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DevOps-Jenkins
Blue Ocean
Blue Ocean
- What is Blue Ocean?
-
Frequently asked questions
- Why does Blue Ocean exist?
- Where is the name from?
- What does this mean for my plugins?
- What technologies are currently in use?
- Where can I find the source code?
- Join the Blue Ocean community
This chapter covers all aspects of Blue Ocean’s functionality, including how to:
-
get started with Blue Ocean, which covers how to set up Blue Ocean in Jenkins and access the Blue Ocean interface.
-
create a new Pipeline project in Blue Ocean.
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use Blue Ocean’s dashboard.
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use the Activity view, where you can access your current and historic run data, your Pipeline’s branches, and any open pull requests.
-
use the Pipeline run details view to access details such as console output, for a particular Pipeline or item run.
-
use the Pipeline editor to modify Pipelines as code, which you can then commit to source control.
This chapter is intended for Jenkins users of all skill levels, but beginners may need to refer to the Pipeline chapter to understand some topics covered here.
For an overview of content in the Jenkins User Handbook, refer to user handbook overview.
|
Blue Ocean status
Blue Ocean will not receive further functionality updates. Blue Ocean will continue to provide easy-to-use Pipeline visualization, but it will not be enhanced further. It will only receive selective updates for significant security issues or functional defects. Alternative options for Pipeline visualization, such as the Pipeline: Stage View and Pipeline Graph View plugins, are available and offer some of the same functionality. While not complete replacements for Blue Ocean, contributions are encouraged from the community for continued development of these plugins. The Pipeline syntax snippet generator assists users as they define Pipeline steps with their arguments. It is the preferred tool for Jenkins Pipeline creation, as it provides online help for the Pipeline steps available in your Jenkins controller. It uses the plugins installed on your Jenkins controller to generate the Pipeline syntax. Refer to the Pipeline steps reference page for information on all available Pipeline steps. |
What is Blue Ocean?
Blue Ocean as it stands provides easy-to-use Pipeline visualization. It was intended to be a rethink of the Jenkins user experience, designed from the ground up for Jenkins Pipeline. Blue Ocean was intended to reduce clutter and increases clarity for all users.
However, Blue Ocean will not receive further functionality or enhancement updates. It will only receive selective updates for significant security issues or functional defects. If you are just starting out, you can still use Blue Ocean, or you may want to consider alternative options such as the Pipeline: Stage View and Pipeline Graph View plugins. These offer some of the same functionality.
To sum up, Blue Ocean’s main features include:
-
Sophisticated visualization of continuous delivery (CD) Pipelines, allowing for fast and intuitive comprehension of your Pipeline’s status.
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Pipeline editor makes the creation of Pipelines more approachable, by guiding the user through a visual process to create a Pipeline.
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Personalization to suit the role-based needs of each member of the team.
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Pinpoint precision when intervention is needed or issues arise. Blue Ocean shows where attention is needed, facilitating exception handling and increasing productivity.
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Native integration for branches and pull requests , which enables maximum developer productivity when collaborating on code in GitHub and Bitbucket.
If you would like to start using Blue Ocean, please refer to getting started with Blue Ocean.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Blue Ocean exist?
The DevOps world has transitioned from developer tools that are purely functional, to developer tools being part of a "developer experience." It was no longer about a single tool, but the many tools developers use throughout the day, and how they work together to achieve a better workflow for the developer.
Developer tool companies like Heroku, Atlassian, and GitHub have raised the bar for what is considered a good developer experience. Gradually, developers have become more attracted to tools that are not only functional, but are designed to fit into their existing workflow seamlessly. This shift represents a higher standard for design and function, where developers are expecting an exceptional user experience. Jenkins needed to rise to meet this higher standard.
Creating and visualising continuous delivery Pipelines has always been something valuable for many Jenkins users. This has been demonstrated in the plugins that the Jenkins community has created to meet their needs. This also indicates a need to revisit how Jenkins currently expresses these concepts, and consider delivery pipelines as a central theme to the Jenkins user experience.
It is not just continuous delivery concepts, but the tools that developers use every day such as GitHub, Bitbucket, Slack, Puppet, or Docker. It is about more than Jenkins, as it includes the developer workflow surrounding Jenkins, which comprised multiple tools.
