FinalBuilder
- SKU: FINALBUI
A powerful Automated Build & Release Management tool that makes it easy to define and maintain a reliable and repeatable build process.
Automating your Build process is simple with FinalBuilder. With FinalBuilder you don’t need to edit xml or write scripts. Visually define and debug your build scripts, then schedule them with windows scheduler or integrate them with Continua CI, Jenkins or any other CI Server.
Key Features:
- Graphical Interface: FinalBuilder presents your build process in a logically structured, graphical interface. Any software developer can define and maintain their build with FinalBuilder, without needing to learn a new XML schema or language.
- 600+ Actions: With its extensive library of pre-written actions, FinalBuilder has an action to automate every common task in your build process. It also integrates with your existing compilers, version control systems and testing tools.
- Flow Control: FinalBuilder includes Try and Catch actions for localised error handling as well as all the loops and conditional statements you get in a full programming language.
- Scheduled Builds: FinalBuilder provides tight integration with the windows scheduling service, which allows builds to be scheduled to run daily, weekly or whenever you wish.
- Integrated Debugging: A debugging engine is fully integrated into the FinalBuilder IDE. You can step between actions, set break points and set variable watches to debug your build process.
- Detailed Logging: Output from all actions in the build process is directed to the build log. The log maintains the same tree structure as the action lists, which makes it easy to navigate the log file. Logs can be exported in HTML, XML or text formats.
- Email, MSN, FTP & SFTP Support: Your build process can email the results of the build to you. For example, if the build fails it can export the log, attach it to an email and send it to you. You can announce successful builds on NNTP news servers.
- Variables: Using variables is the key to making your build process dynamic. Use variables to pass information from one action to another and enable actions to build with user specific or machine specific values.
- Version Control Integration: FinalBuilder supports more than a dozen version control systems out-of-the-box, so it can get, checkout, tag and perform other build related operations with your existing revision control system.
- Scripting Support: Each FinalBuilder action exposes a number of script events, where you have access to all the properties of the action using VBScript, JavaScript, Powershell or Iron Python. In addition, the “Run Script” action allows you to perform specific tasks which might not be covered by the built in action types.
- Action Studio: Action Studio is an IDE for writing custom FinalBuilder actions. It provides a way to extend the built-in functionality in FinalBuilder. Action Studio is included in FinalBuilder and can be accessed under the “Tools” menu.
FinalBuilder – Features
FinalBuilder automates tasks that are a routine part of the software development cycle. Define a repeatable list of actions that can be executed in the same manner time after time. Traditionally, developers have used DOS batch files or general purpose scripting tools to automate builds. Batch files can be difficult to maintain and understand and suffer from a lack of proper error handling. It can take a long time to evolve a batch file to the point where it is reliable enough for use. FinalBuilder can be used to maintain a build process by automating builds in a GUI enviroment without requiring batch programming skills.
New Features in Version 6 General Features Feature Matrix
- Windows PowerShell
PowerShell is now supported alongside VBScript and JavaScript as a FinalBuilder scripting language. This means that any action can be extended with PowerShell script events, and it is also possible to create PowerShell based custom actions with ActionStudio. - Action Logging
Action log output is now tagged and color-coded according to Errors, Warnings, Success and Information. It is possible to filter the log display in the IDE according to these output tags (for example, to show only Error & Warning output.) - Hierarchical Logging
Actions now produce hierarchical log output, so related messages are grouped together in the log tree. - Performance
FinalBuilder is now faster to start up, and runtime performance has dramatically improved. Live logging performance has also increased markedly over previous versions. - Improved Output Quality
All frequently used actions have been visited and revamped, with a view to improving the quality and usefulness of log output. - Automatic Descriptions
Automatic descriptions for all commonly used actions have been revisited and improved. This make it easy to create a self-documenting build process - Action Output Monitors
The new Action Output Monitor feature allows you to watch for particular patterns of log output from an action. The action’s behaviour can be modified depending on the output, or specific messages can be captured or suppressed from the action log. - MSBuild Task The FinalBuilder MSBuild task now outputs fully formatted MSBuild output, for use with MSBuild Loggers.
- Extra Team Foundation Support Team Foundation support has been improved markedly for this release of FinalBuilder. FinalBuilder projects running inside Team Build now automatically export any MSTest results to the Team Foundation Data Warehouse. Statistics from other testing frameworks (NUnit, MbUnit, etc.) are also submitted to the Data Warehouse, and can be included in Team Foundation Reports such as the Build Quality report.
