Introduce package for Briefcase Automation #1549

rmartin16 · 2023-11-21T18:58:53Z

Changes

Creates a new package for Briefcase automation in CI
This package facilitates the effort in Run apps created in app-build-verify .github#69

PR Checklist:

All new features have been tested
All new features have been documented
I have read the CONTRIBUTING.md file
I will abide by the code of conduct

rmartin16 · 2023-11-21T21:50:33Z

For posterity:

 [verifyapp] Built build/verifyapp/ios/xcode/build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Verify App.app

[verifyapp] Starting app on an iPhone SE (3rd generation) running iOS 16.2 (device UDID 1A0F79A9-B187-44AF-9000-8558A7179437)
Booting simulator... done
The application /Applications/Xcode_14.2.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app cannot be opened for an unexpected reason, error=Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-600 "procNotFound: no eligible process with specified descriptor" UserInfo={_LSLine=387, _LSFunction=_LSAnnotateAndSendAppleEventWithOptions}
Opening simulator...

Unable to open iPhone SE (3rd generation) simulator running 16.2

Log saved to /Users/runner/work/briefcase/briefcase/apps/verifyapp/logs/briefcase.2023_11_21-20_53_13.run.log

briefcase.2023_11_21-20_53_13.run.log

rmartin16 · 2023-11-21T22:01:30Z

I'll pause here for comments on how I've incorporated the briefcase automation plugin in to the Briefcase repo.

This approach of a dedicated top-level directory seemed appropriate given the options I could muster. For instance, we could use the Toga approach of nested pyprojects within src but that seems particularly invasive and disruptive just to introduce a small package needed for CI testing. Definitely open to other ideas.

Something I'd also like to explore is how to make an extra dependency group for this automation package; that may help simplify getting it installed in to CI. However, I'm not sure how a reference to this dependency could be reliable in all cases....

Another alternative altogether I've considered is not creating a new package....but to include these automation bootstraps within Briefcase directly....such that they would even be shipped with releases. However, they would not be exposed as entry points by default. Instead, they could be dynamically loaded at some point during testing.

freakboy3742

A couple of relatively minor suggestions, but on the whole I like the approach. A standalone install in the same repo makes sense to me - this won't be useful to anyone outside of Briefcase, so I don't see any reason to include it in the main package.

Making it an optional install on Briefcase is an interesting idea... but I'm not sure how that would work without either publishing the package on PyPI, or installing via a GitHub reference. AFAIK, you wouldn't be able to reference the dependency as local files unless the code is included in the published package. But I guess the current setup in .github is already installing the automation package via GitHub, which would just mean the configuration can be self-contained in the Briefcase repo.

freakboy3742 · 2023-11-22T01:26:16Z

automation/pyproject.toml

+]
+dependencies = [
+    "briefcase >= 0.3.17.dev100",
+    "toml",


If you've got a dependency on briefcase, you've got toml - either as tomllib (in the Python 3.11+ standard library), or tomli on earlier versions. No need to introduce another toml library.

yeah...i was in the middle of trying to get this new package to work and then realized there's several TOML packages in play (toml, tomllib, tomli, and tomli_w) and didn't want to spend time then trying to understand it. Nonetheless, I've updated this to use the TOML packages that Briefcase is already using.

freakboy3742 · 2023-11-22T01:27:08Z

automation/pyproject.toml

+    "Operating System :: OS Independent",
+]
+dependencies = [
+    "briefcase >= 0.3.17.dev100",


Looks like a perfect excuse to use setuptools_dynamic_version to me :-)

Ok....this took me a minute. Your hyperlink returns a 404; so, I was frantically searching the internet for what on earth this is....and then I realized this all some brand new stuff for toga 🤣 Anyway, now that I understand, I got it working.

hmm....my first attempt at this is hampered by GitHub's PR/CI tactics.

The version of Briefcase installed in to CI is briefcase-0.3.17.dev118+g169210e9.

The version of Briefcase wanted by the Automation plugin is briefcase==0.3.17.dev117+g10ed6d70.

I'm pretty certain this is stemming from GitHub creating a new merge commit for CI for the PR and that's what actions/checkout is fetching....therefore, the Briefcase artifact is one commit ahead.

hmm....this is non-trivial...but not impossible, of course. If we're going to put some kind of constraint on the version of Automation matching the version of Briefcase, then the two will always need to be sourced from the same place.

Given that Briefcase can be installed several different ways in to CI, each method will need to accommodate also installing Automation...or packaging Automation as well so it can be installed later.

Probably won't have time tonight but I'll return to this.

Apologies for the run-around on this - for posterity, the link should have been to https://github.com/beeware/setuptools_dynamic_dependencies.

As for the version mismatch - I'm intrigued that this doesn't happen in Toga... I'm guessing the reason is that we're explicitly building wheels and installing those wheel, rather than installing from the repo directly.

