18 Jan 05

Making RSS Feeds Out of CruiseControl Log Files

A gentle reader asks where to find the XSLT stylesheet I wrote to make RSS feeds out of CruiseControl XML log files. That stylesheet is described on page 29 of the book, with a footnote mentioning that the file is available on the book’s web site. Trouble is, finding the file is a bit tricky because it’s buried in the code bundle, available here.

In the builds directory of the code bundle you’ll find a buildstatus.xsl file. If you know anything about XSLT, shield your eyes. I’m sure I committed more than one XSLT sin when I wrote the file, so please feel free to school me by making it better and contributing the new-and-improved file back.

Once you’ve placed the buildstatus.xsl file in a comfy directory on the local hard drive, add an XSLTLogPublisher to your CruiseControl config.xml file, like so: 

  <publishers>

    <XSLTLogPublisher
      directory="/path/to/webserver/documents"
      outfilename="your_project_build_status.rss"
      xsltfile="/path/to/buildstatus.xsl" />

  </publishers>

After CruiseControl has completed a build cycle, you can conveniently monitor your project’s build status by pointing your favorite RSS reader to a URL similar to the following: 

   http://your_server:port/your_project_build_status.rss

The generated RSS file will always contain exactly one item—a summary of the last build. That is, you won’t see a history of all builds, but you do get a link back to the CruiseControl web application if you want to do build archaeology.

Enjoy!

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