of models should be predefined, each of these should be modifiable and extensible. This is especially important because project managers and developers want to adapt these models to the software development process as defined for the company. Role models must be adapted to the roles assigned to the different employees on the project. Object-type models must be extensible to reflect different types of objects used in the environment and especially with respect to nondevelopment objects.
• Process management—Process management comprises efficient support of object life cycles and object promotion, together with a flexible and extensible approach to life cycle models. Based on a concept of object types, it should be possible to attach different life cycles to different types of objects.
• Extensive support for the development phase—During development when checkout and update of objects is frequent, the tool should aid a developer in determining the set of objects that need an update or renewed check-in. Although this requirement seems to be trivial at first, the latest version of the tool you plan to use must be evaluated with emphasis on the environment prior to the first build. These do a good job in change management once the first release has been produced.
• Management of nondevelopment objects—SCM tools must manage all artifacts of the project, not just code. These will mainly be documents and their versions and releases. The tool must be able to support that.
• Permission management—Everyone should not have access to make changes to different pieces of the software. In many situations, check-in and checkout only will not prevent integration from being broken by multiple people modifying code for their own designs and interfaces.

Many configuration management tools in the market promise to fulfill more or less all of the requirements. Chapter 24, “Use of Tools,” presented a general model for the selection of tools to support software development and project management. The keys to any tool selection are to know your project’s tool requirements, to understand how tools relate to the project’s success factors, and to do a current market search for tools. The following is an example of using that tool selection method for an SCM tool. This is simply an example, and it must be updated with individual key project success factors, tool requirements, and the tools available in the market based on the project’s schedule requirements.

The post The minimum features for SCM tools appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Who uses wyBuild?
Game developers

Game shops love wyBuild. Using installers results in files hundreds of megabytes long with bandwidth bills to match. wyBuild shrinks your files to tiny patches that range from kilobytes to a few megabytes.
Micro-ISVs

Perfect for agile development, wyBuild allows small software teams to release early and often. Patches are delivered directly to your users using wyUpdate or the AutomaticUpdater control.
Web designers

Web developers use wyBuild to keep their clients up-to-date without using complicated version management systems like subversion, CVS, and git.

New to wyBuild 2.5
Automatic Updates

AutomaticUpdater – update availableWe’re proud to announce that wyBuild is the first commercial offering of an AutomaticUpdater component. Get updates to your user quickly and silently. Impress your current and potential users with your quick turnaround to bug reports.

With the free AutomaticUpdater control you can match the quality of Windows Update or the Google Chrome Updater by just adding a simple control to your .NET app’s form. The AutomaticUpdater works with .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, and .NET 3.5 apps (C#, VB.NET, etc.).
Progressive Patch

When you use the free AutomaticUpdater control your updates are downloaded, extracted, and patched in the background. This means your updates are installed on your users’ machines amazingly fast.
Dual & Quad processor support

wyUpdate now takes advantage of the Dual & Quad core processors. Your users will be able to update to the latest version of your software in a blink of the eye. With significant speed-ups in wyUpdate’s patching algorithm your users will get your updates faster even if they’re using old single-core processors.
.NET Optimizations

.NET frameworkYour .NET applications will get optimized using NGEN when updated. wyBuild automatically detects your .NET assemblies whether they’ve been built for the x64, x86, or Any CPU platforms. You don’t have to lift a finger.
Full 64-bit & 32-bit support

wyUpdate works seamlessly on both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of Windows including the ability to install files to the x86 & x64 system32 folders.
File Permissions are Seamlessly Handled

ACL of a folderwyUpdate seamlessly handles file Access Control Lists (ACL), that is which users can read, write, and execute files. All of this is done completely behind the scenes so your updates work perfectly for computers with multiple users.

Features in wyBuild & wyUpdate

Below are some of the highlight features in wyBuild – a tool to deliver the latest versions of your software.
Visually Design your Updates

Drag & drop files directly from Windows Explorer, add registry changes with a few clicks, and upload your updates to your site all within the same interface.
Tiny Update Patches

wyBuild quickly compares your new version with your older versions. So instead of including whole files in the updates, wyBuild creates tiny update files with only the changes to get from one version to the next.
.NET Optimizations
wyBuild automatically detects any assemblies made with Microsoft’s .NET Framework 2.0 (or above). When the update is installed on your user’s computer, wyUpdate optimizes these .NET assemblies to start and run fast using NGEN.
Multi-lingual wyUpdate

wyUpdate has been tranlated into 13 languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish. Also, wyBuild has a translation editor for creating and editing language files.
Secure Updating

Your users will always have working software. For instance, if the user cancels a software update, or an unforeseen error occurs while updating, wyUpdate quickly and cleanly restores the previous version of the software. It never leaves extras files or registry lying around.
Windows Vista’s User Account Control (UAC)

No worrying about Windows Vista’s troublesome UAC, wyUpdate handles it in stride. Limited users can check for updates without needing Administrator privileges and, if an update is found, Windows UAC prompts the user for an administrator password.

wyUpdate also handles user access particulars on all other Windows versions (2000, XP, etc.). A user will always be able to check for updates, and will only be prompted for a password if the user doesn’t have access to the folders or registry that need to be updated.

wyBuild & wyUpdate Requirements

Below are the requirements for wyBuild, wyUpdate, and the AutomaticUpdater control.
Requirements for wyBuild

wyBuild manages versions of your software and creates patches from one version to the next.

