Build a LabVIEW app

Create or log in to your GitHub account. Make sure your email is verified.

Click on the New button next to Repositories:

On the Create a new repository screen, fill out the Repository name and Description:

Click Create repository to create the repository.

Repeat steps 2-4 using the below information. This will be the repository for the actual example application.

Repeat steps 2-4 with the following information. This will be used to host images for diffing.

Open a terminal with Git. If you installed Git Bash on Windows, open Git Bash:

Create a local directory to maintain your Jenkins files. For this example, we’ll be using the C:/Users/<User>/Documents/GitHub directory. To create and navigate to this directory, run the following commands:

cd “C:/Users/<User>/Documents”

mkdir GitHub

cd GitHub

Run the following command (using the URL copied from Step 5) to copy the Git repository and its contents onto your machine (You can also obtain the HTTPS URL of the repository by clicking on the Copy button on the GitHub repository page):

git clone https://github.com/<Organization Name>/<Repository Name>.git

Repeat Step 9 for the myApplication repository.

In Windows Explorer, place the contents of ../myBuildsystem from the example files located here in the ../myBuildSystem directory located on your machine:

Navigate to the directory in the Git terminal, and run the following command to add all files within the directory to the Git repository:

cd “C:/Users/<User>/Documents/GitHub/<Repository Name>”
git add .

Run the git commit command to commit all changes and add a comment. If you can’t run the command because you’re missing credentials, you can set them:

git config --global user.email <<Your GitHub Email>>
git config --global user.name <<Your GitHub Username>>
git commit -m “Added files”

Run the git push command to push all committed changes to the remote repository (i.e. GitHub). After this step, the repository will contain all necessary components we will need for this example.

git push origin master

Next, we’ll perform similar steps to set up the example application repository. In Windows Explorer, place the contents of ../myApplication from the example files located here in the ../myApplication directory located on your machine:

Open up Jenkinsfile in the ../myApplication directory. Change the lvVersion and lvBitness variables according to which version of LabVIEW you are using. For instance, with LabVIEW 2018 32-bit, your Jenkinsfile will look like this:

Run the commands from steps 12-14, this time for the myApplication repository:

cd <<myApplication directory>>
git add .
git commit -m "Added files"
git push origin master

On the GitHub website, click on your Avatar >> Settings

On the left-hand side of the Settings page, click on Developer Settings

Click on Personal access tokens >> Generate new token.

Enter a descriptive name for the token, such as ‘Jenkins LabVIEW Token’, and select the repo scope.

At the bottom of the page, click Generate token.

Copy down your Personal access token. This is your only chance to copy the token. Keep your access token safe, so others can’t access your GitHub.

Install Jenkins based on your Operating System using the help, and navigate to the address of your Jenkins server in your browser. A few additional notes (all of which are already mentioned in the aforementioned Jenkins help):

When prompted to Customize Jenkins, select the Select plugins to install option. Here, make sure the following Plugins are selected:

Click Install at the bottom of the page to install the plugins.

Once plugins are complete, you’ll be prompted to create a user. Enter your credentials and click Save and Continue.

On the following Instance Configuration page, leave the Jenkins URL as-is.

Click Start using Jenkins to begin your Jenkins configuration.

From the Jenkins dashboard, navigate to the system configuration page: Manage Jenkins >> Configure System

Navigate to the Global properties section.

Check the Environment variables box to display the List of variables.

Click Add to add a new environment variable. Fill out the Name as shown below (BUILD_SYSTEM_REPO), and enter myBuildSystem in the Value field:

Click Add another time and add the LV_BUILD_OUTPUT_DIR environment variable. This should be an empty local directory anywhere on your computer, that LabVIEW will build and output files to. For instance, you may use something like C:\Windows\Temp\jenkins.

Click Add two more times to add the ORG_NAME variable and the PIC_REPO variable. The value fields for these variables should be your organization’s name (instead of ‘branchNI’) and myPicRepo, respectively. These are the two repositories we created in the GitHub Setup section. Your Environment variables section should look like this:

Click Save at the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

Now, navigate to the Credentials page: Jenkins Dashboard >> Credentials >> System >> Global credentials >> Add credentials

Use the following settings, entering your GitHub access token as the ‘Secret’ field.

On the main Jenkins dashboard: Manage Jenkins >> Configure System

Under the Global Pipeline Libraries section, click Add and fill out the credentials for the myBuildSystem repository. Make sure to check the Load implicitly checkbox. Your options should look like this:

Now, we’ll want to select the Retrieval method. For this example, we’ll use Modern SCM. Select the Modern SCM radio button, followed by the GitHub radio button under Source Code Management:

Start by adding Credentials. Click the Add dropdown next to the credentials field >> Jenkins.

On the Jenkins Credentials Provider screen, leave the default options, and enter your GitHub Username. The Password will be your GitHub Access Token. Click Add once the credentials are filled out.

Once the credentials are created, select them from the Credentials dropdown.

Fill out the Owner field and select myBuildSystem from the Repository dropdown. Leave the other options as-is. Your fields should look like this:

Click Save at the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

From the Jenkins dashboard, select New Item. Enter a name for the item and select GitHub Organization.

Click OK to create the item. You will be redirected to the configuration page.

Under the Projects section:

Make sure the Script Path value is Jenkinsfile. Your Projects section should look like this:

Under the Scan Organization Triggers section, select the Interval that you want Jenkins to scan your repository for changes. If Jenkins detects a change, it will initiate the testing and diffing process. For this example, we will use 10 minutes.

Click Save to save your changes. Through this pipeline, Jenkins will now scan your repository based on the interval you just configured.