- Visual Studio Team Explorer Integration
FinalBuilder now comes with an addin for Visual Studio 2008 Team Explorer. New Team Build definitions can be added which automatically use FinalBuilder as the build engine. There is also a new graphical Build Definition editor, integrated with Team Explorer. It is no longer necessary to edit the XML build definition file in order to add, edit and remove FinalBuilder projects. - Error Dialog Monitor
This new feature allows you to monitor a third party application for error dialogs popped up while running an action. Dialogs can be automatically dismissed, as appropriate. This is useful when working with poorly-written third party tools that display dialogs when running in an automated mode. - New user info file
The various user-specific .fbd,.fbw,.fbp files used in previous versions have been converted into one common .fbpinf file, with all user-specific data for the project. This file also contains information on the current layout of the project tree, which makes the project file more version-control friendly.
IDE Improvements
- IDE Action Types and Options Filter
The IDE Action Types view has been heavily revamped with a new, smarter, search system. This makes it easier to find the action that you’re looking for. The same new view has been added to the Options dialog. - IDE Welcome Page
The new Welcome Page provides quick and easy startup, introductory information, and quick navigation to commonly used starting points. - IDE Reorganization
The layout of the Run Status and Build History tabs have been rearranged for improved usability and performance. It is now possible to watch the Run Status and the project layout at the same time. - Live Logging Improvements
Enabling live logging while the build is running now shows any existing output from the current running action. - SCC Checkin Comment [Professional Only]
FinalBuilder now provides a checkin comment dialog if the SCC Source Control plugin does not provide one. - Validation
Action validation errors are now hyperlinks to the source of the failure (action or option pages.) - Easy Scripting of Action Properties
Selecting any action property in the Properties tab (formerly called the Action Inspector) now automatically displays the fragment of script used to access that property from an action script event. - Project Author and Notes
The Project Tree has new fields for project author and any notes about the project. These fields are displayed in the Project Information node, as well as on the Welcome Page in the recent projects section. - Project Information in Project Tree
The Project Tree now includes a project information node that provides detailed information about the current project. The information exposed is: Project Name, Project Path, Created Date, Modified Date, Successful Builds, Failed Builds, Total Builds, Success Ratio (expressed as a percentage), Last Build Date, Last Build Result, Action List Count, Action Count, SCC provider, Log File Size, Project Author, and Project Notes. - Variable Groups
Variables can now be grouped for easier management. - Variable Suggestion
Press F12 while editing any action property field to automatically see a list of suggested variables to substitute for hard-coded strings. This feature makes it much easier to create a robust and maintainable build process. - Global Script Editor Enhancements
Find and Replace has been added to the Global Script Editor as well as many other usability enhancements like better resizing of the window, works with dual monitor setups better, and if no changes are made to the script then Escape and Cancel will close the window without prompting. - Batch Project Upgrade
For FinalBuilder users that have dozens or even hundreds of projects in older formats, the new batch project upgrade dialog will enable you to upgrade old projects automatically.
New Actions
- CSV Field Iterator
Iterate the fields of a CSV (or similar) file. - GUI Automation Actions [Professional Only]
GUI Automation Actions (as seen in Automise 2) allow automated interaction with the user interface of any normal Windows application. The new actions are “Wait for Window or Control”, “Perform Mouse Click”, “Send Keyboard Input” and “Set Scrollbar Position”. - MbUnit Action
Support for the MbUnit test framework. - Visual Studio Solution File Iterator
Iterate the projects contained inside a Microsoft Visual Studio.NET solution file. The iterator can use the project file paths, project names, or project IDs. - Web Service Actions New actions for querying and receiving data from Web Services.
- Team Foundation Build Parameters Action
When FinalBuilder is running under Team Foundation Build, this action provides an easy way to read Team Build parameters into FinalBuilder variables, as required.
Improved Actions
- Export Log Action
Can now export a log fragment instead of a whole log. - MSBuild Project Action
The MSBuild Project Action now has enhanced design-time support, and supports fully hierarchical log output.
ActionStudio
- Custom Action Property Sets
Custom actions defined in ActionStudio can now define their own Property Set types. It is also possible for custom actions to access built-in Property Set types. - Custom Action File Sets
Custom actions defined in ActionStudio can now access File Set information and file lists. - New .NET Custom Action API
FinalBuilder 6 ships with a new API for creating .NET custom actions. The new API makes it quicker and easier than ever to create custom actions with ActionStudio and .NET - Find & Replace
Find & Replace has been added to ActionStudio in the script editor to easily search for and replace text. - Windows PowerShell
PowerShell has been added to ActionStudio as a scripting language for developing custom actions. - Search Keywords
Actions can now define extra search keywords which is used by the FinalBuilder IDE when a user searches for actions. For example, a action called “Delay” could define keywords “Wait” and “Pause” for easier searching. - Iterator Actions A third type of action, Iterator has been added alongside Standard and Execute Program. The Iterator action type allows the development of Iterator actions that run multiple times (including their child actions) for each value in a list.