The .NET Framework 2.0 is the only requirement for wyBuild. If you don’t have it, it’s automatically downloaded and installed when you run the installer.

Requirements for wyUpdate

wyUpdate is the open source (and royalty free) updater program you include with your software.

The .NET Framework 2.0 is the only requirement for wyUpdate.
Requirements for the AutomaticUpdater control

The AutomaticUpdater is a free .NET component that’s included with wyBuild. With it you can add full automatic updating ability to your .NET application. Learn more about it here.

AutomaticUpdater works with .NET applications built for any of the following versions of the .NET Framework:

* .NET Framework 2.0
* .NET Framework 3.0
* .NET Framework 3.5

Windows 2000 – Windows 7

wyBuild, wyUpdate, and the AutomaticUpdater control are fully compatible with Windows 2000 through Windows 7 (both 32-bit & 64-bit versions of Windows):

* Windows 2000 (including server products)
* Windows XP
* Windows 2003 (and 2003 R2)
* Windows Vista
* Windows 2008 (and 2008 R2)
* Windows 7

Reference: www.http://wyday.com

InstallerExpert replied the topic: Re: what is wyBuild & wyUpdate and its features and advantage?
This tools has lots of Scope for Improvement.

Regards,
Installer Experts

replied the topic: Re: what is wyBuild & wyUpdate and its features and advantage?
what the use of this tool ?

msiexpert replied the topic: Re: what is wyBuild & wyUpdate and its features and advantage?
This tool is basically used for creating Installer of any application. in another word. Packaging of software so user can use it without seeing any complexity.

Regards,
msiexpert

The post What is wyBuild & wyUpdate and its features and advantage? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Actual Installer offers you a wizard-style interface that will quickly guide you through all the stages of creating an installation package. Simply go from one tab to another and specify the required values or textual content in a point-and-click manner. Because the learning curve is minimal, it usually takes five minutes for a beginner to get started with the first installation project. No previous knowledge of installation technologies or scripting is required.

Basic Features

Actual Installer supports all basic installation features, including modifications of registry and INI files, shortcut creation, Fonts, Screensavers and COM (DLL In-Proc servers, Type Libraries) registrations, file associations, execution of custom commands, and many installer variables. What’s more, Actual Installer supports user information queries, has complete uninstallation opportunities, supports Add/Remove Programs applet, Uninstall feedback, and customizable dialogs (you can change the graphics and text).

Single-File Executable

Actual Installer compiles an installation package as a single executable file. Then, this file can be easily uploaded to a site and made available to visitors for downloading. Or, it can be distributed on CD/DVD-ROM.
Smallest Size of Installation Package

Actual Installer offers you an excellent compression algorithm that enables you to compress your installation package, making its size as small as possible. Independent tests have demonstrated that Actual Installer’s compression is works much better than that of ZIP.

Multilanguage Installation

Actual Installer enables you to create an installation package in any supported language and end users may choose a language they want to read the installation instructions in. The Readme and License Agreement texts can also be specified for each language separately.

Actual Updater utility

The Actual Updater utility allows the user to check for updates and download and install new versions, if available.
Silent Installation Support

Actual Installer supports the Silent installation mode. Instead of multiple dialogs, end users may choose the installation without any interface shown. This type of installation takes less time.

System Requirements Check

Actual Installer allows checking system information and informing the user if some requirements specified in the installation project are not met. You can specify such checks as OS version, administrator privileges, .NET Framework and Internet Explorer versions.

Support for Windows Vista

The installation package created in Actual Installer will work fine on Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista.

The post Features of Actual Installer appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Along with the basic installation functions, Actual Installer features advanced capabilities, such as multilingual installations, registry and INI files modification, checking the system specifications for their compliance with the program requirements, setting file associations, registering fonts, screensavers and ActiveX components, executing custom commands and much more! All of these features take just a few minutes to configure and compile into a compact setup file.

Actual Installer – Features

Jumpstart Your First Installer Project in Minutes!

