Add support to Gitlab CI

[ak4t0sh]

As suggested by @danielneis in open-lms-open-source/moodle-plugin-ci#13 it could be really usefull to add Gitlab CI support :)

[adpe]

We're using it right now in our GitLab CI/CD and it works!

[kabalin]

@adpe would be great if you could show an example of .gitlab-ci.yml content. If you have more time, PR with instruction for our docs would be really appreciated 😄

[adpe]

Hello @kabalin

Here is an example https://gist.github.com/adpe/834c741156edd6a6403eebe148a0ecec, but pay attention. It's not up-to-date. And as I noticed today at work, the Behat tests can't be run. The rest seems still to work.

The problem is mainly, that from within the moodlehq/moodle-php-apache the docker image selenium can't be started.

I'm now figuring out Behat tests can be run in another service container, and moodle-plugin-ci behat would run instead in this container as in the container running the php image.

Maybe you have some idea, how to do that?

Greets,
Adrian

[aspark21]

I've seen some which work for a particular plugin but apply it to another one it rarely does work.

I also think it would be good to have one well structured to allow for runs to happen in parallel - phpunit, behat & the rest - at least.

But also Travis was useful for matrixes of Moodle version, db engine, php versions - that I have never seen in a gitlab-ci.yml for Moodle yet

I think Gitlab would be worth the effort because there is some free runners one can use but more importantly any dev can setup a runner on a spare machine under the desk, cheap cloud server or roaring number crunching beast depending on their budget - https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/index.html

[adpe]

Hi @aspark21

With different job definitions you could achieve the same as the matrix approach.

Does somebody have Behat working in a GitLab CI/CD environment?

Greets
Adrian

[adpe]

Hi @marinaglancy

I've seen that you have Behat setup in this repository https://github.com/moodleworkplace/moodle-mod_coursecertificate/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml

But I've problems to set up Behat for my plugin.

Output:

$ moodle-plugin-ci behat --suite default --profile chrome
 RUN  Behat features for local_<plugin-name>
In BehatCommand.php line 130:
                                                        
  Docker is not available, can't start Selenium server  
                                                        
behat [-m|--moodle MOODLE] [-p|--profile PROFILE] [--suite SUITE] [--start-servers] [--auto-rerun AUTO-RERUN] [--dump] [--] [<plugin>]

Any hints? I'm using the moodlehq/moodle-php-apache:7.4 image and Behat is set up successful:

[debug] Enabling Behat
  RUN  php -d log_errors=1 -d error_log=NULL /var/www/html/moodle/admin/tool/behat/cli/util_single_run.php --enable --add-core-features-to-theme
  OUT  Creating Behat configuration ... done in 4.13 seconds.
  OUT  Building theme CSS for boost [ltr] ... done in 2.09 seconds.
  OUT  Building theme CSS for classic [ltr] ... done in 1.67 seconds.
  OUT  Testing environment themes built
  OUT  Acceptance tests environment enabled on http://localhost:8000, to run the tests use: 
  OUT  vendor/bin/behat --config /builds/ffhs-it-services/moodle/moodledata/behat_moodledata/behatrun/behat/behat.yml
  OUT  [info] Install completed
  RES  Command ran successfully
$ moodle-plugin-ci phplint

Really appreciate any hints and help!

Greets
Adrian

[scara]

Hi @adpe,
what is your GL CI?
I never used the GL CI but if I look at the very start of Marina's CI code:

image: moodlehq/moodle-workplace-plugin-ci:7.3

services:
  - postgres:9.6
  #- mysql:5.7.26
  - name: selenium/standalone-chrome:3
    alias: selenium-standalone-chrome

variables:

Among the services there is the selenium image too.

Wondering if the moodle-plugin-ci code in the image above has been customized to avoid calling the Docker Engine stuff if the "service" has been already provided: you could try using that moodlehq/moodle-workplace-plugin-ci image too.

HTH,
Matteo

[adpe]

Hi @scara

I've included this service as well the MOODLE_BEHAT_WDHOST variable. I think there must be some customization made behind the scenes.

