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CI/CD Integration

This section explains how Extent Reports is used in real CI/CD pipelines such as Jenkins and GitLab. A report that works locally but fails in CI is considered broken.

1️⃣ CI/CD Reality Check​

In CI environments:

  • Workspaces are ephemeral
  • Paths change per build
  • Parallel jobs may run simultaneously

Extent Reports must be location-agnostic and deterministic.

2️⃣ Report Path Strategy (Critical)​

Correct Approach​

  • Use relative paths
  • Generate reports inside project workspace
String reportPath = "reports/index.html";

Incorrect Approach​

❌ Absolute local paths ❌ User-specific directories

3️⃣ Jenkins Integration​

HTML Report Publishing​

Steps:

  1. Install HTML Publisher Plugin
  2. Configure post-build action
  3. Set report directory: reports
  4. Set report file: index.html

Result:

  • Report accessible from Jenkins build page

4️⃣ Jenkins Best Practices​

✔ One report per build ✔ Clean workspace before build ✔ Archive reports as build artifacts ✔ Avoid overwriting previous reports

5️⃣ GitLab CI Integration​

Artifacts Configuration​

artifacts:
  when: always
  paths:
    - reports/

Result:

  • Reports downloadable per pipeline run

6️⃣ GitLab Best Practices​

✔ Keep artifacts small ✔ Use timestamps for report folders ✔ Retain artifacts based on policy

7️⃣ Parallel Jobs in CI​

Important rules:

  • Each job generates its own report
  • Do not share report directories across jobs

Sharing reports between jobs causes corruption.

8️⃣ Failure Handling in CI​

Best practice:

  • Always publish reports (even on failure)
  • Use when: always in pipelines

CI reports are most valuable when tests fail.

🧠 Key Takeaways​

  • CI environments are not local machines
  • Relative paths are mandatory
  • One report per job/build
  • Always publish reports