A guide to using the Jazz Team Build feature in Rational Team Concert
Veena H. Balakrishnaiah (veena.balakrishna@in.ibm.com), Build and Release Engineer, IBM
Summary: Veena H. Balakrishnaiah gives an overview of how to configure source control and Jazz Team Build components of Rational Team Concert to define and manage your build. Jazz builds run against files that come from a designated build repository workspace and include traceability between change sets and work items. Jazz Team Builds provide support for the automation, monitoring, and awareness of a team's regular builds.
This article originally appeared at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/create-software-builds-jazz-team-build/index.html?ca=drs-
2. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
designated build repository workspace that has incoming flows from the team's main
development stream.
Before running the build, all of the latest changes are accepted from the team's
stream and a reproducible snapshot of the files is created. The change sets and work
items included in the build are recorded to view.
Prerequisites
This article is based on these assumptions:
• The Rational Team Concert 3.0.1.3 server is already set up, and you have
access to the server through Rational Team Concert Eclipse client.
• The required source code for build is present in the Rational Team Concert
project area source control
• The Build System Toolkit has been installed by using the IBM Installation
Manager.
Working with the repository workspace
1. Launch the Rational Team Concert Eclipse client.
2. Log in and connect to the existing repository connection, based on your team
invitation.
3. Connect to the existing project areas or create a new project area by using the
Scrum template.
4. Create a new repository workspace from the required stream of the source
control component, which acts has a local copy or development workspace
where the changes can be made on the repository files:
a. From the required stream, right-click and select New.
b. Choose Repository Workspace from the next menu, as shown in Figure
1.
c. Enter an appropriate name in the Repository Workspace Name field, and
click Next (Figure 2).
d. In next dialog windows, leave the default selections.
Note:
If you are not the administrator and not able to create the project area, send a
request to the Rational Team Concert project admin to create a project area with the
default Scrum template.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 2 of 23
3. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Figure 1. Source Control menus
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 3 of 23
4. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
Figure 2. Create a new repository workspace
5. Select the components that need to be added to the My Repository Workspace.
If you want all of the components to be added, choose the Select All option or
select the components one by one, based on the requirement, and click Finish
(see Figure 3).
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 4 of 23
5. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Figure 3. Select components to add to the new repository workspace
6. From the list of options in the Load Repository Workspace window, select an
option to load the selected components that you selected in the previous step,
and click Next, as shown in Figure 4.
Note:
If you choose "Load the root folders of the components as projects" (Figure 4), the
root folder is the name of the component in Rational Team Concert source control. It
is left to you to select the other loading options, based on how the project folders are
defined.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 5 of 23
6. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
7. After choosing one of the load options, you will prompted to select which folders
of each component need to be loaded into the Eclipse workspace, as shown in
the Load Repository Workspace view in Figure 5.
Figure 4. Load all of the projects within the components
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 6 of 23
7. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Figure 5. Folders to load into the Eclipse workspace
8. To view the component that is loaded, navigate toward the lower right section of
the Eclipse client window. Right-click the component name, select Show, and
choose Repository Files to view all files and folders in that component.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 7 of 23
8. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
Figure 6. Repository component expanded to list repository files
9. Expand the folders to view the desired file. Right-click on the file, and click
Open Local file to open it in edit mode. If you simply want to view the file,
double-click on the filename.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 8 of 23
9. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Figure 7. Open the local repository file to make changes
10. Make necessary code changes to the file, Save and close the file.
11. Click the Pending Changes tab, and expand the folder.
12. Right-click on the modified file, and then select Check-in and Deliver to
integrate the changes with the main stream of Rational Team Concert source
control. Add a comment as necessary in comment section.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 9 of 23
10. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
Figure 8: Check-in and Deliver option on the Pending Changes menu
13. To deliver the changes, the file has to be associated with a Rational Team
Concert work item. If a work item is already created, choose Select an existing
work item option; otherwise, select Create a work item so you can associate
the changes that you made, as shown in Figure 9.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 10 of 23
11. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Figure 9. Associating changes with a work item
14. While you are creating a work item, fill in all of the mandatory fields, including
Summary and Filed Against, and then click Finish, as shown in Figure10.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 11 of 23
12. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
Figure 10. New Work Item dialog window
Changes will be reflected in the main integration stream of the connected project
area's source control, and they will be associated with the work item that you created.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 12 of 23
13. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Using the Rational Team Concert Builds component
1. To create a new build engine, expand Builds, right-click on Build Engines, and
select New Build Engine.
2. In the New Build Engine dialog window (Figure 11), enter the ID, which will be
the build engine name. From "Available build engine types," select Jazz Build
Engine and then click Finish.
Figure 11. Available build engine types
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 13 of 23
14. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
3. After you save the build engine configuration, because the Jazz Build Engine
is not running, you will see this warning: The build engine process may not be
running.
a. Run the Jazz Build Engine (JBE) from the command line in the Build
System Toolkit installation directory (words in italics vary according to your
environment):
Usage: jbe -vm "location of Java developer kit"
–repository repository URL -userId build username
-pass build user password -engineId
BuildEngine_Identifier
b. To create an encrypted password file, from the command line type
(pass.txt can be any filename):
jbe -createPasswordFile pass.txt
c. When prompted, type the password. The password is encrypted and
stored in a pass.txt file that is located in the Build System Toolkit
installation directory.
Usage: jbe -vm "location of Java developer kit"
–repository repository URL -userId build username
-passwordFile build user password file -engineId BuildEngine_Identifier
Note:
Location of Java developer kit is the path of the jdk folder included in the Rational
Team Concert Eclipse client download.
