Setting a unique build number in Jenkins using either yarn or npm from the command line - here's how!

Question

Setting a unique build number in Jenkins using either yarn or npm from the command line - here's how!

I'm fairly new to the world of nodejs and I am currently working on automating the regular build of a UI application using Jenkins. I have encountered a challenge with setting the 'build number' part of the version from the command line before the actual build process.

I intend to adhere to the guidelines provided at https://semver.org/ in order to achieve a resulting version number format like so:

1.2.0-dev.235

Where

1.2.0 - represent the versions defined by developers and committed into the Version Control System (VCS).
dev.235 - is the tag that is automatically generated during the build process, indicating that 'dev' is the branch name and '235' is the build number assigned by Jenkins.

Up to this point, I have only been able to find a standard method of explicitly setting the 'build number' without affecting the 'major.minor.patch' components of the version number.

It would be ideal to have a single command line option for accomplishing this, similar to the following example:

yarn build --build-number dev.235

Is there a way for me to achieve this task?

jenkins npm yarnpkg

Answer 1

Answer №1

Since I couldn't find an 'officially good' answer, I decided to create a workaround that works for me.

Here is how I tackled the issue...

1) Create a script in Jenkins (using a "Execute shell" step):

yarn install
node prebuild.js $MYPRJ_BUILD_NUMBER
yarn build

2) The prebuild.js script reads values from package.json and build environment variables (like MYPRD_BUILD_NUMBER) to generate a file named src/buildNumber.ts with initial content:

// Caution: This file will be re-generated on the build server
export const APP_VERSION: string = "0.0.0";
export const APP_BUILD_NUMBER: string = "localDev";

Contents of prebuild.js:

var fs = require('fs');
var package = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('package.json', 'utf8'));
var version = package.version
var args = process.argv.slice(2);
var buildNumber = args[0] || process.env.MYPRJ_BUILD_NUMBER || 'localDev'
var buildNumberFn = "./src/buildNumber.ts";
var buildNumberTs = 
    "// Warning: this will be re-generated on build server\n" + 
    "export const APP_VERSION: string = \"" + version + "\";\n" + 
    "export const APP_BUILD_NUMBER: string = \"" + buildNumber + "\";\n"

fs.writeFileSync(buildNumberFn, buildNumberTs);
console.info("Generated into " + buildNumberFn + "\n: " + buildNumberTs);

3) The generated build number can now be imported and used in the application just like any other JavaScript code:

import * as appVersion from './buildNumber';

function showVersion(backendVersion) {
    const version = document.createElement('div');
    version.style.cssText = "position: fixed; top: 0; right: 0; font: 9px Arial; color: gray; color: lightgrey; z-index: 1000; padding: 0 7px;";
    version.textContent = "UI: " + appVersion.APP_VERSION + "-" + appVersion.APP_BUILD_NUMBER + ", Server: " + backendVersion;
    document.body.appendChild(version);
}

Answer 2

Since I couldn't find an 'officially good' answer, I decided to create a workaround that works for me.

Here is how I tackled the issue...

1) Create a script in Jenkins (using a "Execute shell" step):

yarn install
node prebuild.js $MYPRJ_BUILD_NUMBER
yarn build

2) The prebuild.js script reads values from package.json and build environment variables (like MYPRD_BUILD_NUMBER) to generate a file named src/buildNumber.ts with initial content:

// Caution: This file will be re-generated on the build server
export const APP_VERSION: string = "0.0.0";
export const APP_BUILD_NUMBER: string = "localDev";

Contents of prebuild.js:

var fs = require('fs');
var package = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('package.json', 'utf8'));
var version = package.version
var args = process.argv.slice(2);
var buildNumber = args[0] || process.env.MYPRJ_BUILD_NUMBER || 'localDev'
var buildNumberFn = "./src/buildNumber.ts";
var buildNumberTs = 
    "// Warning: this will be re-generated on build server\n" + 
    "export const APP_VERSION: string = \"" + version + "\";\n" + 
    "export const APP_BUILD_NUMBER: string = \"" + buildNumber + "\";\n"

fs.writeFileSync(buildNumberFn, buildNumberTs);
console.info("Generated into " + buildNumberFn + "\n: " + buildNumberTs);

3) The generated build number can now be imported and used in the application just like any other JavaScript code:

import * as appVersion from './buildNumber';

function showVersion(backendVersion) {
    const version = document.createElement('div');
    version.style.cssText = "position: fixed; top: 0; right: 0; font: 9px Arial; color: gray; color: lightgrey; z-index: 1000; padding: 0 7px;";
    version.textContent = "UI: " + appVersion.APP_VERSION + "-" + appVersion.APP_BUILD_NUMBER + ", Server: " + backendVersion;
    document.body.appendChild(version);
}

Setting a unique build number in Jenkins using either yarn or npm from the command line - here's how!

Answer №1

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