New teams can encounter challenges when learning how to assemble their own Jenkins experience. However, the goal to improve their time to market by shipping better software more consistently is the same. Assembling the ideal Jenkins experience is something we, as a community of Jenkins users and contributors, can work together to define. As time progresses, developers' expectations of a good user experience change, and the Jenkins project needs to be receptive to these expectations.
The Jenkins community has worked constantly to build the most technically capable and extensible software automation tool in existence. Not revolutionizing the Jenkins developer experience today could mean that a closed source option attempts to capitalize on this in the future.
Blue Ocean was created to meet such demands of its time. However, as time passed, more modern tools have cropped up to replace it. Now, the time has come for the rise of other plugins of similar functionality. Therefore, any new development or enhancement of Blue Ocean has ceased. If you are interested in contributing to a plugin which serves a similar purpose, you should consider the alternative options as suggested in What is Blue Ocean? section on above.
Where is the name from?
The name Blue Ocean comes from the book Blue Ocean Strategy. This strategy involves looking at problems in the larger uncontested space, instead of strategic problems within a contested space. To put this more simply, consider this quote from ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky: "Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."
Does Blue Ocean support freestyle jobs?
Blue Ocean aims to deliver a great experience around Pipeline and compatibility with any freestyle jobs you already have configured in your Jenkins instance. However, you will not benefit from the features built for Pipelines, for example Pipeline visualization.
Blue Ocean was designed to be extensible, so that the Jenkins community could extend Blue Ocean functionality. While there will not be any further functionalities added to Blue Ocean, it still provides Pipeline visualization and other features that users find valuable.
What does this mean for my plugins?
Extensibility is a core feature of Jenkins and being able to extend the Blue Ocean UI is equally important.
The
<ExtensionPoint name=..>
can be used in the markup of Blue Ocean, leaving places for plugins to contribute to the UI.
This means plugins can have their own Blue Ocean extension points.
Blue Ocean itself is implemented using these extension points.
Extensions are delivered by plugins as usual. Plugins must include some additional JavaScript to connect to Blue Ocean’s extension points. Developers that have contributed to the Blue Ocean user experience will have added this JavaScript accordingly.
What technologies are currently in use?
Blue Ocean is built as a collection of Jenkins plugins.
The key difference is that Blue Ocean provides both its own endpoint for HTTP requests, and it delivers HTML/JavaScript via a different path, without using the existing Jenkins UI markup or scripts.
React.js and ES6 are used to deliver the JavaScript components of Blue Ocean.
Inspired by this excellent open-source project, which you can refer to in the building plugins for React apps blog post, an
<ExtensionPoint>
pattern was established that allows extensions to come from any Jenkins plugin with JavaScript.
If the extensions fail to load, their failures are isolated.
Where can I find the source code?
The source code can be found on Github:
-
Blue Ocean
-
Jenkins Design Language
Join the Blue Ocean community
As the development of Blue Ocean has frozen, we do not anticipate or expect any new contributions made to its codebase for new features. However, there are still a few ways you can join the community:
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Chat with the community and development team on Gitter
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Request features or report bugs against the
blueocean-plugincomponent in JIRA. -
Subscribe and ask questions on the Jenkins Users mailing list.
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Developer? We’ve labeled a few issues that are great for anyone wanting to get started developing Blue Ocean. Don’t forget to drop by the Gitter chat and introduce yourself!
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Pipeline Editor
Pipeline Editor
- Starting the editor
- Navigation bar
-
Pipeline Settings
- Agent
- Environment
- Stage editor
- Stage configuration
- Step configuration
- Save Pipeline dialog
The Blue Ocean Pipeline Editor is an easy way for anyone to get started with creating Pipelines in Jenkins. It’s also great for existing Jenkins users to start adopting Pipeline.
|
Blue Ocean status
Blue Ocean will not receive further functionality updates. Blue Ocean will continue to provide easy-to-use Pipeline visualization, but it will not be enhanced further. It will only receive selective updates for significant security issues or functional defects. The Pipeline syntax snippet generator assists users as they define Pipeline steps with their arguments. It is the preferred tool for Jenkins Pipeline creation, as it provides online help for the Pipeline steps available in your Jenkins controller. It uses the plugins installed on your Jenkins controller to generate the Pipeline syntax. Refer to the Pipeline steps reference page for information on all available Pipeline steps. |
The editor allows users to create and edit Declarative Pipelines and perform actions such as adding stages or configuring parallel tasks, depending on their needs.
