Build blogging in Java

Make Denso QR Bar Code in Java Build blogging

Nina s coworker Rangu also works for Otto in the development department at FinModler. Rangu started as the build guy, but his role in the group has expanded to include source code control, issue tracking, and managing the group s wiki. Part of Rangu s job is to keep other groups within FinModler informed of each new software build. Otto, impressed with Nina s and Carl s use of blogs, asks Rangu to start a blog to announce new builds. Rangu thinks a build blog is a good idea, but he does not want to add a manual step to his completely automated nightly build process. Rangu starts thinking about ways to automatically blog his builds. After work, Rangu, who happens to be an avid photographer, is shopping for an online photo service so that he can share his photographs with his friends. He looks at a number of web sites, including Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Flickr (figure 1.4). Flickr impresses him because it provides a newsfeed for each user, so his friends can subscribe to his new photos. When he reads that Flickr allows users to post photographs to their blogs, Rangu is intrigued. The next day, Rangu asks Nina how Flickr can post photos to so many different blog servers. Nina says, That s easy, Rangu. Just about every blog server in existence supports the MetaWeblog API. Rangu quickly locates the documentation for the MetaWeblog API, fires up his favorite IDE, and gets to work. In only an afternoon, he writes a simple blog application, a plug-in for the group s Antbased build system. The app allows the build system to post messages to the blog via a web services-based publishing protocol. When a release build is created, the build script automatically updates the blog problem solved.

If you d like to create an Ant task that can post to a blog, chapter 16 will show you how to do it.

At his weekly staff meeting, the CIO mentions that on a recent flight, he read an interesting article about the benefits of blogs and wikis in the workplace. He tells Otto and Kate, who manages the marketing communications group, that the CEO has always been concerned that the groups and divisions in the company are not communicating and collaborating effectively. Otto takes the opportunity to tell the CIO about Nina s status report blog and Rangu s build system blog. And Kate mentions Carl s vertical market blogs and describes how he uses a newsfeed reader and newsfeed searches to

monitor developments on the Web. The CIO is intrigued. Before you can say leveraging intergroup synergies, Otto and Kate are heading up the new blog and wiki implementation task force. When they return to their office, they schedule a meeting with the existing bloggers in the development and marketing groups. At next week s meeting, Otto starts by wondering aloud about the effectiveness of blogging in the workplace. He says, Getting my staff to write status reports is like pulling teeth. How can I expect them to become bloggers Carl chimes in. Yeah, and most developers are horrible writers. Fortunately, Nina and Rangu have spent some time preparing for the meeting and are ready for these questions. We re not going to ask anybody to do what they are not already doing. We re just going to make it easier for everybody to share information, Rangu says. He turns on the projector and shows everybody a slide of what he calls use cases, specific tasks that people will perform with blog and wiki software. The slide lists these use cases:

Reporting progress and status Recording research activities Sharing build and test results Documenting test plans and configurations Sharing corporate news Monitoring the market Building the FinModler customer community

Rangu explains that these use cases all represent activities they re already doing. For example, they already ask employees to write weekly status reports and to record research activities. By asking them to use blogs instead of email, they ll gain visibility, as anybody in the company will be able to read, search, and even subscribe to these writings. This will help the company communicate and collaborate more closely. The CIO has always wanted us to announce corporate news, build results, and test results on the internal Web; blogs and wikis make this much easier to do, Rangu says. We won t have to edit, upload, and maintain individual web pages anymore. Plus, we ll be able to use web services to automate the sharing of build and test reports. Otto asks, What about that last bullet, Building the FinModler customer community we are definitely not doing that now. Carl says, I know. Don t you think that s a problem Every day I watch as our customers and potential