Customer Action for LabVIEW CI/CD (lvCICD)

Introduction

This repo is used to complete the missing part of LabVIEW operations in Continuous integration and continuous deployment(CI/CD).

You can use lvCICD to:

1. Build your LabVIEW project/LabVIEW FPGA bitfile
2. Start Vi Analyzer
3. Run LabVIEW test cases
4. Install/uninstall VIPM libraries(vip)
5. Apply VIPM VIPC file(vipc)
6. Setup Large LabVIEW build facility
7. Add your own operation, Click link to see how to contribute to it

Check lvCICD Operation-List for operations of lvCICD.

Dependence

• LabVIEW 2014 or Later
• LabVIEW Command line Interface
• VIPM Libraries: VIPM vipc file Download Link
  • OpenG by OpenG (LabVIEW >= 2009)
  • Git API by Hampel Software Engineering (LabVIEW >= 2016) Not available in LabVIEW 2014,2015
  • VIPM API by JKI (LabVIEW >= 2013)
  • JKI VI Tester by JKI (LabVIEW >= 2013)

Known Issues

• Only 10 Parameters could be defined

• The name of parameter is not intuitive due to limitation of github customer action. Check the Operation List for what it stands for.

• Path definition. You can use [GLOBAL_MACRO] in relative path parameter.

  Available GLOBAL_MACRO:

  • vi.lib: vi.lib folder of LabVIEW
  • user.lib: user.lib folder of LabVIEW
  • temp: temporary folder of System
  • desktop: current user's desktop folder
  • You can also use System Environment Variable defined in Environment Variables

  Examples:

  • If current user's desktop folder is C:\Users\Bob\Desktop
    • "[Desktop]\abc.txt" --> C:\Users\Bob\Desktop\abc.txt
  • If LabVIEW 2019(32bit) is used
    • [vi.lib]\Utility\error.llb --> "C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2019\vi.lib\Utility\error.llb"
  • If set "SyncPath=C:\Sync" in Environment Variables
    • [SyncPath]\abc.txt --> "C:\Sync\abc.txt"

Pre-works

1. Setup a self-host runner for your repo.
   1. Add your self-hosted Windows Machine to pool Azure DevOps | Github
   2. Tips:
      1. [!IMPORTANT!] Please read Security hardening for GitHub Actions before using a self-host runner in public repos. Best practice:
         1. Do NOT use pull_request trigger for public repos.
         2. Only use actions created by GitHub or verified creators in marketplace.
         3. Use github secret to store your critical information instead of using plant-text in workflow yml file.
      2. Running Powershell Scripts needs to be enabled on the system. Reference
      3. If you set the runner/agent application as a service, please set the account to current user. This makes it easier to set up the environment. You can use whoami command to check the current user.
2. Install LabVIEW and its components needed with NI Package Manger
3. Install LabVIEW Command line Interface
4. Install dependent VIPM Libraries (lvCICD.vipc).
5. Install the softwares needed for your own case.

Usage

Github Actions

Add this customer-action to steps session in github actions yml file.

Copy this snippet to github workflow yml file and change the content quoted by [] following your self-hosted agent/runner configuration and operation to execute.

Use ${{ steps.[step-id].result.Result }} in next steps to use result of lvCICD.

Check lvCICD Operation-List for detailed information.

- name: [your_action_step_name]
  uses: LV-APT/lvCICD@[lvcicd_version]
  id: [step-id]
  with:
    Operation: [optional, operation_in_list, 'lvEcho' as default]
    Parameter1: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter2: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter3: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter4: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter5: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter6: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter7: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter8: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter9: [optional, parameter]
    Parameter10: [optional, parameter]
    LabVIEW_Version: [optional, LabVIEW_version,2019 or Later,2019 as default]
    Architecture: [optional, x86 or x64, x86 as default]
    OperationVIFolder: [optional, use lvCICD action path as default, set to ${{ github.workspace }} for searching operations in your repo]

Example 1: use lvEcho to check runner/agent ready for lvCICD tools.