When the user completes their configuration, the editor saves the Pipeline to a source code repository as a
Jenkinsfile
.
If the Pipeline requires further modification, Blue Ocean makes it easy to jump back into the visual editor to modify the Pipeline at any time.
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Blue Ocean Pipeline Editor limitations
The Blue Ocean Pipeline Editor is a great alternative for Jenkins users, but there are some limitations to its functionality:
|
Starting the editor
To use the editor, a user must first create a Pipeline in Blue Ocean or have at least one existing Pipeline in Jenkins. If editing an existing Pipeline, the credentials for that Pipeline must allow pushing changes to the target repository.
The editor can be launched through the:
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New Pipeline option from the Blue Ocean dashboard.
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Branches tab within the Activity view.
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Edit ( ) in the Pipeline run details view.
Navigation bar
The Pipeline editor includes the standard navigation bar at the top, with a local navigation bar below it. The local navigation bar includes:
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Pipeline Name - This also includes the branch name.
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Cancel - Discards changes made to the pipeline.
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Save - Opens the save Pipeline dialog.
Pipeline Settings
By default, the pane on the right side of the editor displays the Pipeline Settings . Selecting an existing stage or adding a stage displays the stage configuration pane instead. To navigate back to the Pipeline Settings pane, select any empty space in the background of the editor. Within the Pipeline Settings pane, there are two sections that are configurable.
Agent
The Agent section controls which agent the Pipeline uses. This performs the same process as the agent directive. The Image field allows users to configure which container image runs when the Pipeline is active.
Environment
The Environment section allows users to configure environment variables for the Pipeline. This is the same process as the environment directive.
Stage editor
The left pane displays the stage editor UI, which allows users to create or add stages of a Pipeline.
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To add a stage to the Pipeline, select the icon to the right of an existing stage. Selecting the icon below an existing stage adds a parallel stage.
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To delete unwanted stages, use the more menu in the stage configuration pane.
After setting the stage name and saving, the name displays above the stage. Stages that contain incomplete or invalid information display a . Pipelines can have validation errors during editing, but saving is blocked until the errors are fixed.
Stage configuration
Selecting a stage in the editor displays the Stage Configuration pane on the right side of the screen. Here, you can modify the name of the stage, delete the stage, and add steps to a stage.
The name of the stage can be set at the top of the stage configuration pane. The more menu, represented by three dots to the right of the stage name, allows users to delete the currently selected stage. Selecting Add step displays the list of available step types. After selecting a step type, the page displays the step configuration pane.
Step configuration
This pane display is based on the step type selected, and contains the necessary fields or controls.
Be sure to provide a strong name for the step, as the name retains its original configuration. Deleting the step and recreating it is the only way to provide a different name. The more menu, represented by three dots to the right of the step name, allows users to delete the current step. Fields that contain incomplete or invalid information display a . Any validation errors must be addressed before saving.
Save Pipeline dialog
Changes to a Pipeline must be saved in source control before running. The Save Pipeline dialog controls the saving of changes to source control.
You can optionally enter a description of the changes before saving. The dialog also provides options for saving changes to the same branch or creating a new branch to save to. Selecting Save & run saves any changes to the Pipeline as a new commit, starts a new Pipeline run based on those changes, and navigates to the Activity view for this pipeline.
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Pipeline Run Details View
Pipeline Run Details View
- Pipeline Run Status
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Special cases
- Pipelines outside of Source Control
- Freestyle Projects
- Matrix projects
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Tabs
- Pipeline
- Changes
- Tests
- Artifacts
The Blue Ocean Pipeline Run Details view shows the information related to a single Pipeline Run, and allows users to edit or replay that run. Below is a detailed overview of the parts of the Run Details view.
|
Blue Ocean status
Blue Ocean will not receive further functionality updates. Blue Ocean will continue to provide easy-to-use Pipeline visualization, but it will not be enhanced further. It will only receive selective updates for significant security issues or functional defects. |
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Run Status - An icon indicating the status of this Pipeline run. The color of the navigation bar matches the status icon.
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Pipeline Name - The name of this run’s Pipeline.
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Run Number - The id number for this Pipeline run. Id numbers are unique for each Branch and Pull Request of a Pipeline.
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View Tabs - Access the Pipeline , Changes , Tests , and Artifacts views with one of the tabs for this run. The default view is "Pipeline".
