BuildHive: CI platform for GitHub projects

The recently introduced BuildHive platform provides easy access to an automatic build system for projects hosted on GitHub. CloudBees, the company behind the platform, touts cloud-based continuous integration using the Jenkins CI server, a fork of Hudson, to provide the free service.

Once logged into GitHub, BuildHive offers automated builds for enabled projects; the service automatically determines the builds' configuration. As soon as a repository is changed, the system automatically initiates the build. This is especially interesting for larger projects, since the project's own code as well as pull requests (after a virtual merge) are included in an automatic build. The result is then added to the request as a comment that can be used when deciding whether to add a patch.

The service is free of charge and provides basic features that are otherwise only available on the CloudBees platform as paid Enterprise plugins. Switching to CloudBees is recommended for those that need additional features, such as individual build configurations or access to private GitHub repositories. A getting started guide for BuildHive is available on the CloudBees wiki.

Travis CI is a similar hosted continuous integration service for testing code that is driven by volunteers and supported through donations. According to the project's homepage, more than 750,000 tests for over 10,000 open source projects have been run to date; these include tests for Ruby, Parrot and Symfony.

See also:

• BuildHive: Build GitHub Projects in Cloud-enabled Community Jenkins, a CloudBees blog post.
  
• CloudBees donates Jenkins plugins to the community, a report from The H.
• CloudBees launches Enterprise version of Jenkins, a report from The H.

(crve)