September 01, 2007
Monitor builds from your desktop with CCMenu
So let’s just say you’re being a good developer and you’re writing tests. They are have good coverage (because you’re writing them first), they run fast, and you’ve setup a continuous integration (CI) server (like CruiseControl.rb) to run the build on every checkin.
CI servers can generally send email notifications for build failures and fixes, but when I’m in heads down development I often don’t check my email for hours at a time. Hours is far too long for a build to sit broken, especially when there are many other developers working on the project.
CCMenu tightens that feedback loop so I get immediate build status information in my menu bar. It uses Growl for notifications and provides a dashboard view of each project and its detailed build status. That’s a big improvement, and will help hold me over for a bit longer while I convince my boss to get us a build-controlled traffic light in the office.