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Re-run Pipeline - Execute this run’s Pipeline again.
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Edit Pipeline - Open this run’s Pipeline in the Pipeline Editor.
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Configure - Open the Pipeline configuration page in Jenkins.
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Go to Classic - Switch to the "Classic" UI view of the details for this run.
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Close Details - Closes the Details view and returns the user to the Activity view for this Pipeline.
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Branch or Pull Request - The branch or pull request for this run.
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Commit Id - The commit id for this run.
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Duration - The duration of this run.
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Completed Time - When this run was completed.
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Change Author - Names of the authors with changes in this run.
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Tab View - Shows the information for the selected tab.
Pipeline Run Status
Blue Ocean makes it easy to see the status of the current Pipeline Run, by changing the color of the top menu bar to match the status:
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Blue for "In progress"
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Green for "Passed"
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Yellow for "Unstable"
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Red for "Failed"
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Gray for "Aborted"
Special cases
Blue Ocean is optimized for working with Pipelines in Source Control, but can display details for other kinds of projects. Blue Ocean offers the same tabs for all supported projects types, but those tabs display different information depending on the type.
Pipelines outside of Source Control
For Pipelines that are not based in Source Control, Blue Ocean shows the "Commit Id", "Branch", and "Changes", but those fields are left blank. In this case, the top menu bar does not include the "Edit" option.
Freestyle Projects
For Freestyle projects, Blue Ocean offers the same tabs, but the Pipeline tab only displays the console log output. The "Rerun" or "Edit" options are not available in the top menu bar.
Matrix projects
Matrix projects are not supported in Blue Ocean. Viewing a Matrix project will redirect to the "Classic UI" view for that project.
Tabs
Each tab of the Run Detail view provides information on a specific aspect of a run.
Pipeline
Pipeline is the default tab and gives an overall view of the flow of this Pipeline Run. It shows each stage and parallel branch, the steps in those stages, and the console output from those steps. The overview image above shows a successful Pipeline run. If a particular step during the run fails, this tab automatically defaults to showing the console log from the failed step. The image below shows a failed Run.
Changes
The Changes tab displays the information of any changes made between the most recently completed and current runs. This includes the commit id for the change, change author, message, and date completed.
Tests
The
Tests
tab shows information about test results for this run.
This tab only contains information if a test result publishing step is present, such as the "Publish JUnit test results" (
junit
) step.
If no results are recorded, this table displays a message.
If all tests pass, this tab will report the total number of passing tests.
If there are failures, the tab will display log details from the failures as shown below.
When a previous run has failures, and the current run fixes those failures, this tab notes the fixes and displays their logs.
Artifacts
The
Artifacts
tab shows a list of any artifacts saved using the "Archive Artifacts" (
archiveArtifacts
) step.
Selecting an item in the list downloads it.
The full output log from the Run can be downloaded from this list.
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User Handbook Overview
User Handbook Overview
This page provides an overview of the documentation in the Jenkins User Handbook.
If you want to get up and running with Jenkins, see Installing Jenkins for procedures on how to install Jenkins on your supported platform of choice.
If you are a typical Jenkins user (of any skill level) who wants to know more about Jenkins usage, see Using Jenkins. Also refer to the separate Pipeline and Blue Ocean chapters for more information about these core Jenkins features.
If you are a Jenkins administrator and want to know more about managing Jenkins nodes and instances, see Managing Jenkins.
If you are a system administrator and want to learn how to back-up, restore, maintain as Jenkins servers and nodes, see Jenkins System Administration.
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Glossary
Glossary
- General Terms
- Build Status
General Terms
- Agent
-
An agent is typically a machine, or container, which connects to a Jenkins controller and executes tasks when directed by the controller.
- Artifact
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An immutable file generated during a Build or Pipeline run which is archived onto the Jenkins Controller for later retrieval by users.
- Build
-
Result of a single execution of a job
- Cloud
-
A System Configuration which provides dynamic Agent provisioning and allocation, such as that provided by the Azure VM Agents or Amazon EC2 plugins.
- Controller
-
The central, coordinating process which stores configuration, loads plugins, and renders the various user interfaces for Jenkins.
- Core
-
The primary Jenkins application (
jenkins.war) which provides the basic web UI, configuration, and foundation upon which Plugins can be built. - Downstream
-
A configured Pipeline or job which is triggered as part of the execution of a separate Pipeline or Job.
