Build CI/CD pipeline using Gitlab for Salesforce

Join us to learn about how to build CI/CD pipeline using Gitlab for Salesforce. Learn how to get started quickly with CI/CD using GitLab and Salesforce DX tools. In this post we will talk about step by step process to setup setup CI/CD pipeline for Salesforce.

What is CI/CD pipeline?

CI/CD falls under DevOps and it combines the practices of continuous integration and continuous delivery. With a CI/CD pipeline, We can then automatically test and pushed out for delivery and deployment. This best practice helps development teams to detect problems, identify bugs, and fix those problems and bugs before releasing changes to their customers.

What is Continuous Integration (CI)?

Using continuous integration, a product is made to incorporate and integrate each code modification on each commit (continuously), by any and all developers. an automated build then verifies each check-in, letting teams detect issues early.

What is Continuous Delivery (CD)?

Continuous delivery ensures that code will be speedily and safely deployed to production by manually pushing each change to a production-like environment. Since each modification is automatically delivered to a staging environment, you’ll be able to deploy the application to production with a push of a button once the time is correct.

What is Continuous Deployment(CD)?

Continuous deployment is the next step of continuous delivery. Using Continuous deployment, each modification that passes the automated tests is deployed to production automatically. Most firms that aren’t bound by regulatory or other constraints should have a goal of continuous deployment.

Benefits of CI/CD implementation

• Shorter Development Cycles, Faster Innovation
• Reduced Deployment Failures, Rollbacks, and Time to Recover
• Improved Communication and Collaboration
• Increased Efficiencies

Build a CI/CD Pipeline for Salesforce

Let’s see a step-by-step process to set up / Build CI/CD pipeline using GitLab for Salesforce. Before reading it check out 5 Pillars of a successful Salesforce DevOps process.

1. Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate and Private Key

#1.1. Got OpenSSL?

You use the OpenSSL library to generate your security certificate. 

1. Run the following command in your local environment to see whether you already have OpenSSL installed:

which openssl

Did this command return a path that looked something like this?

• /usr/bin/openssl

2. If the which openssl command doesn’t return a path, install OpenSSL.

If you have	Install with
macOS	Homebrew: brew install openssl
Windows	Windows complete package.exe installer

1.1.2 Create Certificate

Using OpenSSL, issue a new private key and certificate and store them in a file called server.key. To do this, enter the following commands.

Generate an RSA private key.

openssl genrsa -des3 -passout pass:x -out server.pass.key 2048

Create a key file from the server.pass.key file

openssl rsa -passin pass:x -in server.pass.key -out server.key

Generate a certificate signing request using the server.key file. Store the certificate signing request in a file called server.csr. Enter information about your company when prompted

openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

Prompt	Input
Country Name (2 letter code)	US
State or Province Name (full name)	GA
Locality Name (eg, city)	AL
Organization Name (eg, company)	ApexHours
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section)	Demo
Common Name (eg, fully qualified host name)	ApexHours
Email Address	Enter your email address
Password	Press Enter to indicate no password

Next, create a self-signed digital certificate from the server.key and server.csr files. Store the certificate in a file called server.crt.

openssl x509 -req -sha256 -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

Encrypt the server.key file and add the encrypted file (server.key.enc) to an assets folder

openssl aes-256-cbc -salt -e -in server.key -out server.key.enc -k Password01

2. Create a Connected App for JWT-Based Flow

Learn more about Salesforce OAuth 2.0 JWT Bearer flow. Please follow the below step to create a connected app:

1. Setup-> App Manager -> New Connected App
2. Provide all required detail
   1. Callback URL:-http://localhost:1717/OauthRedirect
   2. Use digital signatures To upload your server.crt file.
   3. Include “Perform requests at any time (refresh_token, offline_access)”

3. Edit policy and select “Admin approved users are pre-authorized” to avoid “Not approved for access in salesforce” issue. 

