Author: Ivano Guerini

Ivano Guerini is a Salesforce Senior Developer at Webresults, part of Engineering Group since 2015.
He started my career on Salesforce during his university studies and based his final thesis on it.
He’s passionate about technology and development, in his spare time he enjoys developing applications mainly on Node.js.

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In this article, I’m going to walk you through the steps to set up CI with Salesforce DX.

For this, I decided to take advantage of Bitbucket and it’s integrated tool Bitbucket Pipelines.

This choice is not made after a comparison between the various version control systems and CI tools but is driven by some business needs for which we decided to fully embrace the cloud solutions and in particular the Atlassian suite of which Bitbucket its part.

What is Continuous Integration?

In software engineering, continuous integration (often abbreviated to CI) is a practice that is applied in contexts in which software development takes place through a versioning system. It consists of frequent alignment from the work environments of the developers to the shared environment.

In particular, it is generally assumed that automatic tests have been prepared that developers can execute immediately before releasing their contributions to the shared environment, so as to ensure that the changes do not introduce errors into the existing software.

Let’s apply this concept to our Salesforce development process using sfdx.

First of all, we have a production org where we want to deploy and maintain the application than typically we have one or more sandboxes such as for UAT, Integration Test and development.

With sfdx, we also have the concept of scratch org, disposable and preconfigured organizations where we, as developers, can deploy and test our work before pushing them into the deployment process.

In the image below you can see an approach to the CI with Salesforce DX. Once a developer have finished a feature he can push into the main Developer branch, from this the CI take place creating a scratch Org to run automated tests, such as Apex Unit Test or even Selenium like test automatisms. If there is no error the dev can create a pull request moving forward in the deployment process.

In this article, I’ll show you how to set up all the required tools and as an example, we will only set up an auto-deploy to our Salesforce org on every git push operation.

Toolbox

Let’s start with a brief description of the tools we’re going to use:

• Git – is a version control system for tracking changes in files and coordinating work on those files across the team. All metadata items, whether modified on the server or locally, are tracked via GIT. This provides us with a version history as well as traceability.
• Bitbucket – is a cloud-based GIT server from Atlassian used for hosting our repository. It provides a UI to navigate the GIT repository and has many additional features like pull requests. These are used for approving and merging changes.
• Docker – provides a way to run applications securely, packaged with all its dependencies and libraries. So, we will be using it to create an environment for running sfdx commands.
• Bitbucket Pipelines – is an add-on for Bitbucket cloud that will allow us to kick off deployments and validations when updates are made to the branches in Bitbucket.

If you have always worked in Salesforce, then it’s quite possible that Docker containers sound alien to you. So what is Docker? In simple terms, Docker can be thought of as a virtual machine in the cloud. Docker provides an environment in the cloud where applications can run. Bitbucket Pipelines support Docker images for running the Continuous Integration scripts. So, instead of installing sfdx in your local system, you’d now specify them to be installed in your Docker image, so that our CI scripts can run.

Create a developer Org and enable the DevHub

We made a brief introduction about what CI is and the tools we’re going to use, now it’s time to get to the heart of it and start configuring our tools. Starting from our Salesforce Org.

We are going to enable the devhub to be able to work with sfdx and we are going to set up a connected app that allows us to handle the login process inside our docker container.

For this article, I created a dedicated developer Org in order to have a clean environment.

We can do this simply filling out the form from the Salesforce site: https://developer.salesforce.com/signup and complete the registration process.

In this way, we will obtain a new environment on which to perform all the tests we want.

Let’s go immediately to enable the DevHub: Setup → Development → DevHub click on the Enable DevHub toggle.

Once enabled it can’t be disabled but this is a requirement to be able to work with SFDX.

Now you can install the sfdx cli tool on you computer.

Create a connected app

Now that we have our new org and the sfdx cli installed, we can run sfdx commands that makes it easy for us to manage the entire application development life cycle from the command line, including creating scripts that facilitate automation.

However, our CI will run in a separate environment where we haven’t a direct control, such as for the logging. So we will need a way to manage the authorization process inside the docker container when your CI automation job runs.

To do this we’ll use the OAuth JSON Web Token (JWT) bearer flow that’s supported in the Salesforce CLI, this OAuth flow gives you the ability to authenticate using the CLI without having to interactively login. This headless flow is perfect for automated builds and scripting.

Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate and Private Key

For a CI solution to work, you’ll generate a private key for signing the JWT bearer token payload, and you’ll create a connected app in the Dev Hub org that contains a certificate generated from that private key.

To create an SSL certificate you need a private key and a certificate signing request. You can generate these files using OpenSSL CLI with a few simple commands.

