Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
information, is up to them. Be sure to focus your design the same as
you do with your outgoing single notifications (e-mail and text mes-
sages): Include some key data and set it to update as needed. Other-
wise, the wide-screen monitor is the same sea of information in a
different form.
5
Additional Feedback Devices
There are many other types of devices and mechanisms you can
use to communicate; just make sure the information is informative,
concise, timely, and fun. The purpose is for someone to take
action on the information
as quickly as possible.
You may want to
change CFDs from time to time to keep your environment from
getting stale. Here are some other ideas of CFDs you can use on
projects.
•
Browser plug-in
—There is a useful plug-in
5
for the Firefox
Web browser that displays the build status using red and
green indicators (similar to the Windows taskbar).
•
Instant Messenger
—Notify project members on the build
status via one of the instant messenger applications such
as AIM or Yahoo.
•
RSS
—Publish the results of your builds using Really Simple
Syndication (RSS). An RSS XML file is updated for every
build. You can use a reader to get these updates rather than
having to check your e-mail. Many CI servers provide sup-
port for RSS.
•
Widgets
—There are various widgets created for the Win-
dows and Mac platforms that monitor CruiseControl servers
and report the build status.
5. See
www.md.pp.ru/mozilla/cc/
for more information on the Firefox plug-in for
CruiseControl.