Scenarios for how Briefcase is installed

CI event for beeware/briefcase PR

Briefcase is packaged from CI's PR merge commit and wheel is installed

Automation should be installed from CI's PR merge commit

CI event for beeware/briefcase that is not a PR

Briefcase is packaged for the current git ref and wheel is installed

The most common situation for this is CI running after a PR is merged in to main

Although, the git ref could also be a tag such as when releases are cut

Automation should be installed from the same git ref

CI event for other repo

Briefcase is installed from a git ref relevant for the event

Automation should be installed for the same git ref

Strategy

So, while it is relatively straightforward to say "use the same git ref to install Automation"...the ref used to install Briefcase may not be readily available arbitrarily later in the CI run. So, it'll probably be easiest to package and/or install Automation at the points in the CI when Briefcase is packaged and installed.

This strategy turned out not to be too invasive and actually pretty straightforward. There is a complication from running app-build-verify for PRs for versioned branches of template repos where the automation plugin may not be available (or supported anyway).

freakboy3742 · 2023-11-22T01:27:39Z

automation/pyproject.toml

+
+[project]
+name = "briefcase-automation"
+version = "0.1.0"


Probably safest to make this a dynamic setuptools_scm version. Avoids any confusion over which version is installed/in use.

automation/pyproject.toml

rmartin16 · 2023-11-29T22:38:29Z

This can be merged independently of the other changes; that'll help confirm .github's CI is still working properly....especially since I just noticed that I need to invoke python-package-create differently for the briefcase repo in .github's CI.

Although, to be clear, I still need to update the CI in this repo before we actually merge.

freakboy3742

One minor Q about the PPB automation, and the workflow CI references, and this otherwise looks good to go.

To be clear about the landing process, though - once the CI references are fixed, we can land this; but the effect will be that the automation bootstrap will exist, but won't be used. We then land the .github change, and that enables the use of the automation plugin on current/future Briefcase PRs. The current branch-based CI references exist to validate that the "end state" when we're using the plugin, the plugin will actually work.

Have I got that right?

freakboy3742 · 2023-11-30T04:04:25Z

automation/src/automation/bootstraps/pursuedpybear.py

+
+    def pyproject_table_linux_flatpak(self):
+        table = tomllib.loads(super().pyproject_table_linux_flatpak())
+        table.setdefault("requires", []).append("pysdl2-dll==2.0.22")


Why is this only part of the automation, and not the core ppb bootstrap?

Mostly just because I wasn't sure if we wanted to officially endorse this for new projects....but I'm probably only really being conservative because I don't know anything about the ppb project.

That said, it seems fairly harmless to add this to the actual bootstrap.

Probably worth tagging @pathunstrom to see if she has any thoughts on the matter.

/me turns on the bat signal...

Took another quick look at this. I noticed that PPB only uses the pysdl2-dll package for macOS and Windows; that implies to me that Linux system packages are expected to fill the gap on Linux.

Indeed, for at least Ubuntu 22.04 based distros, installing SDL2 only from the package manager works. However, this doesn't work for Flatpak since it can't find these system libraries. Therefore, it seems best, or at least most straightforward, to just continue using pysdl2-dll for all platforms.

However, this means that SDL2 no longer needs to be installed in to CI with apt to actually run PPB apps. I've removed this in beeware/.github#69.

Briefcase CI without installing SDL2 packages from apt: https://github.com/beeware/briefcase/actions/runs/7088969859

P.S. - additional future work could probably tweak some of this so Linux System package builds with Briefcase for PPB can depend on the distro packages for SDL2.

Via Discord: @pathunstrom has indicated the patch is on the right track; we'll likely need to revisit it when PPB can address the problem at their end, but for now, it works.

rmartin16 · 2023-11-30T04:32:39Z

To be clear about the landing process, though - once the CI references are fixed, we can land this; but the effect will be that the automation bootstrap will exist, but won't be used. We then land the .github change, and that enables the use of the automation plugin on current/future Briefcase PRs. The current branch-based CI references exist to validate that the "end state" when we're using the plugin, the plugin will actually work.

Have I got that right?

Yep; that's spot on.

freakboy3742

I'm OK with all of this; I'm holding off merging until we hear from @pathunstrom about the PPB dependency.

freakboy3742 · 2023-12-01T05:32:11Z

tox.ini

 skip_install = True
 passenv = FORCE_COLOR
 deps =
    build==1.0.3
    twine==4.0.2
 commands =
-    python -m build --outdir dist/ .
+    python -m build . --outdir dist/
+    with-automation: python -m build automation/ --outdir dist/


Actually - I take that back: the -with-automation target has been removed from the GitHub CI (it didn't show up in my earlier review because the CI workflow doesn't appear in the patch any more); but it doesn't appear to be used by the .github repos either. Am I missing something?

I introduced the ability to pass additional tox factors to the python-package-create workflow with beeware/.github#69. And passing unknown inputs to a variable causes CI to fail; so, I'll need to create another PR here that'll need to be merged with beeware/.github#69.