If you use Unix Based System, you can install the OpenSSL CLI from the official OpenSSL website.

If you use Windows instead, you can download an installer from Shining Light Productions, although there are plenty of alternatives.

We will follow some specific command to create a certificate for our needs, if you want to better understand how OpenSSL works, you can find a handy guide in this article.

If you are not familiar with OpenSSL you can find a good

1. Create a folder on your PC to store the generated files
   mkdir certificates
2. Generate an RSA private key
   openssl genrsa -des3 -passout pass:<password> -out server.pass.key 2048
3. Create a key file from the server.pass.key file using the same password from before:
   openssl rsa -passin pass:<password> -in server.pass.key -out server.key
4. Delete the server.pass.key:
   rm server.pass.key
5. Request and generate the certificate, when prompted for the challenge password press enter to skip the step:
   openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
6. Generate the SSL certificate:
   openssl x509 -req -sha256 -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

The self-signed SSL certificate is generated from the server.key private key and server.csr files.

Create the Connected App

The next step is to create a connected app on Salesforce that includes the certificate we just created.

1. From Setup, enter App Manager in the Quick Find box, then select App Manager.
2. Click New Connected App.
3. Enter the connected app name and your email address:
   1. Connected App Name: sfdx ci
   1. Contact Email: <your email address>

1. Select Enable OAuth Settings.
2. Enter the callback URL:
3. http://localhost:1717/OauthRedirect
4. Select Use digital signatures.
5. To upload your server.crt file, click Choose File.
6. For OAuth scopes, add:
   • Access and manage your data (api)
   • Perform requests on your behalf at any time (refresh_token, offline_access)
   • Provide access to your data via the Web (web)
7. Click Save

Edit Policies to avoid authorization step

After you’ve saved your connected app, edit the policies to enable the connected app to circumvent the manual login process.

1. Click Manage.
2. Click Edit Policies.
3. In the OAuth policies section, for Permitted Users select Admin approved users are pre-authorized, then click OK.
4. Click Save.

Create a Permission Set

Lastly, create a permission set and assign pre-authorized users for this connected app.

1. From Setup, enter Permission in the Quick Find box, then select Permission Sets.
2. Click New.
3. For the Label, enter: sfdx ci
4. Click Save.
5. Click sfdx ci | Manage Assignments | Add Assignments.
6. Select the checkbox next to your Dev Hub username, then click Assign | Done.
7. Go back to your connected app.
   1. From Setup, enter App Manager in the Quick Find box, then select App Manager.
   2. Next to sfdx ci, click the list item drop-down arrow (), then select Manage.
   3. In the Permission Sets section, click Manage Permission Sets.
   4. Select the checkbox next to sfdx ci, then click Save.

Test the JWT Auth Flow

Open your Dev Hub org.

• If you already authorized the Dev Hub, open it:
  sfdx force:org:open -u DevHub

• If you haven’t yet logged in to your Dev Hub org:
  sfdx force:auth:web:login -d -a DevHub

Adding the -d flag sets this org as the default Dev Hub. To set an alias for the org, use the -a flag with an argument to set an alias.

To test the JWT auth flow you’ll use some of the information that we asked you to save previously. We’ll use the consumer key that was generated when you created the connected app (CONSUMER_KEY), the absolute path to the location where you generated your OpenSSL server.key file (JWT_KEY_FILE) and the username for the Dev Hub (HUB_USERNAME).

1. On the command line, create these three session-based environment variables:
   export CONSUMER_KEY=<connected app consumer key>
   export JWT_KEY_FILE= ../certificates/server.key
   export HUB_USERNAME=<your Dev Hub username>
   
   These environment variables facilitate running the JWT auth command.
   
2. Enter the following command as-is on a single line:
   sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant –clientid ${CONSUMER_KEY} –username ${HUB_USERNAME} \ –jwtkeyfile ${JWT_KEY_FILE} –setdefaultdevhubusername

This command logs in to the Dev Hub using only the consumer key (client ID), the username, and the JWT key file. And best of all, it doesn’t require you to interactively log in, which is important when you want your scripts to run automatically.

Congratulations, you’ve created your connected app and you are able to login using it with the SFDX CLI.

Set up your development environment

In this section we will configure our local environment, creating a remote repository in Bitbucket and linking it to our local sfdx project folder.

If you are already familiar with these steps you can skip and pass directly to the next section.

Create a Git Repository on Bitbucket

If you don’t have a bitbucket account, you can create a free one registering to the following link: https://bitbucket.org/account/signup/

Just insert your email and follow the first registration procedure.

Once logged in you will be able to create a new git repository from the plus button on the right menu.

You will be prompted to a window like the following, just insert a name for the repository, in my case I’ll name it: sfdx-ci, leaving Git selected as Version Control System.