- Executor
-
A slot for execution of work defined by a Pipeline or job on a Node. A Node may have zero or more Executors configured which corresponds to how many concurrent Jobs or Pipelines are able to execute on that Node.
- Fingerprint
-
A hash considered globally unique to track the usage of an Artifact or other entity across multiple Pipelines or jobs.
- Folder
-
An organizational container for Pipelines and/or jobs, similar to folders on a file system.
- Item
-
An entity in the web UI corresponding to either a: Folder, Pipeline, or job.
- Jenkins URL
-
The main url for the jenkins application, as visited by a user. e.g. https://ci.jenkins.io/
- Job
-
A user-configured description of work which Jenkins should perform, such as building a piece of software, etc.
- Kubernetes
-
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. See Installing Jenkins / Kubernetes for more info.
- Label
-
User-defined text for grouping Agents, typically by similar functionality or capability. For example
linuxfor Linux-based agents ordockerfor Docker-capable agents. - LTS
-
A long-term support Release line of Jenkins products, becoming available for downloads every 12 weeks. See this page for more info.
- Master
-
A deprecated term, synonymous with Controller.
- Node
-
A machine which is part of the Jenkins environment and capable of executing Pipelines or jobs. Both the Controller and Agents are considered to be Nodes.
- Project
-
A deprecated term, synonymous with job.
- Pipeline
-
A user-defined model of a continuous delivery pipeline, for more read the Pipeline chapter in this handbook.
- Plugin
-
An extension to Jenkins functionality provided separately from Jenkins Core.
- Publisher
-
Part of a Build after the completion of all configured Steps which publishes reports, sends notifications, etc. A publisher may report Stable or Unstable result depending on the result of its processing and its configuration. For example, if a JUnit test fails, then the whole JUnit publisher may report the build result as Unstable.
- Resource Root URL
-
A secondary url used to serve potentially untrusted content (especially build artifacts). This url is distinct from the Jenkins URL.
- Release
-
An event, indicating availability of Jenkins distribution products or one of Jenkins plugins. Jenkins products belong either to LTS or weekly Release lines.
- Stage
-
stageis part of Pipeline, and used for defining a conceptually distinct subset of the entire Pipeline, for example: "Build", "Test", and "Deploy", which is used by many plugins to visualize or present Jenkins Pipeline status/progress. - Step
-
A single task; fundamentally steps tell Jenkins what to do inside of a Pipeline or job. See Pipelines / Getting Started and Pipeline / Using a jenkinsfile for more info.
- Trigger
-
A criteria for triggering a new Pipeline run or job.
- Update Center
-
Hosted inventory of plugins and plugin metadata to enable plugin installation from within Jenkins.
- Upstream
-
A configured Pipeline or job which triggers a separate Pipeline or Job as part of its execution.
- View
-
A way of displaying the data of Jenkins in a dashboard style. This is an extensible object, so there are lots of different ways to list jobs, show trends, and analyze data.
- Workspace
-
A disposable directory on the file system of a Node where work can be done by a Pipeline or job. Workspaces are typically left in place after a Build or Pipeline run completes unless specific Workspace cleanup policies have been put in place on the Jenkins Controller.
Build Status
- Aborted
-
The Build was interrupted before it reaches its expected end. For example, the user has stopped it manually or there was a time-out.
- Failed
-
The Build had a fatal error.
- Stable
-
The Build was Successful and no Publisher reports it as Unstable.
- Successful
-
The Build has no compilation errors.
- Unstable
-
The Build had some errors but they were not fatal. A Build is unstable if it was built successfully and one or more publishers report it unstable. For example if the JUnit publisher is configured and a test fails then the Build will be marked unstable.
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Jenkins Handbook
Jenkins Handbook
-
User Handbook Overview
- Installing Jenkins
- Using Jenkins
- Pipeline
- Blue Ocean
-
Managing Jenkins
- Configuring the System
- Configuration as Code
- Managing Tools
- Managing Plugins
- About Jenkins
- System Information
- Jenkins Features Controlled with System Properties
- Change System Time Zone
- Jenkins CLI
- Script Console
- Groovy Hook Scripts
- Managing Nodes
- In-process Script Approval
- Manage Users
- Themes for user interface
- User Content
- Spawning Processes From Build
- Securing Jenkins
- System Administration
- Scaling Jenkins
- Troubleshooting Jenkins
-
Glossary