Deploy build files from continuous integration

Question

I am working on a project with multiple people, a website application which requires webpack to be built, uglified, concatenated into a few files eg app.min.js, style.min.css etc. - As a result of this, in an effort to prevent merge conflicts we recently added the build folder to .gitignore, under the assumption that we would be able to build during deployment.

When pushing to the Master branch, we automatically "deploy" through Semaphore CI (similar to Travis) which runs composer install, npm install, and finally "npm run build" which triggers the webpack build. This is all built and then tested on the CI side of things, and then Semaphore automatically deploys to Amazon's Elastic Beanstalk where our application is hosted.

The problem with this is, it seems Semaphore doesn't upload the build it's just tested, but rather the Master branch itself which has no built JS or CSS. I'm wondering if there's a way to push these built files to deployment as well, or if running the entire build process AGAIN on Elastic Beanstalk is the only route. It seems unnecessary to have to do that process essentially 3 times, locally, CI, and then deployment. Every time a step like this is needed on EB the actual re-instantiation time gets longer, which I'd like to keep as short as possible.

Obviously if building it a 3rd time on EB is the only way to go about this then I'll have to, just wondering if there are better solutions for this whole workflow.

Answer 1

I haven't worked with Semaphore CI, but you might be able to use an .ebignore file .

If you create one, the cli will use that instead of your .gitignore file.

I find in some deployment situations you want the inverse of your .gitignore (all compiled, no src). It essentially lets you pick the files from your project directory that you want to deploy, in the same way as the .gitignore file.

Edit : I just noticed the documentation on aws is lacking. It only mentions file exclusion, but you can include files too.

Edit 2 : I don't think Semaphore supports the use of .ebignore, so right now this solution isn't of any use. :(

Answer 2

I just had a great first experience with https://deploybot.com/ . The can deploy directly to elastic beanstalk. It might be interesting or you.