We’re in but our repo is totally empty, Bitbucket provides some quick commands to initialize our repo. Select the clone command:

git clone https://[email protected]/username/sfdx-ci.git

Move to your desktop and open the command line tool and paste and execute the git clone command. This command will create a folder named like the Bitbucket repository already linked to it as a remote branch.

Initialize SFDX project

Without moving from our position, execute the sfdx create project command:
force:project:create -n sfdx-ci

Using the -n parameter with the same name of the folder we just cloned from git.

Try deploy commands

Before we pass to configure our CLI operations let’s try to do it in our local environment.

First of all, we must create our sfdx project.

The general sfdx deployment flow into a sandbox or production org is:

1. Convert from source form to metadata api form
   sfdx force:source:convert -d <target directory>
2. Use the metadata api to deploy
   sfdx force:mdapi:deploy -d <same directory as step 1> -u <username or alias>

These commands will be the same we are going to use inside our Bitbucket Pipelines, You can try in your local environment to see how they work.

Set up Continuous Integration

In previous sections, we talked mostly about common Salesforce project procedures. In the next one, we are going deeper in the CI world. Starting with a brief introduction to Docker and Bitbucket Pipelines.

Lastly, we’ll see how to create a Docker image with SFDX CLI installed and how to use it in our pipeline to run sfdx deploy commands.

Docker

Wikipedia defines Docker as

an open-source project that automates the deployment of software applications inside containers by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of OS-level virtualization on Linux.

In simpler words, Docker is a tool that allows developers, sys-admins, etc. to easily deploy their applications in a sandbox (called containers) to run on the host operating system i.e. Linux. The key benefit of Docker is that it allows users to package an application with all of its dependencies into a standardized unit for software development.

Docker Terminology

Before we go further, let me clarify some terminology that is used frequently in the Docker ecosystem.

• Images – The blueprints of our application which form the basis of containers.
• Containers – Containers offer a logical packaging mechanism in which applications can be abstracted from the environment in which they actually run.
• Docker Daemon – The background service running on the host that manages building, running and distributing Docker containers. The daemon is the process that runs in the operating system to which clients talk to.
• Docker Client – The command line tool that allows the user to interact with the daemon.
• Docker Hub – A registry of Docker images. You can think of the registry as a directory of all available Docker images.
• Dockerfile – A Dockerfile is a simple text file that contains a list of commands that the Docker client calls while creating an image. It’s a simple way to automate the image creation process. The best part is that the commands you write in a Dockerfile are almost identical to their equivalent Linux commands.

Build our personal Docker Image with SFDX CLI installed

Most Dockerfiles start from a parent image. If you need to completely control the contents of your image, you might need to create a base image instead. A parent image is an image that your image is based on. It refers to the contents of the FROM directive in the Dockerfile. Each subsequent declaration in the Dockerfile modifies this parent image.

Most Dockerfiles start from a parent image, rather than a base image, this will be our case, we will start from a Node base image.

Create a folder on your machine and create a file named Dockerfile, and paste the following code:

FROM node:jessie
RUN apk add --update --no-cache git openssh ca-certificates openssl curl
RUN npm install sfdx-cli --global
RUN sfdx --version
USER node

Let’s explain what this code means, in order:

1. We use a Node base image, this image comes with NPM and Node.js preinstalled. This one is the official Node.js docker image, and jessie indicate the last available version;
2. Next, with the apk add command we are going to install some additional utility tools mainly git and openssl to handle sfdx login using certificates;
3. Lastly using npm command we install the SFDX CLI tools;
4. Just a check for the installed version;
5. And finally the USER instruction sets the user name to use when running the image.

Now we have to build our image and publishing it to the Docker Hub so to be ready to use in our Pipelines.

1. Create an account on Docker Hub.
2. Download and install Docker Desktop. If on Linux, download Docker Engine – Community
3. Login to Docker Hub with your credentials. 
   docker login –username=yourhubusername –password=yourpassword
4. Build you Docker Image
   docker build -t <your_username>/sfdxci
5. Test your docker image locally:
   docker run <your_username>/sfdxci
6. Push your Docker image to your Docker Hub repository
   docker push <your_username>/sfdxci

Pushing a docker image on the Docker Hub will make it available for use in Bitbucket pipelines.

Bitbucket Pipelines

Now that we have a working Docker Image with sfdx installed we can continue configuring the pipeline, that’s the core of our CI procedure.

Bitbucket Pipelines is an integrated CI/CD service, built into Bitbucket. It allows you to automatically build, test and even deploy your code, based on a configuration file in your repository. Essentially, it creates containers in the cloud for you.

