deploymentHelper

This helper program is written to automate complex deployment toolchains with one easy script file.

Written in C# using the .NET Core 3.1.

Table of contents

• Features
• Overview
• Deployment-File strucure
• Implemented Steps
  • QT-Deploy Step
  • Upload using FTP
  • Build latex
  • Build documentation
  • Clean Step

Features

• Automated deployment of QT-C++ Apps on Windows using 'windeployqt'
• Automated documentation build using Doxygen
• Automated FTP Uploads

Overview

This program uses an deployment file written in XML (for more information about this file: Deployment-File strucure).

First it analyzes the file while looking for errors. If no errors are found within the file, the application displays all steps and asks if you want to execute them.

Deployment-File strucure

The deployment file always need to contain

<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<deployment>
    ...
</deployment>

as an overall wrapper. In those deployment-tags you can define many different deploymentstep-lists, e.g. to seperate deployments of different applications in one script. One deploymentstep-list is added by using

<deploymentsteps type='qt-cpp'>
    ...
</deploymentsteps>

where the type-attribute needs to be chosen according to the following table:

type	usecase
qt-cpp	Application written in QT & C++
cs	Application written in C#

Within those deploymentstep-lists you can add many steps, which are outlined in Implemented Steps.

Implemented Steps

QT-Deploy Step

Uses the 'windeployqt'-tool to deploy an QT-application. 'windeployqt' needs to be in the PATH of your OS.

This kind of step is added by using

<deploy-qt>
    ...
</deploy-qt>

and needs to be filled with arguments (optional) and the path to the executable to be deployed.

Add an argument by using the argument-tag. Some arguments may need an given directory in order to work. To add an directory to an argument, you can use the dir-tag, which uses absolute paths by default, but can be changed to relative paths (to the location of the deployment file) by adding the path-type='rel' attribute to the tag.

Define the executable by using the file-tag. The file-tag uses absolute paths by default, but can be changed to relative paths (to the location of the deployment file) by adding the path-type='rel' attribute to the tag.

So one QT-Deploy Step could look as follows:

<deploy-qt>
    <argument>release</argument>
    <argument>no-translations</argument>
    <argument>no-svg</argument>            
    <argument>
        dir
        <dir path-type='rel'>../target/bin/x86_64</dir>
    </argument>
    <file path-type='rel'>../target/bin/x86_64/binary.exe</file> 
</deploy-qt>

and would result in

windeployqt --release --no-translations --no-svg --dir [...]\target\bin\x86_64 [...]\target\bin\x86_64\binary.exe

which will be executed.

Upload using FTP

to be done

Build latex

This step comiles a latex file to pdf. The whole latex-toolchain need to be installed and the command 'pdflatex' needs to be in the PATH of the used OS.

This kind of step is added by using

<latexcompile>
    ...
</latexcompile>

and needs at least a source file given. Define this file by using the file-tag embeeded into a source-tag. The file-tag uses absolute paths by default, but can be changed to relative paths (to the location of the deployment file) by adding the path-type='rel' attribute to the tag. There is the possibility to specify a destination filename. If it is done so (like the source filename, but by using the destination-tag instead of the source-tag), the compiled .pdf file will be copied and renamend to the given directory/ filename.

One latex compile step could look as follows:

<latexcompile>
    <source>
        <file path-type='rel'>..\..\test.tex</file>
    </source>
    <destination>
        <file path-type='rel'>target\release\hello_world.pdf</file>
    </destination>
</latexcompile>

Build documentation

This step automatically builds doxygen docs. For the program to generate the documentation, 'doxygen' must be available in the PATH of your OS and the doxygen config-file needs to be already generated.

This kind of step is added by using

<build-doc>
    ...
</build-doc>

and needs to be filled with the path to the doxygen configuration file. Define this file by using the file-tag. The file-tag uses absolute paths by default, but can be changed to relative paths (to the location of the deployment file) by adding the path-type='rel' attribute to the tag.

So one build documentation step could look as follows:

<build-doc>
    <file path-type='rel'>../Doxyfile</file>
</build-doc>

and would result in

doxygen [...]/Doxyfile

which will be executed.

Clean Step

This step is added by the tag

<clean>
    <dir path-type='rel'>../target/bin/x86_64</dir>
</clean>

which removes all files and directories inside the given directory.