Actual Installer offers you a wizard-style interface that will quickly guide you through all the stages of creating an installation package. Simply go from one tab to another and specify the required values or textual content in a point-and-click manner. Because the learning curve is minimal, it usually takes five minutes for a beginner to get started with the first installation project. No previous knowledge of installation technologies or scripting is required.
Basic Features

Actual Installer supports all basic installation features, including modifications of registry and INI files, shortcut creation, Fonts, Screensavers and COM (DLL In-Proc servers, Type Libraries) registrations, file associations, execution of custom commands, and many installer variables. What’s more, Actual Installer supports user information queries, has complete uninstallation opportunities, supports Add/Remove Programs applet, Uninstall feedback, and customizable dialogs (you can change the graphics and text).
Single-File Executable

Actual Installer compiles an installation package as a single executable file. Then, this file can be easily uploaded to a site and made available to visitors for downloading. Or, it can be distributed on CD/DVD-ROM.
Smallest Size of Installation Package

Actual Installer offers you an excellent compression algorithm that enables you to compress your installation package, making its size as small as possible. Independent tests have demonstrated that Actual Installer’s compression is works much better than that of ZIP.
Multilanguage Installation

Actual Installer enables you to create an installation package in any supported language and end users may choose a language they want to read the installation instructions in. The Readme and License Agreement texts can also be specified for each language separately.
Actual Updater utility

The Actual Updater utility allows the user to check for updates and download and install new versions, if available.
Silent Installation Support

Actual Installer supports the Silent installation mode. Instead of multiple dialogs, end users may choose the installation without any interface shown. This type of installation takes less time.
System Requirements Check

Actual Installer allows checking system information and informing the user if some requirements specified in the installation project are not met. You can specify such checks as OS version, administrator privileges, .NET Framework and Internet Explorer versions.
Support for Windows Vista

The installation package created in Actual Installer will work fine on Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista.

Reference:
www.actualinstaller.com/features.html

InstallerGeek replied the topic: Re: what is Actual Installer and what the advantages and features of this?
As users, we always appreciate intuitive, user-friendly, efficient and good-looking installation interfaces. As developers, we must not forget that despite being the last step in the creation of the program, application deployment is anything but unimportant. The process of building the setup package should be taken into account well in advance.

If you are a developer looking for a reliable, easy-to-use and efficient software installer, lean back and relax – you have just found it! Actual Installer is a professional tool for creating great-looking installation packages with incredible ease! The wizard-driven interface allows you to forget about tedious and time-consuming scripting, as the program will take good care of this. All you need to do is to fill out the necessary forms and attach the documents that you want the end-user to read.

Along with the basic installation functions, Actual Installer features advanced capabilities, such as multilingual installations, registry and INI files modification, checking the system specifications for their compliance with the program requirements, setting file associations, registering fonts and ActiveX components, protecting the setup files with a password and much more! All of these features take just a few minutes to configure and compile into a compact setup file. Even the most demanding users will be pleasantly surprised by the visual aspect of the installation packages created by Actual Installer.

Many companies have opted for the Actual Installer instead of resorting to using custom-built and much more expensive installation systems. The reason is simple – Actual Installer has everything a professional developer needs at a great price! Actual Installer saves you time and money by making installations easier, faster and more reliable than ever!

The post What is Actual Installer and what the advantages and features of this? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

deployexpert replied the topic: Re: Organizing Features and Components in InstallAnywhereOrganizing Features and
Best Practices for Components
When using components, first determine and organize which components to add.
A few things to keep in mind:
Make unique components for files that will need to be updated separately. For
example, a “Help” feature, may have both a User Guide and Javadocs. However, the
User Guide may be updated more frequently than the Javadocs. Make the two items
separate components so a unique “User Guide” component may be added which can
be versioned and updated individually.
Components should make logical sense. When building a Suite Installer, keep in mind
the pieces of applications that are shared between different products. When
componentizing a product for versioning purposes, designate the version of the
component in the Organization | Component | Properties task when the component is
added.

Adding Components
Components are managed in the Organization | Components task. Each component is
created with a long Name, a Short Name, and a Unique ID. The Version, and Key File
may be specified. Key Files are single files that are a core part of the component which
identify the component. A Key File should be a file that will always be included in a
component.
Assigning Files to Components
To assign files to a component, use the Assign Files to Components option in the
Install task to assign files to the components.

Removing Empty Components
Sometimes you may have components that are no longer needed or do not have any
files assigned to them. To remove empty components from the project click Clean
Components in the Organization | Components task.

Integrating Components Already Installed on
Target System
If the installer needs a component that should already be installed on the target
system, use the Find Component in Registry action to locate that component. This
action searches for the component by using the UUID, the unique identifier specified
for the component. The component’s location can then be used as an installation
location by the installer.
The installer can compare versions and locate the highest version found. The key file
may also be searched for.

