jenkins-job-builder/doc/source/extending.rst

Extending

Jenkins Job Builder is quite modular. It is easy to add new attributes to existing components, a new module to support a Jenkins plugin, or include locally defined methods to deal with an idiosyncratic build system.

XML Processing

Most of the work of building XML from the YAML configuration file is handled by individual functions that implement a single characteristic. For example, see the jenkins_jobs/modules/builders.py file for the Python module that implements the standard Jenkins builders. The shell function at the top of the file implements the standard Execute a shell build step. All of the YAML to XML functions in Jenkins Job Builder have the same signature:

arg YAMLParser parser

the jenkins jobs YAML parser

arg Element xml_parent

this attribute's parent XML element

arg dict data

the YAML data structure for this attribute and below

The function is expected to examine the YAML data structure and create new XML nodes and attach them to the xml_parent element. This general pattern is applied throughout the included modules.

Modules

Nearly all of Jenkins Job Builder is implemented in modules. The main program has no concept of builders, publishers, properties, or any other aspects of job definition. Each of those building blocks is defined in a module, and due to the use of setuptools entry points, most modules are easily extensible with new components.

To add a new module, define a class that inherits from :pyjenkins_jobs.modules.base.Base, and add it to the jenkins_jobs.modules entry point in your setup.py.

jenkins_jobs.modules.base.Base

Components

Most of the standard modules supply a number of components, and it's easy to provide your own components for use by those modules. For instance, the Builders module provides several builders, such as the shell builder as well as the trigger_builds builder. If you wanted to add a new builder, all you need to do is write a function that conforms to the Component Interface <component_interface>, and then add that function to the appropriate entry point (via a setup.py file).