This series shows you how to get started with infrastructure as code (IaC). The goal is to help developers build a strong understanding of IaC through tutorials and code examples. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is an integral part of modern continuous integration pipelines. It is the process of managing and provisioning cloud and IT resources using machine readable definition files.

Is it possible to use just one tool to test everything? Although it may sound like a developer’s daydream, it is almost possible with Cypress, a JavaScript frontend testing framework. Cypress is built specifically for JavaScript frontend developers, and they can use it to start writing tests quickly without needing to add third-party dependencies or packages. This is a benefit missing from other tools like Selenium. In this tutorial, I will guide you through using Cypress to test an API.

Automating tests and deployments with infrastructure (CI/CD) more productive. Instead of managing multiple tools and manual processes, all they have to do is commit the code to a code repository. Not everyone on a project visits the CI/CD system, but they may need to know when the build process fails or is successful. This is where a proper handshake between CI/CD systems and project management tools such as Jira shines.

MobX is a scalable library developed to ease the process of state management in frontend applications. In this tutorial, you will learn how to manage the state of your Flutter applications using MobX, and then set up a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline for your application using CircleCI. You can find the sample project developed for this tutorial in this GitHub repository.

CircleCI orbs are reusable packages of YAML configuration that condense repeated pieces of config into a single line of code. Since its launch in 2018, the CircleCI orbs registry has been used by developers, development teams, and by companies who want to help developers integrate their services seamlessly into continuous integration pipelines. In this tutorial, we will show how to use CircleCI orbs to continuously deploy a Node.js application to Heroku, one of the most popular hosting platforms.

Let’s face it: Creating the optimal CI/CD workflow is not always a simple task. In fact, writing effective and efficient configuration code is the biggest hurdle that many developers face in their DevOps journey. But you don’t need to be an expert to set up a fast, reliable testing and deployment infrastructure. With a few straightforward techniques, you can optimize your config.yml file and unleash the full potential of your CI/CD pipelines.

The CircleCI Insights dashboard was designed to help you improve your delivery efficiency. We launched the dashboard a year ago to provide teams with actionable data for optimizing your pipelines. Since then, we’ve been listening to your feedback. By far, the most requested functionality is the ability to gain further visibility into test performance.

Retrospectives are a well-established resource in the software and systems engineering toolbox. From sprint retros through to post-incident reviews, we look back on our work to learn from it and to get better. We can apply the same ideas to our professional practice with a personal retrospective: writing an analysis of our experiences to learn as much as possible. We could look over a whole year of work, or focus more closely on a particular project.