plugins in jenkins

[Punit Jain]

hi i wanted to know, how to create plugins in jenkins, and also what plugins can do?
any example and all?
please consider me new to jenkins.

[Jaikiran Pai]

It's explained in their documentation here https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Extend+Jenkins

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

A plugin can do anything Jenkins can do. Maybe you want to block the configurations of jobs on Tuesdays. Now clearly you don't need to do that. But the need to create a plugin is usually driven by a problem you are trying to solve. Or by trying to support an open source tool. For example, emma support is built in. But if it wasn't the emma developers might have wanted to write a plugin.

[Punit Jain]

Thank you...

[Punit Jain]

i am just reading this:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Extend+Jenkins
it saying that to develop jenkins plugins i need to install maven, is it necessary?
i mean can i use Ant instead of maven?

[Peter Johnson]

If you know what you are doing, and are very familiar with Maven and Ant, then you can probably write Ant scripts to simulate what the Maven build would perform. If not, then you need to use Maven.

[Punit Jain]

Okay, Thank you.

[Punit Jain]

one more thing i wanted to know, it's not related to this subject, as you said:

Peter Johnson wrote: If you know what you are doing, and are very familiar with Maven and Ant, then you can probably write Ant scripts to simulate what the Maven build would perform

so my question is: we use jenkins to automate build process, that is the basic intention to use jenkins {as far as i know}, so is it also possible to automate all build process using Ant only?

Automate: I mean build the project continuously.

[Jaikiran Pai]

Punit Jain wrote:
so my question is: we use jenkins to automate build process, that is the basic intention to use jenkins {as far as i know}, so is it also possible to automate all build process using Ant only?

Automate: I mean build the project continuously.

Yes that should be possible. Jenkins is just a tool for continuous integration. You can develop your own tool which does the same (basic) things as Jenkins. In fact, long before Hudson (the previous name for Jenkins) became popular, in one of the projects I was involved in, we developed a simple tool which would schedule builds from a central server regularly and that project was using Ant (Maven wasn't in news those days).

[Punit Jain]

Jaikiran Pai wrote:

Punit Jain wrote:
so my question is: we use jenkins to automate build process, that is the basic intention to use jenkins {as far as i know}, so is it also possible to automate all build process using Ant only?

Automate: I mean build the project continuously.

Yes that should be possible. Jenkins is just a tool for continuous integration. You can develop your own tool which does the same (basic) things as Jenkins. In fact, long before Hudson (the previous name for Jenkins) became popular, in one of the projects I was involved in, we developed a simple tool which would schedule builds from a central server regularly and that project was using Ant (Maven wasn't in news those days).

okay, one more thing, is there any advantage of this?
i mean if i not use jenkins and i developed one plugin in ant for this, it has any advantage over jenkins?

[Peter Johnson]

One usually uses a tool that is meant for the task at hand. Think of Jenkins as a glorified cron system with a web interface. Thus if you want tasks performed on a schedule, Jenkins is an ideal fit. Ant on the other hand is a quasi scripting tools that specializes in building Java apps but can be used for a multitude of other tasks. Because scheduling jobs is not one of Ant's primary purpose, it is not that good of a fit for that kind of task.

[Punit Jain]

Okay, Thank you.