Build server: Best practices managing third party components?

Question

I\'m maintaining a quite large legacy application. The source tree is a real mess. I\'m trying to set up a build server.

On the source tree, I\'ve third party component

Answer 1

My answer is more general than Lieven's answer, which is Delphi-specific. I wrote this one shortly after the question, but went to a co-worker before submitting ;)

I refuse to install any IDE on our main Windows build agent. Sounds like a nightmare to me. The MSBuild engine handles all build scenarios well, and other than .NET, you just need the Windows SDK installed. Or you could use NAnt and even CMake, whatever. Just don't install IDEs. It's not fun on build servers.

Now you have tagged this as Delphi. I don't know how good it works there, but as Lieven wrote, Delphi comes with a command line compiler. I just don't have any experience how it works with third-party compnents, but I think Delphi supports MSBuild in the latest version.

I'm also unsure whether including thiry-party components into version control is a good thing, because of the space it takes - though you can also put them somewhere else and include them as external, which makes it much smaller, but also imposes the problem that upgrading the components for one app will upgrade them for all - so you better have good integration tests. But that is the point of a build server anyway.

Apart from that, it is always a good thing to check-out and have all components required to build the application available. You don't need to install components into an IDE if they were made well. Depending on what components they are, in many cases you don't even need to install them on developer machines. Many .NET components, for example, are available in the designer when you add a reference to them. And licensing is typically no more than "put the license file into the same directory". Well, that's how it should be, at least. If that's not how it works in Delphi today, that's likely one of the reasons Delphi is on its way out. Other than the Borland/Inprise/DevCo/Codegear/Embarcadero hassle.