Build and Deploy
The application should be first built and deployed to become available to end-users in the form of a website.
During the build process, all the items prepared with the builder are compiled and packaged into a distribution file used later during deployment.
During the deployment process, the application distribution file built earlier is starting on a dedicated Docker container.
Publish
During the Publish process, the Build and Deploy operations are performed in consecutive order. The publishing process takes around 30-40 seconds. You may track the publishing process by the red success bar at the top of the builder.
If you have more than one container for the builder, the application will be deployed to the development container by default. To select another container(s), hover over the Publish button, and in the following submenu, click Edit. Then put the checkboxes near the apps you want to deploy the image to. Finish by clicking the Publish button from the pop-up window.
To build an app without publishing it, click on the downside arrow on the Publish button and select the Build option. In the same way, you can do deploy without a build operation.
Build
Any contributor user can start build. You may track the progress by watching the corresponding task on the right sidebar. The whole build process consists of several steps such as building custom blocks, compiling application classes, preparing data of system instances, preparing custom resource files, gathering all resources together, and archiving them into a single distribution file. You may always get info of the last performed build, just activate a tooltip popup over the Publish button.
Deploy
To deploy, you should be a contributor with deployment rights. Furthermore, you need to have an active container available for the application. If either of the conditions is not satisfied, you may need to go to Dashboard and change configuration settings or ask your company administrator to do it for you.
The deployment consists of several steps, including stopping the application and Docker container if it is currently running, starting the container with the latest distribution file, and periodic checking whether the application has become available online. Note that the application is unavailable during the deployment process.
If the Docker container is running again, you will get a signal of positive task completion.
When starting deployment, you are asked about what to do with seed instances created in the builder. If it is the first time that you deploy the application, then, of course, all instances should be synced in a simple, straightforward way. On the other hand, if it is not the first deployment, you need to think about which instances to update and which should be left unaffected. There are three options for this:
- Update just read-only instances (those which cannot be changed in the application).
- Force update of all seed instances.
- Update seed instances selected manually. In that case, after clicking on the Select data type instances to update... link, you should select one or more instances you want to update.
If you delete seed instances in the builder, they will remain unchanged in the application. During the next deployment, they become deleted from the application as well.