Continuous Integration and Delivery Pipelines for Ruby on Rails Applications Using Docker and Jenkins

Abstract

The ever-evolving demands of modern software development necessitate efficient, scalable, and automated approaches to managing application delivery. Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) are foundational practices that significantly improve software quality and expedite deployment cycles. These practices are especially critical in Ruby on Rails (RoR) applications, where maintaining consistency across diverse environments and ensuring seamless deployment can become complex. This manuscript focuses on leveraging Docker and Jenkins to establish robust CI/CD pipelines for Ruby on Rails applications, offering significant improvements in terms of automation, consistency, and speed. Docker, a containerization technology, allows RoR applications to be packaged with their dependencies, ensuring consistent performance across development, testing, staging, and production environments. Jenkins, a powerful open-source automation server, further streamlines the CI/CD pipeline by automating the build, test, and deployment processes. Through a detailed exploration of the setup, integration, and implementation of these technologies, the paper demonstrates how CI/CD pipelines can be established efficiently for RoR applications, reducing manual intervention, increasing deployment frequency, and improving overall product quality. The results from a case study within this manuscript show measurable improvements in development cycle time, team collaboration, and application stability. By automating tedious tasks and enabling faster and more frequent releases, this combination of Docker and Jenkins serves as a powerful tool for modern software development teams. This research not only highlights the importance of CI/CD pipelines but also offers valuable insights into the practical application of Docker and Jenkins in automating RoR application delivery, making it a crucial read for developers and DevOps professionals looking to enhance their workflow.