Inside these containers, you can run commands (like you might on a local machine) but with all the advantages of a fresh system, custom configured for your needs.

To set up Pipelines you need to create and configure the bitbucket-pipelines.yml file in the root directory of your repository, if you are working with branches,  to be executed this file must be present in each branch root directory.

A bitbucket-pipelines.yml file looks like the following:

image: atlassian/default-image:2
 pipelines:
   default:
     - step:
         script: 
           - echo "Hello world default"
   branches:
     features/*:
         - step:
             script: 
               - echo "Hello world feature branch"

There is a lot you can configure in the bitbucket-pipelines.yml file, but at its most basic the required keywords are:

• image – the Docker image that will be used to create the Docker Container, You can use the default image (atlassian/default-image:latest), but using a personal one is preferred to avoid time consumption during the installation of required tools (e.g. SFDX CLI), To specify an image, use image: <your_dockerHub_account/repository_details>:<tag>
• pipelines – contains all your pipeline definitions.
• default – contains the steps that run on every push, unless they match one of the other sections.
• branches – Specify the name of a branch on which run the defined steps, or use a glob pattern (to learn more about the glob patterns, refer to the BitBucket official guide).
• step – each step starts a new Docker container with a clone of your repository, then runs the contents of your script section.
• script – a list of cli commands that are executed in sequence.

Other than default and branches there are more signals keyword to identify what step must run, such as pull-request, but I leave you to the official documentation, we are going to use only these two.

Keep in mind that each step in your pipeline runs a separate Docker container and the script runs the commands you provide in this environment with the repository folder available.

Configure SFDX deployment Pipelines

Before configuring our pipeline, let’s review for a moment the steps needed to deploy to a production org using sfdx cli.

First of all we need to login into our SF org, to do so we have created a Salesforce Connected App to allow us logging in without any manual operation, simply using the following command:

sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant --clientid  --username  --jwtkeyfile keys/server.key --setdefaultdevhubusername --setalias sfdx-ci --instanceurl 

As you can see there are three parameters that we have to set in this command line:

• CONSUMER_KEY
• SFDC_PROD_USER
• SFDC_PROD_URL

Bitbucket offer a way to store some variables that can be used in our pipelines in order to avoid hard-coded values.

Under Bitbucket repository Settings → Pipelines → Repository Variables create three variables and fill them in with the data at your disposal.

Another parameter required by this command is the server.key file, in this case I simply added it in my repository under the keys folder.

It’s not a good practice and I will move it in a more secure position, but for this demonstration it’s enough.

Now you are logged in, you need only two sfdx commands to deploy your metadata. One to convert your project in a metadata API format and one to deploy in the sf org:
sfdx force:source:convert -d mdapi
sfdx force:mdapi:deploy -d mdapi -u <SFDC_PROD_USER>

Like the login command we are going to use a Pipeline Variable to indicate the target org username under the -u parameter.

OK, now that we know how to deploy a SFDX proggect we can put all this into our pipeline.

Move to the root of our sfdx project and create the bitbucket-pipelines.yml file and paste the following code (replace the image name with your own Docker image):

image: ivanoguerini/sfdx:latest
 pipelines:
  default:
 step:
    script: 
      - echo $SFDC_PROD_URL
      - echo $SFDC_PROD_USER
      - sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant --clientid $CONSUMER_KEY --username $SFDC_PROD_USER --jwtkeyfile keys/server.key --setdefaultdevhubusername --setalias sfdx-ci --instanceurl $SFDC_PROD_URL
      - sfdx force:source:convert -d mdapi
      - sfdx force:mdapi:deploy -d mdapi -u $SFDC_PROD_USER 

Commit and push this changes to the git repository.

Test the CI

OK we have our CI up and running, let’s do a quick test.

In your project create a new apex class and put some code in it. Then commit and push your changes.

git add .
git commit -am “Test CI”
git push

As we said the pipeline will run on every push into the remote repository, you can check the running status under the Pipelines menu. You will see something like this:

As you know, the mdapi:deploy command is asynchronous so to check if there was some errors during the deploy you have to run the following command mdapi:deploy:report specifying the jobId or if you prefer you can check the deploy directly in the salesforce Org under Deployment section.

Conclusions

With this article I wanted to provide you with the necessary knowledge to start configuring a CI using the BitBucket Pipelines.

Obviously what I showed you is not enough for a CI that can be used in an enterprise project, there is still a lot to do.

Here are some starting points to improve what we have seen:

1. Store the server.key in a safe place so that it is not directly accessible from your repository.
2. Manage the CI in the various sandbox environments used
3. For the developer branch, consider automating the creation a scratch org and running Apex Unit Tests.

But, I leave this to you.