Tony's Tech Terms: Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a practice where we frequently merge code changes into a shared repository, allowing us to automatically test each update to ensure it integrates smoothly with the existing code. This approach helps us detect and resolve issues early, reducing the risk of major problems and speeding up the development process. CI enables us to focus more on building new features rather than fixing integration issues.

Currently, we use two tools for CI: Drone CI and GitHub Actions. Drone CI, an open-source platform, offers flexibility and extensive customization but requires us to maintain our own instance. GitHub Actions, built into GitHub, provides a convenient solution with pre-built workflows for teams already using GitHub for code management. Since some of our applications have moved to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, Drone can no longer run tests on them. Therefore, we are transitioning all applications to use GitHub Actions. Once this transition is complete, we can decommission the servers running Drone.