Sorry - is #1460 the right reference there?

my bad - too many tabs open - I meant beeware/.github#69

That makes more sense :-)

So the change is required, but we need another step in the landing strategy to re-introduce the bit that builds the automation plugin wheel once both this PR and the .github PR lands - and that change will be the one that actually turns on the "enable automations" part of the testing strategy. Have I understood correctly? And there's no intermediate state where builds will fail that we need to just "land both fast"?

Yes; mostly I think.

Getting the automation plugin in to main will help simplify the continued testing of beeware/.github#69. Once this PR is merged, I'll be able to fix these failures for Briefcase in .github's CI as well.

Then, I'll just need to create one final PR here that passes tox-factors to python-package-create workflow. This PR will be co-dependent on beeware/.github#69 and will need to be merged in at the same time.

- ppb==1.1.0 is not compatible with newer versions of pysdl2 libraries

freakboy3742

👍

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch 5 times, most recently from ab99d83 to 6eb07db Compare November 21, 2023 20:36

rmartin16 mentioned this pull request Nov 21, 2023

Run apps created in app-build-verify beeware/.github#69

Merged

4 tasks

rmartin16 mentioned this pull request Nov 22, 2023

Test running helloworld apps in CI #1546

Closed

4 tasks

freakboy3742 requested changes Nov 22, 2023

View reviewed changes

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch 13 times, most recently from 6fa2b60 to 035bbf7 Compare November 28, 2023 00:58

rmartin16 commented Nov 28, 2023

View reviewed changes

automation/pyproject.toml Show resolved Hide resolved

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch 2 times, most recently from 2868c36 to bee9054 Compare November 28, 2023 22:53

Introduce package for Briefcase Automation

0813fba

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch from bee9054 to 0813fba Compare November 29, 2023 20:09

rmartin16 marked this pull request as ready for review November 29, 2023 21:46

freakboy3742 requested changes Nov 30, 2023

View reviewed changes

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch from 50d44fe to 5fa9caa Compare November 30, 2023 05:10

rmartin16 requested a review from freakboy3742 November 30, 2023 05:25

freakboy3742 approved these changes Dec 1, 2023

View reviewed changes

freakboy3742 requested changes Dec 1, 2023

View reviewed changes

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch 2 times, most recently from dceb48b to 408d6b1 Compare December 4, 2023 15:31

Pin pysdl2-dll==2.0.22 in the ppb bootstrap

fc487b2

- ppb==1.1.0 is not compatible with newer versions of pysdl2 libraries

rmartin16 force-pushed the automation-plugin branch from 408d6b1 to fc487b2 Compare December 4, 2023 15:41

Reset CI workflows back to main

b1cafce

freakboy3742 approved these changes Dec 4, 2023

View reviewed changes

freakboy3742 merged commit 19215d9 into beeware:main Dec 4, 2023
44 checks passed

rmartin16 mentioned this pull request Dec 5, 2023

Add a "live test" to template CI beeware/briefcase-template#75

Closed

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Introduce package for Briefcase Automation #1549

Introduce package for Briefcase Automation #1549

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023 •

edited

freakboy3742 left a comment

freakboy3742 Nov 22, 2023

rmartin16 Nov 24, 2023

freakboy3742 Nov 22, 2023

rmartin16 Nov 24, 2023

rmartin16 Nov 24, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 Nov 24, 2023

freakboy3742 Nov 27, 2023

rmartin16 Nov 27, 2023

rmartin16 Nov 28, 2023 •

edited

freakboy3742 Nov 22, 2023

rmartin16 commented Nov 29, 2023 •

edited

freakboy3742 left a comment

freakboy3742 Nov 30, 2023

rmartin16 Nov 30, 2023

freakboy3742 Nov 30, 2023

rmartin16 Dec 4, 2023 •

edited

freakboy3742 Dec 4, 2023

rmartin16 commented Nov 30, 2023

freakboy3742 left a comment

freakboy3742 Dec 1, 2023

rmartin16 Dec 1, 2023 •

edited

freakboy3742 Dec 1, 2023

rmartin16 Dec 1, 2023

freakboy3742 Dec 1, 2023

rmartin16 Dec 1, 2023

freakboy3742 left a comment

Introduce package for Briefcase Automation #1549

Introduce package for Briefcase Automation #1549

Conversation

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023 • edited

Changes

PR Checklist:

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023 • edited

freakboy3742 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

rmartin16 Nov 24, 2023 • edited

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Scenarios for how Briefcase is installed

Strategy

rmartin16 Nov 28, 2023 • edited

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

rmartin16 commented Nov 29, 2023 • edited

freakboy3742 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

rmartin16 Dec 4, 2023 • edited

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

rmartin16 commented Nov 30, 2023

freakboy3742 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

rmartin16 Dec 1, 2023 • edited

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

freakboy3742 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 commented Nov 21, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 Nov 24, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 Nov 28, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 commented Nov 29, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 Dec 4, 2023 •

edited

rmartin16 Dec 1, 2023 •

edited