4. Assign Connected App to user or System Admin profile.
5. Validate Authorize an Org Using the JWT-Based Flow

sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant --clientid {ADD_YOUR_CLIENT_ID} --jwtkeyfile server.key --username amit.salesforce21@gmail.com --instanceurl https://login.salesforce.com –setdefaultdevhubusername

• –clientid  :- provide Consumer Key
• –jwtkeyfile :- Absolute path to the location where you generated your OpenSSL server.key file
• –instanceurl :-provide instanceurl if you are using sandbox.
• –setdefaultdevhubusername :- Set Default dev hub User Name.

3. Create a GitLab Project

Create a Gitlab project and push your Initial code into Gitlab.

3.1. Login on Gitlab.

3.2. Click on New Project.

3.3. Create a project.

3.4 Connect your Vs Code with Salesforce and pull all initial code in the local machine.

3.5. Push all your initial Code using Git commands.

4. Configure the GitLab Environment Variable

It is time to set up GitLab CI/CD variables. CI/CD variables are a type of environment variable. You can use them to Control the behavior of jobs and pipelines.

4.1. Click on Setting -> CI/CD -> Variables.

4.2. Define all variable 

Variable	Value
SERVER_KEY_PASSWORD	Password01
SF_CONSUMER_KEY_PROD	3MVFmexaL0bXfMzW***b9ZZkQx7dE2xfZOL1
SF_USERNAME_PROD	amit.salesforce21@gmail.com.cicddemo

5. Configure your .gitlab-ci.yml file.

Configure your .gitlab-ci.yml file.

#
# GitLab CI/CD Pipeline : Apex Hours
#

before_script:
 # Decrypt server key
 - openssl aes-256-cbc -d -md md5 -in assets/server.key.enc -out assets/server.key -k $SERVER_KEY_PASSWORD
 # Install jq
 - apt update && apt -y install jq

 # Setup SFDX environment variables
 - export CLIURL=https://developer.salesforce.com/media/salesforce-cli/sfdx-linux-amd64.tar.xz
 - export SFDX_AUTOUPDATE_DISABLE=false
 - export SFDX_USE_GENERIC_UNIX_KEYCHAIN=true
 - export SFDX_DOMAIN_RETRY=300
 - export ROOTDIR=force-app/main/default/
 - export SCRATCH_ORG_ALIAS="ApexHours"

 # Install Salesforce CLI
 - mkdir sfdx
 - wget -qO- $CLIURL | tar xJ -C sfdx --strip-components 1
 - "./sfdx/install"
 - export PATH=./sfdx/$(pwd):$PATH
 # Output CLI version and plug-in information
 - sfdx --version
 - sfdx plugins --core

stages:
 - build-testing
 - prod-deploy

#
# Create Scratch Org for build-testing -- ApexHours
#
build-testing:
 stage: build-testing
 script:
 # Authenticate to the Dev Hub using the server key
 - sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant --clientid $SF_CONSUMER_KEY_PROD --jwtkeyfile assets/server.key --username $SF_USERNAME_PROD --setdefaultdevhubusername --setalias HubOrg
 # Create scratch org
 - sfdx force:org:create --targetdevhubusername HubOrg --setdefaultusername --definitionfile config/project-scratch-def.json --setalias $SCRATCH_ORG_ALIAS --wait 10 --durationdays 7
 - sfdx force:org:display --targetusername $SCRATCH_ORG_ALIAS
 # Push source to scratch org (This is with source code, all files, etc)
 - sfdx force:source:push --targetusername $SCRATCH_ORG_ALIAS
 # Delete Scratch Org
 - sfdx force:org:delete --targetusername $SCRATCH_ORG_ALIAS --noprompt

prod-deploy:
 stage: prod-deploy
 when: manual
 script:
 # Authenticate to the Dev Hub using the server key
 - sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant --clientid $SF_CONSUMER_KEY_PROD --jwtkeyfile assets/server.key --username $SF_USERNAME_PROD --setdefaultdevhubusername --setalias HubOrg
 # Push source to scratch org (This is with source code, all files, etc)
 - sfdx force:source:deploy --targetusername HubOrg -p $ROOTDIR

You can enhance this script to run the build testing on merge requests and Trigger production deployment only main branch merge or base on your branching.

6. Commit the Initial Salesforce Project on GitLab

Then commit your asset and .gitlab-ci.yml file.