Adding Features
Features are managed in the Organization | Features task. You can add and remove
Features, as well as assign Features to Install Sets.

Assigning Components to Features
You can manually assign Components to Features on the Organization | Components
task, or you can assign Files to Features directly, which creates the Feature to
Component assignments automatically. If you assign a file to a Feature that does not
already have a Component, a Component will be created automatically for you.

The post Organizing Features and Components in InstallAnywhereOrganizing Features and Com appeared first on scmGalaxy.

• User-Friendly — It should be easy to use and navigate.

• Search & Replace — This is one feature through which you can easily search words and replace them with few clicks.

• Copy & Paste —This feature is no doubt one the most important feature because without cut,copy and paste we can not think to even write these days.

• Syntax highlighting — Only a programmer knows, how it feels when a single “;” (semi-colon) missed in a code of thousand lines results in a failed program execution. So, Code editor should contain syntax highlighting feature, it helps to read and pick up code errors easily.

• UTF-8 — Code editors should able to deal with UTF-8 encoded text.

• Extensions — When choosing a text editor one should also check plugins availability to the editor. It allows you to use it with additional features.

• Supports syntax highlighting
• Tabbed editing
• External Plugins Support
• Auto indentation
• Auto-completion of words & functions.
• Compiler Integration
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) support
• Search and Replace

• Lightning fast project switching
• Multiple line selection and editing
• Syntax highlighting
• Can be completely customized
• Programmers friendly Plugins support
• Side by side file comparisons
• cross platform support
• Distraction free mode (Black screen)

• Work very well with large files
• Supports complete keyboard operations
• Supports large numbers of plugins
• Useful in a remote development environment using a terminal over SSH
• It can be customized to heart’s content using .vimrc dotfile & VimScript
• Charityware (Donations go to charities)

• Very easy to use
• Auto-completion
• Highly customizable
• Offers git control and package management features
• Updates on regular basis with new functionalities and bug fixes
• Supports Command Palette
• Easy to Customise UI

• Syntax highlighting
• Auto indentation
• Code folding
• Auto completion
• Extension support and macros
• Multiple selections
• Code snippets
• Komodo IDE for Teams (you can upgrade for advance features)

The post Top 5 Code Editors for the Software Programmers | Best Code Editor | scmGalaxy appeared first on scmGalaxy.

1. Chef

• Manage nodes from a single server
• Cross-platform management for Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and more
• Integrates with major cloud providers
• Premium features available

• Permanent links
• RSS/email/IM integration
• After-the-fact tagging
• JUnit/TestNG test reporting
• Distributed builds

• Automatically enforce consistency of environments
• Works across physical and virtual machines
• A common tool-chain
• Support key DevOps best practices, including continuous delivery

• Supplies a number of built-in tasks for compiling, assembling, testing, and running Java applications
• Builds non-Java applications, such as C or C++ applications
• Pilot any type of process which can be described in terms of targets and tasks
• Extremely flexible and does not impose coding conventions or directory layouts to the Java projects which adopt it as a build tool

• Simple project setup follows best practices
• Easily work with multiple projects at one time
• Large repository of libraries and metadata that continue to grow
• Extensible, with the ability to write plugins in Java or scripting languages

• Collects, parses, and stores logs for later use
• Includes a web interface for searching and drilling into all of your logs
• Ship logs from any source, parse them, timestamp them correctly, index them, and search them

• Assemble multi-container apps and run on any infrastructure
• Compose an app using both proprietary containers and Docker Hub Official Repos
• Manage all containers of an app as a single group
• Cluster an app’s containers to optimize resources and provide high-availability

• Helps in the build, deployment, and maintenance of web software
• Application monitoring in one place
• Cross application and transaction tracing
• Database and availability and error monitoring

• Declarative builds and build-by-convention
• Language for dependency-based programming
• Structure your build
• Deep API
• Multi-project builds
• Ease of migration

• Working offline
• Fast to Work With
• Repositories Are Smaller
• Moving or Adding files
• Ignore Certain Files
• Branches
• Check the Status of Your Changes
• Stash Branches
• Cherry Pick Changes from Branches
• Find version that Introduced a bug using Binary Search

The post Top 10 DevOps Tools which is mostly used by DevOps Engineers | scmGalaxy appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Advance Features of Smart Build Tools

{slideshare}[slideshare id=6995921&doc=advancefeaturesofsmartbuildandtoolsstudy-110220215438-phpapp02&type=d]{/slideshare}

The post What are the Advance Features of Smart Build Tools? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

My main experience is with ClearCase. I have read various descriptive comparisons between ClearCase and other available Software Management Version tools. Which tool has your company implemented? What were the key features helped you select this tool over another one?

