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2018-11-29 |
{:new_window: target="_blank"} {:shortdesc: .shortdesc} {:screen: .screen} {:codeblock: .codeblock} {:pre: .pre} {:tip: .tip} {:note: .note}
{: #development_process}
Cloud app developers pass through four fundamental phases in the development process: get started, code, deliver, and manage. The goal is to quickly produce a working app, and then use feedback from the production app to continuously iterate the code or deliver cycle until your app resonates with users. {: shortdesc}
Figure 1. Phases of the development process
In some cases, run is called out as a separate phase but is combined here with the Deliver and Manage phases.
Let's take a closer look at the best way to use {{site.data.keyword.cloud}} in your development flow.
{: #get_started}
Build your app from the {{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}} Developer dashboards, where you can select a starter kit that is related to your use case and choose a programming language. {{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}} uses instructions from the starter kit to automatically create the resources you need and to create a language-specific, runtime-independent app that is the basis for your production app. To complete the getting started phase, click Deploy to Cloud from the Developer dashboard. One click creates a DevOps toolchain complete with a code repository that is populated with your app source code and deployment pipeline.
Figure 2. Getting started flow
When you use the Deploy to Cloud button to set up your DevOps toolchain, select your runtime platform, such as Kubernetes or Cloud Foundry. The starter kit app that is produced from {{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}} is runtime independent and doesn’t need to be modified. {: tip}
{: #develop_locally}
After you create your starter kit app and toolchain, you start your development locally. Clone the code from your repository to a local workstation and import into your IDE. Use the {{site.data.keyword.dev_cli_long}} to build, run, and test your cloud app on your local machine. The {{site.data.keyword.dev_cli_notm}} create and manage local containers for you. When you’re ready to see that your app is running on the cloud, push to your cloud repository and merge your changes.
Figure 3. Developing locally flow
The basic functions for {{site.data.keyword.dev_cli_notm}} are ibmcloud dev build and ibmcloud dev run, but the CLI offers much more. See {{site.data.keyword.dev_cli_notm}} for more details.
{: tip}
{: #deliver_and_manage}
Merging changes to your cloud repository starts a build and deployment cycle in the DevOps toolchain that you created previously. Your app is running in the cloud after a few minutes.
To check status of your DevOps pipeline, use your Delivery Pipeline dashboard. To check the overall status of your app, see the {{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}} dashboard for your account. {: tip}
The toolchain that is produced by your getting started experience has the basic components that you need for collaborative, team-based continuous delivery. However, {{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}} offers an extensive set of DevOps services that you can add into your toolchain to enhance delivery, monitoring, logging, alerting.
Figure 4. Delivering and managing flow
Learn more about continuous development on {{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}}.
Figure 5. End-to-end development process