Figure 12. Run the Jazz Build Engine from the command line with the
encrypted password file
Note:
After the build engine is created, it gets displayed under Builds in the Build Engine
view of the project area.
4. To create the new build definition, right-click Builds, and select New Build
Definition.
5. In the New Build Definition window, choose the available build templates from
the list based on the build tool used for the builds, as shown in Figure 13.
• If you are using Ant as build tool, the build template will be Ant-Jazz Build
Engine.
• If you are using any other tool or scripting language, choose Command
Line-Jazz Build Engine, so you will be able to run scripts or commands to
run a build.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 14 of 23
15. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Figure 13. Creating a build definition with Command Line - Jazz Build Engine
6. In this step, you will be prompted to customize the build definition based on the
option that you chose in Step 5. Select Jazz Source Control if customization is
required, and click Finish.
7. Enter the respective details in the Build Definition dialog window:
a. Under the Overview tab, select the build engine that is created by clicking
the Edit button. If you want to create new build engine, click on the Create
button.
b. Under the Schedule tab, define the scheduled timing based on which build
definition will be executed.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 15 of 23
16. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
c. Under the Properties tab (Figure 14), add the name and values of the
property as demanded by build scripts.
Figure 14. Properties tab of the Build Definition dialog window
8. Still in Build Definition window, if you have chosen Jazz Source Control as
mentioned in Step 6, fill in the Workspace and Load Directory fields, as shown
in Figure 15:
a. For Build Workspace, click Select, and choose the workspace or stream
from the drop-down menu.
b. In the Load Directory field, mention the absolute directory where the local
copy of the stream has to be loaded.
• Choose Delete directory before loading if the folder already exists
and needs to be deleted before loading.
• Choose Create folders for components if the folder has to be
created for each component, which resolves conflict when the folder
name for two or more components is same.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 16 of 23
17. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
c. Under the Accept Options section, to accept the changes automatically
before loading, click both check boxes listed.
Note:
If you want to create builds on a snapshot instead of working on the main stream,
create a snapshot from the stream:
• Right-click on the stream, select New, and choose Snapshot.
• Later, in the Jazz Source Control tab, select the snapshot that you have created
rather than the stream.
Figure 15. Jazz Source Control tab of the Build Definition view
9. In the Command Line tab of the Build Definition window shown in Figure 16:
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 17 of 23
18. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
a. Enter the build script or build file or the build command in the Command
field. This script or command will be invoked when users request a build.
b. In the Arguments field, enter the command line arguments, if any.
c. In the Working directory field, enter the working directory to be used by the
invoked command.
d. If any external properties file that the build is using, mention the file name
in Properties file field.
Note:
In the Command field, you can directly specify the Ant file (build.xml) or any script
that invokes Ant.
Figure 16. Command Line tab of the Build Definition
10. After you have entered all information in the Build Definition tabs, Save the
definition.
11. To request a build, right-click on the build definition that you created, and select
Request Build from the drop-down menu.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 18 of 23
19. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
12. In the Request Build window, Browse for the build engine created under Build
options. Mention the build properties, if any, in Build Properties, and click
Submit.
Figure 17. Request a build with the available build engine
Note:
For the build to be started, make sure that the Jazz Build Engine (JBE) is running
with the same username as the owner of the workspace.
13. The build starts with loading the source files to the local build machine and then
executes the build command.
14. After the build is finished, the screen displays details, along with log file (Figure
18).
Tip:
If work item needs to be created, you can do it by clicking Create Work item or
Associate on existing work item.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 19 of 23
20. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
Figure 18. Rational Team Concert summary of the build status
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 20 of 23
21. ibm.com/developerWorks/ developerWorks®
Resources
Learn
• More about Rational Team Concert:
• Find Rational Team Concert articles and links to many other resources on
IBM developerWorks, and check the product overview page, features and
benefits, system requirements, and the user information center.
• Check the Rational Team Concert page on Jazz.net.
• Watch the Using Rational Team Concert in a globally distributed team
webcast or a demonstration of the Dashboards and reports, or listen to the
podcast about IBM Rational Team Concert and Jazz.
• Visit the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources and
best practices for Rational Software Delivery Platform products.
• Subscribe to the developerWorks weekly email newsletter, and choose the
topics to follow. Stay current with developerWorks technical events and
webcasts focused on a variety of IBM products and IT industry topics.
• Attend a free developerWorks Live! briefing to get up-to-speed quickly on
IBM products and tools, as well as IT industry trends.
• Watch developerWorks on-demand demos, ranging from product
installation and setup demos for beginners to advanced functionality for
experienced developers.
• Improve your skills. Check the Rational training and certification catalog, which
includes many types of courses on a wide range of topics. You can take some
of them anywhere, any time, and many of the "Getting Started" ones are free.
Get products and technologies
• Download Rational Team Concert from Jazz.net and try it free on up to 10
projects for as long as you want (requires registration). If you would prefer, you
can try it in the sandbox instead, without installing it on your own system.
• Evaluate IBM software in the way that suits you best: Download it for a trial,
try it online, use it in a cloud environment, or spend a few hours in the SOA
Sandbox learning how to implement service-oriented architecture efficiently.
Discuss
• Rate or review Rational software. It's quick and easy.
• Share your knowledge and help others who use Rational software by writing a
developerWorks article. Find out what makes a good developerWorks article
and how to proceed.
• Follow Rational software on Facebook, Twitter (@ibmrational), and YouTube,
and add your comments and requests.
• Ask and answer questions and increase your expertise when you get involved
in the Rational forums, cafés, and wikis.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 21 of 23
22. developerWorks® ibm.com/developerWorks/
• Get connected. Join the Rational community to share your Rational software
expertise and get connected with your peers.
Create software builds with Jazz Team Build Page 22 of 23