Configuration Management Tools Discussion

The post Configuration Management Tools Discussion appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Hi all,

I’m proud to announce the availability of a new release of Sonar
PDF Report Plugin (Commercial edition):
http://blog.klicap.es/products/sonarpdfreportplugin

Key features of this new release:

* Include information provided by other installed plugins
* Possibility of use SVG images in front page and header

Actually Sonar PDF Report Plugin 2.1 supports integration with:
* Technical Debt Plugin
* SIGMM Plugin
* Total Quality PLugin
* Quality Index Plugin
* Taglist Plugin

Regards,
Antonio.

The post Sonar PDF Report Plugin 2.1 – What is new in Sonar PDF Report Plugin 2.1? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Sonar 2.2 Released – Know what’s new in Sonar 2.2 ?

The Sonar Team is pleased to announce the release of Sonar 2.2. There are two key features in this new version :

The post Sonar 2.2 Released – Know what’s new in Sonar 2.2 ? appeared first on scmGalaxy.

Nurflugel AntScript Visualizer

Link:
http://www.nurflugel.com/webstart/AntScriptVisualizer

About:
Ant Script Visualizer is a program I’ve written to make visualizing how your Ant targets and scripts are related to one another.

Ever take a look at an Ant build script and, although perfectly readable, not really “see” all the dependencies between targets?

What targets depend on a certain taskdef? Or a macrodef? Do macrodefs rely on other macrodefs? And all those imported Ant scripts – where do they fit in? This program was designed to show that, by importing your Ant scripts and creating graphic file representations of them. Say what?

OK, here’s an example of the output for the build file used for this program:

Features
# Parses build files for the following task usages:

* target
* ant
* antcall
* depends
* property
* import
* taskdef
* macrodef

# Groups results by build file subgraphs (default), or optionally, all items together in one graph
# Ability to filter/show included obects by target, imported files, ant calls, taskdefs, and macrodefs
# Output formats: PNG (default for PC), PDF (default for OS X, not available otherwise), SVG.

Grand

Links:
http://www.ggtools.net/grand/
About:
Grand is a tool to create visual representation of ant target dependencies. It differs from tools like Vizant or AntGraph  by a totally different approach, relying on the Ant API rather than parsing directly the XML files. This enables Grand to provide some nifty features such as the support of the ant 1.6.x tasks like import or subant.

Vizant

Links:
http://vizant.sourceforge.net/

About:
Vizant is an Apache Ant task to create Graphviz DOT source code from an Ant buildfile. The image created from the DOT source code shows the targets dependency.

The post Flow Diagram and GUI tools for Apache Ant appeared first on scmGalaxy.

The Apache Maven team would like to announce the release of Maven 3.0-beta-1.

Maven 3.0-beta-1 is available for download from the ‘preview’ section.

Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project’s build, reporting and documentation from a central place.

Maven 3 aims to ensure backward compatibility with Maven 2, improve usability, increase performance, allow safe embedding, and pave the way to implement many highly demanded features.

The core release is independent of the plugins available. Further releases of plugins will be made separately. See the Plugin List for more information.

We hope you enjoy using Maven! If you have any questions, please consult:

• the web site: http://maven.apache.org/
• the maven-user mailing list: http://maven.apache.org/mail-lists.html

For More Info…

http://maven.apache.org/docs/3.0-beta-1/release-notes.html

The post Maven 3.0-beta-1 Release – What’s new in Maven 3.0? – Quick guide appeared first on scmGalaxy.

ANTHILLPRO COMPARISON WITH ATLASSIAN BAMBOO
AnthillPro Vs Bamboo OR
Difference between AnthillPro and Bamboo OR

Last month i was discussing with Eric Minick from Anthillpro on Why Build Engineer should be go for AnthillPro instead of Bamboo and i found some interesting inputs which i am sharing below;

Introduction

Bamboo is a respectable team level continuous integration server. Continuous Integration servers are focused on providing feedback to developers about the quality of their recent
builds, and how that compares to previous builds. While AnthillPro also provides continuous integration features, it pays special attention to what hAnthillpropens after build time.
Where is the build deployed? How does it get tested in the hours, days and weeks after the build occurs? Who releases the software and how?

The distinction in focus between the two solutions shows up in their features. Both AnthillPro and Bamboo provide continuous integration support and integrations with
numerous tools. Only AnthillPro provides the features required to take a build through the release pipeline into production – rich security, build lifecycle management, eAtlassian Bamboo.
For the purposes of this document, we will use the following product aAtlassian Bambooreviations:

Lifecycle Management

There is a lot more to implementing true lifecycle management than simply using the term in marketing and sales materials. The lifecycle extends across multiple processes in
addition to the build process. Most tools have had a very narrow view of this space and have focused their energies purely on the build process. The end result is that true lifecycle
management is an afterthought, and it shows in the features (or lack thereof) in their products. A continuous integration

Pipeline Management

As the lifecycle is made up of multiple processes (such as the build, deployments, tests, release, and potentially others), a lifecycle management tool must provide some means of
tracking and managing the movement of a build through the lifecycle stages. Without this feature, there is nothing to connect a build process execution to a deployment process
execution to a test process execution; thus the end user has no way of knowing what build  actually got tested. Without this pipeline management feature (which we call the Build
Life), traceability between processes is completely absent from the tool.

