Introduction to Jenkins Integration

Jenkins is an automation server used for continuous integration in software development development. You can use it to build, run, and manage automated tests workflows, including Ranorex Studio test execution.

This article introduces the basic structure of a Jenkins integration with Ranorex Studio and outlines the software required to set it up. The other articles in this section explain the setup steps in more detail. For general information about installing and configuring Jenkins, refer to the official documentation.

How the integration works

Integrating Ranorex Studio with Jenkins allows you to run automated tests as part of a build process.

1. The Ranorex Studio solution is under version control with Git and stored and managed in a repository on GitHub
2. The Jenkins server connects to the GitHub repository through a plugin and in this way has access to the Ranorex Studio solution
3. In Jenkins, the build process is set up as a project. It contains all the required build and post-build steps and their configurations. Some of the steps are implemented through Jenkins plugins
4. Once the build process is started, Jenkins carries out the build steps, which means it builds and executes the Ranorex Studio solution, thereby running the test

To set up the process illustrated above, you need the following software. 

Ranorex Studio

You need a full installation of Ranorex Studio to create and maintain automated tests.

• Use a Professional license to create and maintain tests.
• Use a Runtime license on machines that only run tests, such as Jenkins execution machines.

Reference: For more information, see Licensing.

Jenkins

You need a Jenkins server that is installed and running.

For information about downloading and setting up Jenkins, refer to the official Jenkins documentation.

Note: Jenkins or the nodes that execute CI jobs may not have sufficient rights to start UI applications when Jenkins runs as a Windows service.
To run Ranorex UI automation successfully, make sure Jenkins is not running as a service on the master or on any agent node where Ranorex tests are executed.

To disable the Jenkins service:

1. Open the Services tool in Windows. 
2. Right-click the Jenkins service. 
3. Click Properties. 
4. Set Startup type to Disabled.

To start Jenkins manually from the installation folder, use:

java -jar jenkins.war

After Jenkins starts, you can open the web interface at:

 http://localhost:8080/