Greets
Adrian

[scara]

Hi @adpe,
thanks for the follow up: it would be helpful for the others falling into the same issue 👍 😃.

I think there must be some customization made behind the scenes.

Not quite, since it is supported in the standard moodle-plugin-ci too.
It looks like the service.alias does the magic (DNS) and the ENV VAR set it properly into the plugin.

I still believe that one customization in the workplace flavour is to (optionally?) avoid creating the selenium instance: it would be nice if that feature could be ported into the standard version, here, to help CI scenarios like the one related to GL.

HTH,
Matteo

[adpe]

Yep @scara - you're right. It tries actually to run the tests and not starting any more new Selenium server instance. Now I get following output:

Behat requirement not satisfied: http://localhost:8000/behatrun1 is not available, ensure you specified correct url and that the server is set up and started.
.
.
.
Behat requirement not satisfied: http://localhost:8000/behatrun2 is not available, ensure you specified correct url and that the server is set up and started.
.
.
.
Behat requirement not satisfied: http://localhost:8000/behatrun3 is not available, ensure you specified correct url and that the server is set up and started.
.
.
.
Exit codes for each behat run: 
behatrun1: 251
behatrun2: 251
behatrun3: 251

It's still not working and I tried different approaches. We're using our own infrastructure running GitLab and the GitLab Runners. Would good if @marinaglancy could assist me, so that we can provide a clean and good solution for the Moodle developers out there.

Greets
Adrian

[kabalin]

I think there must be some customization made behind the scenes.

Here is behind the scenes part of moodlehq/moodle-workplace-plugin-ci that should make things clear for you:

export TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR="$CI_PROJECT_DIR"

if [[ "$DB" == "mysqli" ]]; then
    export DB_HOST="mysql"
elif [[ "$DB" == "pgsql" ]]; then
    export DB_HOST="postgres"
else
    export DB_HOST="$DB"
fi

export IPADDRESS=`grep "${HOSTNAME}$" /etc/hosts |awk '{print $1}'`
export MOODLE_BEHAT_WWWROOT="http://${IPADDRESS}:8000"
export MOODLE_START_BEHAT_SERVERS="NO"

Docker image is extending moodlehq/moodle-php-apache:${php} and adds workplace specific CI stuff, it also downloads moodle-plugin-ci as part of image build process using standard approach (composer create-project ....) to reduce test running time, I am sure with above configuration you can use moodlehq/moodle-php-apache image directly in your .gitlab-ci.yml.

[adpe]

Thanks @kabalin

Right now I'm using the workplace image to reduce the amount of errors and to get it finally run. But it's not working. This is my actual .gitlab-ci.yml file https://gist.github.com/adpe/06ffdc70751bc5b626d69d247193e59b.

As I understand, I don't must care about the variables you are exporting right now in the workplage image. I must only add these to my file, if I'll use the default moodlehq/moodle-php-apache:${php} image.

Do you see any errors on my actual file?

Greets
Adrian

[adpe]

I've seen some which work for a particular plugin but apply it to another one it rarely does work.

I also think it would be good to have one well structured to allow for runs to happen in parallel - phpunit, behat & the rest - at least.

But also Travis was useful for matrixes of Moodle version, db engine, php versions - that I have never seen in a gitlab-ci.yml for Moodle yet

I think Gitlab would be worth the effort because there is some free runners one can use but more importantly any dev can setup a runner on a spare machine under the desk, cheap cloud server or roaring number crunching beast depending on their budget - https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/index.html

By the way. I've seen today that GitLab.com offers a CI/CD connection for external repositories:

Greets
Adrian

[adpe]

I've now a working solution using the moodle-php-apache image and updated the given gist I mentioned earlier (https://gist.github.com/adpe/834c741156edd6a6403eebe148a0ecec). After so many investigation time I don't have yet motivation and time to document this @kabalin.

Hope that helps others as well!

Greets
Adrian

[kabalin]

Many thanks @adpe for investigation work and working example! Now we have a good starting point to make it recorded in docs one day and create .gitlab-ci.dist.yml for GitLab users.