Atlassian Bamboo: No pipeline management out of the box.
Anthillpro: Provides pipeline management out‐of‐the‐box. Anthillpro has a first‐class concept called the Build Life. The Build Life represents the pipeline and connects the build process to later
processes like deployments into QA, Anthillproprovals by managers, functional testing, and release to production. The pipeline (Build Life) provides guaranteed traceability throughout all
processes in the lifecycle, and provides a context for collecting logs, history, and other data gathered throughout the lifecycle.

Artifact Management

Key to lifecycle management is the ability to connect the outputs of a prior process (such as the build) to the inputs of a subsequent process (such as a deployment). After all, the
deployment process needs to have something to deploy. Ideally, the deployment process would deploy the artifacts produced by the build process. And the test process would run
tests on those same artifacts. The ability to cAnthillproture and manage the artifacts created by a build and other processes is central to this effort. Ideally, the artifacts would be managed
by an artifact repository (a Definitive Software Library (DSL) under ITIL). Further, as hundreds or thousands of builds hAnthillpropen, support for discarding old builds needs to
intelligently remove builds that are no longer interesting. Anthillpro bundles a binary artifact repository called CodeStation.

Atlassian Bamboo: Bamboo does cAnthillproture built artifacts but does not have a robust artifact management system. It does not maintain artifact checksums for validation. Old builds may be archived
after a certain number of weeks, but there is no designation for builds that have been to or are potentially going to production that would use a different retention policy. Artifacts are available for user download, but are not accessible for reuse by other plans or deployments.

Anthillpro: Built‐in artifact management system (DSL) called CodeStation. The cAnthillproture, fingerprint and management of artifacts is essential to the solution. This allows AnthillPro to guarantee traceability of artifacts from the build, through deployment, through testing, and into release (in other words, AnthillPro guarantees that what is released into production is what was tested and built). A maximum number of builds or age to keep can be set per project and per status. This means that builds that were released can be kept longer than a simple continuous integration build.

Security

Especially as servers address functionality before the build – deployments or tests to various environments, controlling who can do what within the system can be key element
securing the system and providing clear separation of duties. Once something has been done, it can be equally important to find out who ran which processes.

Authentication and Authorization

Atlassian Bamboo: Basic role based security. Users may be assigned roles and permissions at the project level. Integration with LDAnthillpro, compliments internally managed security.

Anthillpro: AnthillPro provides a rich role based security system, allowing fine‐grained control over who can see which project, run which workflows and interact with which
environments. The Authentication system supports internally managed, single sign on systems, LDAnthillpro, Kerberos (Active Directory), and JAnthillproS modules.

Secure Value Masking

Many “secrets” are used when building and deploying. Passwords to source control, servers, and utilities are often needed to execute build, deploy, test processes.

Atlassian Bamboo: No facility for securely storing Anthillproplication passwords or obfuscating them from the logs. Bamboo does manage to write libraries for some integrations that avoid passing the
password where the logs can see that line. It has no facility that we can see for flagging a command line parameter that will be logged as secure and filtering that value from the log.

Anthillpro: Sensitive values like Anthillproplication passwords are automatically filtered out of logs, hidden in the user interface, entered through password fields, and stored in the database encrypted with a triple DES one time key.

Process Automation & The Grid

Grouping Agents
In a distributed environment, managing your build and deployment grid needs to be easy.

Atlassian Bamboo: Agents are added into a fairly uniform pool. Agents can define broad cAnthillproabilities they provide and jobs can define what cAnthillproabilities they need to perform matchmaking.

Anthillpro: AnthillPro provides the concept of an environment. Environments are groups of servers. A build farm for a class of projects could be one environment while the QA environment for another project would be another environment. This allows for roaming – or deploying to everything – to span just the machines in an environment. Jobs can be
assigned to a single machine, or roam, or select machines based on criteria like processor type, operating system, or customized machine cAnthillproabilities.

Complex Process Automation

Atlassian Bamboo: Bamboo runs full plans on a single agent. While different agents can be running various builds in parallel, any given plan is executed on just a single agent.

Anthillpro: AnthillPro provides a rich workflow engine, which allows jobs to be run in sequence, parallel, and combinations thereof. Jobs can also be iterated so that they run multiple times with slight variations in their behavior on each execution. This allows parallelization that takes advantage of numerous agents. This facility also makes sophisticated deployments possible.