Congratulation Now your CI/CD pipeline is ready. Now to test it? Now developer needs to commit the changes in GitLab to trigger the pipeline in GitLab. Learn about Useful Git commands.

Setup your System for GitLab (For Developer one time activity)

#1. Install the CLI

Install the CLI using one of the links below

Operating System	Link to Installer
macOS	https://sfdc.co/sfdx_cli_osx
Windows 64-bit	https://sfdc.co/sfdx_cli_win

Make sure the CLI is properly installed and you know how to access the online help for the commands. On the command line, enter sfdx.

#2. Get Git Command Line

Go here to get the Git command line tool. Follow the installation code for your particular operating system. If you already have the Git command line tool, feel free to skip the download.

URL:  https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git

#3. Setup SSH Key

Follow this document and setup your SSH key.

1. Open a terminal
2. Generate a new ED25519 SSH key pair

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "amit.salesforce21@mail.com"

3. Next, you will be prompted to input a file path to save your SSH key pair to. If you don’t already have an SSH key pair and aren’t generating a deploy key, use the suggested path by pressing Enter. Using the suggested path will normally allow your SSH client to automatically use the SSH key pair with no additional configuration. If you already have an SSH key pair with the suggested file path, you will need to input a new file path and declare what host this SSH key pair will be used for in your ~/.ssh/config file.

4. Once the path is decided, you will be prompted to input a password to secure your new SSH key pair. It’s a best practice to use a password, but it’s not required and you can skip creating it by pressing Enter twice.

5. Copy your public SSH key to the clipboard by using one of the commands below depending on your Operating System:

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

#4. Add a public SSH key to your GitLab account by:

1. Clicking your avatar in the upper right corner and selecting Settings.
2. Navigating to SSH Keys and pasting your public key in the Key field. If you:
   1. Created the key with a comment, this will appear in the Title field.
   2. Created the key without a comment, give your key an identifiable title like Work Laptop or Home Workstation.
3. Click the Add key button.

#5. Clone GitLab Project.

Now your system is ready and lets start working on Git.

1. At the top of your new GitLab project, click the Clone button to access the URL you use when pulling code for local development. Copy the line under Clone with HTTPS using the Copy to clipboard button.

2. Clone your newly created project to your laptop or desktop

Navigate to Document folder or where you want to save your project and create one folder.

Then execute git clone command

Git clone Repo

#6. Setup VsCode

Learn more about Setup your vs code for Salesforce and connecting Salesforce org with VsCode.

Development and Commit

#1. Development and Commit

Now it’s time to start development in your team branch.

1.1. Checkout to Team Branch

Step 1) Pull all latest changes from remote

Git pull

Step 2) Then check to your team branch with below command

Git checkout ATeam

1.2. Checkout to Team Branch

Now it time to start development in VSCode.

1. Open Vs code

2. Authorize in your developer sandbox. 

3. Check branch and sandbox

Make sure your checkout to your Branch and Sandbox at bottom of your VsCode screen.

#2. Commit Your Changes

Once you are done with your changes, it is time to commit your changes.

1. To check your changes, you can use the “Git Status” command

2. Commit your changes

Git add .

Git commit –m “your Message”

3. Push your changes

Git push

Raise Merge Request.

Congratulation!!! You successfully pushed your changes to remote repo. Once your push your changes to remote GITLAB will trigger pipelines. Now your custom build CI/CD pipeline using Gitlab for Salesforce in ready.

Now it’s time to raise a merge request. From your repository, click on the “Create Merge Request” button.

The reviewer can merge the request and can start the Production deployment after code review.

Further Learning

Check out the below post to learn more about Salesforce DevOps

• Salesforce DevOps
• Empower admins with the power of Salesforce DX, GIT and CI/CD pipeline
• Azure DevOps with Salesforce
• Useful Git commands
• Salesforce OAuth 2.0 JWT Bearer flow
• Salesforce deployment using Jenkins

Summary

There are multiple options available for Salesforce Deployment. Check the Development and Deployment Process post to learn about Salesforce Branching Strategy and deployment standards. I hope this will help you to Build your own custom CI/CD pipeline using Gitlab for Salesforce.