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Big Picture

Jenkins Integration

Jenkins pipelines can publish releases into Big Picture automatically. This integration enables artifact registration, release creation, and multi-platform builds using Jenkins declarative or scripted pipelines.

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

Jenkins integration uses pipeline files (declarative or scripted) to automate Big Picture release publishing. Pipelines can trigger on Git tags, push events, or manual builds. The integration supports external artifact references and managed artifact storage.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  1. Service account — Create a Big Picture service account with ci:write and artifacts:write scopes
  2. Jenkins credentials — Store API token as Jenkins credential (e.g., BP_API_TOKEN)
  3. Plugins — Install Pipeline and Credentials Binding plugins
  4. Configuration — Set BP_BASE_URL and BP_PRODUCT_ID as environment variables

Basic Pipeline Pattern

Section titled “Basic Pipeline Pattern”

Jenkins pipelines follow this pattern:

  1. Checkout — Check out repository code
  2. Build — Build installers or packages
  3. Register — Register artifacts with Big Picture
  4. Publish — Create release referencing artifacts

Common Use Cases

Section titled “Common Use Cases”

Tag-Based Releases

Section titled “Tag-Based Releases”

Pipelines trigger on Git tags and publish releases automatically:

only {
    tag '*'
}

Multi-Platform Releases

Section titled “Multi-Platform Releases”

Pipelines build artifacts for Windows, macOS, and Linux in parallel stages, then create a single release.

Credential Management

Section titled “Credential Management”

Pipelines use Jenkins credentials binding to securely access API tokens.

Integration Points

Section titled “Integration Points”
  • Artifact registration — Register artifacts via /v1/artifacts endpoint
  • Managed uploads — Upload artifacts via /v1/artifacts/uploads endpoints
  • Release creation — Create releases via /v1/releases endpoint
  • Error handling — Handle API errors with try-catch blocks

Configuration

Section titled “Configuration”

Store Big Picture credentials as Jenkins credentials:

  • BP_API_TOKEN — Service account API token (secret text credential)
  • BP_BASE_URL — Big Picture API base URL (environment variable)
  • BP_PRODUCT_ID — Product ID (environment variable)

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”

Detailed step-by-step guides for Jenkins integration are planned. These guides will include:

  • Complete pipeline examples for declarative and scripted pipelines
  • Managed artifact upload pipelines
  • Multi-platform build patterns
  • Error handling and retry logic

For now, see the CI/CD Integration overview for general integration patterns.

Section titled “Related Documentation”