Cross Site Support

Atlassian Bamboo: Bamboo provides no special support for agents (slaves) that exist outside the local network.

Anthillpro: AnthillPro is architected with support for an cross‐site, even international, grid. Agent relays and location specific artifact caches assist in easing the configuration and
performance challenges inherent in deployment involving multiple sites.

Dependency Management

Component based development and reuse are concepts that get a lot of lip service but few if any features from most vendors. Only AnthillPro provides features to enable component based development and software reuse. A flexible dependency management system is part of the built‐in feature set of AnthillPro. The dependency management system is integrated with the bundled artifact repository and with the build scheduler so that builds can be pushed up the dependency grAnthillproh and pulled down the dependency grAnthillproh as configured. Integration with Maven dependency management provides an integrated system.

Atlassian Bamboo: Provides some basic support for build scheduling based on dependencies. A build of one project can kick off a build of it’s dependents and some blocking strategies can prevent wild numbers of extra builds being generated. Bamboo does not provide any tie in between dependency triggering and build artifacts – sharing artifacts between projects is left to the team to figure out with an external tool such as Anthillproache Maven.

Anthillpro: Support for dependency relationships between projects out‐of‐the‐box. AnthillPro provides a rich set of features for relating projects together. Large projects often have tens
or hundreds of dependencies on sub‐projects, common libraries and third party libraries. At build time the dependency system can calculate which projects need to be rebuilt based on changes coming in from source control. At build time, artifacts from dependency projects are provided to the dependants with version traceability and tracking.

AnthillPro provides highly customizable build scheduling and artifact sharing to these projects. In a “pull” model, anytime a top level project is built, it’s dependencies are inspected to see if they are up‐to‐date. If not, they are first built, then the top level project is built. In a “push” model, builds of dependencies will trigger builds of their dependents. AnthillPro interprets the dependency grAnthillproh to avoid extra builds or premature builds. In the case of Maven projects, AnthillPro can simply provide the scheduling or cooperate with Maven to provide traceable artifact reuse.

Summary

While both tools have a lot of similarities, AnthillPro’s Lifecycle Management, Dependency Management, and full featured Security cAnthillproabilities set it Anthillproart. Only AnthillPro supports
complete end‐to‐end traceability across all the phases of Build, Deploy, Test, and Release. While Bamboo is likely an effective team level continuous integration server, AnthillPro is a proven solution for enterprises looking to automate the full lifecycle of a build. For build and release automation the technology leader since 2001 is AnthillPro. We were
the first to release a Build Management Server. We were the first to recognize the need for comprehensive lifecycle management (beyond just build management), and we were the
first to release features required to deliver on the vision. We have been very successful at enterprise level RFPs and have added hundreds of customers including some of the leading banks, insurance companies, and high‐technology companies in the world. Our dedication to solving the problems faced by our customers means that we are very responsive to feature and enhancement requests with turn around times measured in days or weeks instead of months and quarters. Urbancode delivers the leading product in its space, the expertise to roll it out, and caring support for our customers to ensure their continued success.

The post Anthillpro Comparison with Atlassian Bamboo – Continuous Integration Tools Review appeared first on scmGalaxy.

What is Maven 2?
Maven 2.0 is a complete rewrite of the ‘original’ Maven application (‘Maven 1’). As such, it is very different from Maven 1, and not backwards-compatible (eg, it cannot execute Maven 1 plugins). However, Maven 2.0 is the latest stable release of the Maven application, and new users are generally encouraged to use it for all new projects.
If you are familiar with Maven 1, you can find some information about moving to Maven 2 here or on the main Maven site.

Maven 1
To access the repository from your project, add the following line to your project.properties or build.properties.
maven.repo.remote=http://download.java.net/maven/1/,http://www.ibiblio.org/maven/

Maven 2
For Maven2, one needs to add the following into a project’s pom.xml, or into conf/settings.xml // (NOT in mirrors/mirror) where Maven2 is installed:

java.net
http://download.java.net/maven/1
legacy

Maven 2 Lifecycles

Lifecycles are groupings of goals that define a process for building a project. Goals are bound to lifecycles to define a sequence that must be accomplished to produce results. Lifecycles ensure that users building projects with Maven only need to learn a small set of commands. Whereas Maven defines a default set of goals for each typical lifecycle, developers can bind additional goals to lifecycles to transparently add functionality to a build.
Typical lifecycles include:

• compile—compile the source code
• test—unit test the compiled source.

Note: Unit tests should not require the classes to be packaged or deployed.

• package—bundle the compile and tested source code into a distributable package, such as a jar or war.
• integration-test—employ the package as necessary and run integration tests.
• install—install the package into the local repository. This allows the package to be utilized as a dependency of other projects.
• deploy—copies the final package into the remote repositories for sharing and use with other projects.

