When using continuous integration I believe users should be notified when things have been checked in. In order to either make sure they get the latest revisions or fix whatever bugs showed up.
If the build went well, however, I do not want this notification to be too disruptive - just a subtle indicator would be fine. I was thinking to use the rss feed for this. But I cannot seem to find an rss reader that suits my needs entirely.
I am looking for a reader that installs itself in the system tray, and only displays a small notification from the tray for a short period when there's a new item. It should be able to check for new items at five minute intervals at least, and preferably display the entire news item. I had one that only displayed the project name - not whether the build was a success or failure. Then I had to open the item and check manually.
I guess now I know why there are so many readers out there - none of them ever suits all your needs:).
Although this is not answering your question directly, you may wish to check out the new notification application that will be bundled with FinalBuilder Server 6.1. It allows you to monitor multiple FBS servers and alerts you (via a pop-up or playing a sound) when a build succeeds or fails as well as being able to start and stop builds.
If you want to have a look, grab the latest test builds and let us know what you think.
it’s a fantastic idea to provide a small notification tool. I was used to something like that when we used CCNet. Is it possible to use that notification tool with server V6.0 as well? I would love to try it.
No, its not possible to use the notification application with FinalBuilder Server 6.0, but 6.1 will be a free upgrade (all minor updates are) for all existing customers.
Hi Paul, tried out this notification application, and it's exactly what I was looking for. Well... with some room for improvement, of course ;)
Could you adapt it, so that non-users can get a notification as well, without being able to start builds? It seems you have to logon using an account, but I want my devs to be able to stay up-to-date on build status without having to check the web frontend all the time.
And also, if a user could subscribe to certain projects so they only see notifications concerning the projects they are working on. Basically, I want to let my developers use the application not to *control* the project portfolio, but only to inform them when new builds are available / broken on the projects they are involved in. With many projects and many teams the amount of notifications may otherwise become more distracting than helpful.
And it would be helpful if clicking the notification could open the web frontend (e.g. log) for that build, without having to go there manually.