Easy-to-use graphical interface
FinalBuilder’s user interface has been carefully crafted to make it as easy-to-use as possible. Anyone in your team can use FinalBuilder to automate tasks.
600+ built in Action Types.
FinalBuilder includes a broad range of action types that cover almost any task you might need to automate.
- Listing of all the built-in actions in FinalBuilder
- Creating custom plugins.
Scheduled Builds
FinalBuilder provides tight integration with the windows scheduling service, which allows builds to be scheduled to run daily, weekly or whatever you wish.
Advanced Flow control actions
FinalBuilder includes Try/Catch/Finally actions which allow localised structured error handling, and flow control actions such as If Then, Else, Switch/Case, While Loop.
Integration with Version Control Systems/Source Code Repositories
Almost all automated build processes require some type of interaction with a Version Control System or Source Code Repository. FinalBuilder directly supports the following:
- AccuRev [AccuRev Website]
- Borland StarTeam [Borland StarTeam]
- CVS [Concurrent Version System]
- IBM/Rational ClearCase [ClearCase]
- JediVCS [JEDI Version Control System]
- QVCS [Quma Software]
- MKS Source Integrity [MKS Website]
- Perforce [Perforce Software]
- PureCM [PureCM Website]
- PVCS [Serena Website]
- SubVersion [Tigris.org]
- Surround SCM [Seapine website]
- Sourcegear Vault [Sourcegear]
- Team Coherence [QSC]
- Team Foundation Source Control [VisualStudio Team System]
- Visual SourceSafe (VSS 6 and VSS 2005) [Microsoft VSS 6, Microsoft VSS 2005]
Email, Newsgroup, ICQ, FTP Support
Your build process can email the results of the build to you, so for example if the build fails, it can export the log, attach it to an email and send it to you. Or it can send you an ICQ message. You can announce successful builds on nntp news servers.
Built in Active Scripting Support
Each FinalBuilder action exposes a number of script events, where you have access to all the properties of the action using VBScript or JScript. In addition, the Run Script action allows you to perform specific tasks which might not be covered by the built in action types..
Detailed Logging
Output from all actions in the build process is directed to the build log. The log maintains the same tree structure as the action lists, which makes it easy to find your way in the log file. Logs can be exported in HTML, XML or text formats.
Variables
Using variables is the key to making your build process dynamic. Use variables to pass information from one action to another, and also to enable actions to use user specific or machine specific values.
Features | Standard | Professional |
---|---|---|
IDE Features | ||
Easy to use and powerful GUI | ||
Hierarchial logging to database | ||
Debugging (Watches, Breakpoints, etc) | ||
Integrated ActiveScript | ||
Run the build in IDE or on command line | ||
ActionStudio | ||
SCC Integration in IDE | ||
Run multiple actions in parallel | ||
Build Statistics Graphs and Reports | ||
Create run-only password protected projects | ||
Access to FinalBuilder Server | ||
Action Studio Features | ||
Develop actions in .NET, VBScript, JScript and COM | ||
Property Page designer | ||
Script editor | ||
Integrated help | ||
Import and Export encrypted action packages | ||
Actions | ||
Actions operating on FB Variables | ||
PropertySet Actions | ||
Interactive actions | ||
Registry and INI actions | ||
Archiver actions | ||
Build Tool actions | ||
Internet actions | ||
.NET Tool actions | ||
Virtualization Software actions | ||
Testing Tool actions | ||
Compiler actions | ||
Licensing actions | ||
Help Compiler actions | ||
Version Control Systems actions | ||
XML actions | ||
Flow control actions | ||
Miscellaneous actions | ||
Windows OS actions | ||
IIS Actions | ||
Iterator actions | ||
Files & Directory actions | ||
Install Builder actions | ||
CD/DVD burner actions | ||
Database actions |
FinalBuilder – System Requirements
Operating Systems supported :
- Windows Vista (x86 and 64)
- Windows Server 2008 (x86 and 64)
- Windows Server 2003 (x86 and 64)
- Windows XP SP1+ (x86 and 64)
- Windows 2000 SP3+
- MSXML4 is also required
NOTE: FinalBuilder is not supported on Windows 95/98/ME
Processor : 1ghz or higher
Memory : 512MB Ram or higher
Disk Space : 40MB