As you can see, each lifecycle depends upon and builds upon the next. As a result, when a goal is bound to the compile lifecycle, all lifecycles will ensure its execution.
Lifecycles can be executed in conjunction with standalone goals. For instance, commonly the clean:clean goal is executed before the install goal. This is done by invoking:

m2 clean:clean install

Native Multiproject Support

One of the best practices that Maven strongly encourages is the idea that a single project should result in a single artifact, or package, being created. This best practice results in simplified builds and organized project structures. By natively supporting a hierarchical structure of projects, Maven now makes developing enterprise projects which implement this approach easier.
Maven 1 included a plugin for working with related of projects—or multiprojects. Maven 2 takes multiproject builds a step further by including a specialized parent descriptor and native multiproject execution support. As a result, any goals or lifecycles invoked upon a multiproject POM will result in each subproject goal being achieved.

Other Enhancements

Several other changes are included in Maven 2. Maven has been rewritten to be smaller and faster. The architectural changes make embedding Maven into other tools easier and allows for faster command line execution. Maven 2 depends upon fewer dependencies, resulting in a smaller distribution.
The way extensions are made to Maven has been changed in Maven 2. Instead, developers are encouraged to utilize JavaBeans for enhancements. Whereas scripting is allowed (through marmalade support—which includes a jelly facade), it is no longer the tool of choice. All extensions are made through the development of plugins (projects can no longer be customized through scripting in the maven.xml).
The introduction of a settings.xml file replaces the need for properties files. The settings file can be defined at a system, user, or project level. Settings are used to define private configuration information, including usernames and passwords. Project properties (including plugin configuration) are now all defined in the pom.xml.

Understanding Maven 2 Project Types

The first step to creating a maven project is determining which project template, or archetype, your Maven project should be configured as. Archetypes define which type of artifact will be produced by a project. Several archetype templates exist. The standard archetype will produce a standard library jar file. Templates also exist for webapps/wars, Maven plugin projects, documentation Web sites, and more.

Creating Project Descriptors

The archetype:create goal can be utilized to create a basic pom.xml for you project. This basic POM will allow you to execute all of the lifecycles and goals associated with any maven project. The archetype:create goal should be executed as follows:

m2 archetype:create -DgroupdId=com.daviddewolf.maven -DartifactId=example

This simple command creates the basic infrastructure needed for a project. It creates the pom.xml as well as the basic directory structure of for both source and test code. The following structure indicates the directories and files produced by issuing the archetype:goal command as listed above.

+ root

  - pom.xml

  + src

    + main

      + java

        + com

          + daviddewolf

            + maven

              + example

                - App.java

    + test

      + java

        + com

          + daviddewolf

            + maven

              + example

                - TestApp.java

This simple structure that is created is enough to get started with Maven. All of the lifecycles now can be utilized. A simple invocation of the install lifecycle will compile, test, and package the application and then deploy it to the local system repository for use by other projects.
Once created, the POM can be customized to meet the requirements of the specific project. Documentation on the Maven POM can be found on the Maven2 Web site.

Goals You Should Know About

The introduction of lifecycles in Maven 2 has greatly reduced the number of goals that a developer must be aware of. Still, the following goals will undoubtedly be found useful (and can be utilized as soon as the basic descriptor has been generated).

• clean:clean Clean all artifacts and intermediary files created by Maven
• idea:idea Generate project files for the IntelliJ IDEA IDE
• eclipse:eclipse Generate project files for the Eclipse IDE
• javadoc:javadoc Generate the javadocs for the project
• antrun:run Run a specified ant target
• clover:clover Generate a coverage report for the project
• checkstyle:checkstyle Generate a checkstyle report for the project
• site:site Generate a documentation Web site for the project. This site will include many information reports concerning the project.

For more information concerning these and other goals, see the Maven2 Web site.
Conclusions
Learning Maven is not difficult; it simply requires a willingness to accept a new philosophy for building applications. Maven utilizes a a centralized project descriptor to intelligently build applications with prebuilt build tools. This differs greatly from ant and other build tools in that project developers are no longer required to write build systems by using a comprehensive set of utilities. This change will save development teams significant time and has started a revolution in build tools.
It is important to remember that Maven2 is still currently only released as Beta Software. Although it is mature enough to utilize in most projects, all of the Maven 1 plugins have not yet been migrated to Maven 2. With time, Maven 2 will become more widely accepted and the number of available plugins will grow beyond what is even available in Maven 1.
Reference:
http://www.developer.com/open/print.php/10930_3552026_2
http://www.sonatype.com/books/maven-book/reference/installation-sect-upgrade-detail.html

The post Difference between Maven 1 and Maven 2 | Maven 1 Vs Maven 2 appeared first on scmGalaxy.