- name: TestEnvironment
  id: lvEcho
  uses: LV-APT/lvCICD@v0.3
  with:
    Operation: lvEcho
    Parameter1: "line1"
    Parameter2: "line2"
    Parameter3: "line3"

Example 2: use StartVITester to run unit test cases in "CICD-LabVIEW-Adapter.lvproj".

- name: Run lvCICD Test cases with VITester
  id: StartVITester
  uses: LV-APT/lvCICD@v0.3
  with:
    Operation: StartVITester
    Parameter1: ${{ github.workspace }}\LabVIEW-Adapter\CICD-LabVIEW-Adapter.lvproj

Azure DevOps

Step 1: Add Variables needed for lvCICD in Azure DevOps Pipeline yml file

Change the lvCICD-Tool-Version/LabVIEW-Version/LabVIEW-Architecture following your self-hosted agent/runner configuration.

variables:
- name: lvCICD-Tool-URL
  value: https://github.com/LV-APT/lvCICD
- name: lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath
  value: $(Agent.TempDirectory)\lvCICD
- name: lvCICD-Tool-Version
  value: v0.3
- name: lvCICD
  value: '"$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)\lvCICD.ps1" $(LabVIEW-Version) $(LabVIEW-Architecture) "$(OperationVIFolder)"'
- name: LabVIEW-Version
  value: '2017'
- name: LabVIEW-Architecture
  value: x86
- name: OperationVIFolder
  value: ""

Step 2: Add task for Downloading lvCICD tools to steps session of Azure DevOps Pipeline yml file

lvCICD tool repo needs to be downloaded before taking any operation by lvCICD.

Copy this snippet to your Azure DevOps Pipeline yml file as it is. You don't need to change it.

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: Clone lvCICD Tools
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      # Show Parameters
      Write-Host "lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath = $(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)"
      Write-Host "lvCICD-Tool-URL = $(lvCICD-Tool-URL)"
      Write-Host "lvCICD-Tool-Version = $(lvCICD-Tool-Version)"
      # Remove temp files
      Write-Host "if ( Test-Path -Path ""$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)"") { Remove-Item -Recurse -Force ""$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)"" }"
      if ( Test-Path -Path "$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)") { Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)" }
      # Clone Tools
      Write-Host "git clone --progress --depth 1 --branch $(lvCICD-Tool-Version) ""$(lvCICD-Tool-URL)"" ""$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)"""
      git clone --progress --depth 1 --branch $(lvCICD-Tool-Version) "$(lvCICD-Tool-URL)" "$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)"

Step 3: Add task of lvCICD to DevOps Pipeline yml file

Copy this snippet to DevOps Pipeline yml file and change the content quoted by [] following your self-hosted agent/runner configuration and operation to execute.

Check lvCICD Operation-List for detailed information.

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: [your_action_step_name]
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      # Write your PowerShell commands here.
      & $(lvCICD) [Operation] [Parameter1] [Parameter2] [Parameter3] ...

If you need to use the output of lvCICD operation, use this snippet instead.

lvCICD operation saves the output to "$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)\output.txt". The additional code in the task exports the result to a variable named lvEchoOutput, which could be used in following steps.

Change variable name in your case. Refer to Set variables in scripts for more information.

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: [your_action_step_name]
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      # Write your PowerShell commands here.
      & $(lvCICD) [Operation] [Parameter1] [Parameter2] [Parameter3] ...
      $Result=Get-Content -Path "$(lvCICD-Tool-LocalPath)\output.txt";
      Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=lvEchoOutput;]$Result"

Example 1: use lvEcho to check runner/agent ready for lvCICD tools.

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: lvEcho
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      & $(lvCICD) lvEcho a b c

Example 2: use lvBuild to build "lvCICD-Example.lvproj" which contains a build spec in it.

- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: lvBuild
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      Write-Host "$(Pipeline.Workspace)"
      Write-Host "$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)"
      & $(lvCICD) lvBuild '$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)\lvCICD-Example.lvproj'