[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":793},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/how-to-create-review-apps-for-android-with-gitlab-fastlane-and-appetize-dot-io":3,"navigation-en-us":40,"banner-en-us":438,"footer-en-us":448,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Andrew Fontaine":689,"blog-related-posts-en-us-how-to-create-review-apps-for-android-with-gitlab-fastlane-and-appetize-dot-io":703,"assessment-promotions-en-us":744,"next-steps-en-us":783},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":27,"isFeatured":12,"meta":28,"navigation":29,"path":30,"publishedDate":20,"seo":31,"stem":36,"tagSlugs":37,"__hash__":39},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/how-to-create-review-apps-for-android-with-gitlab-fastlane-and-appetize-dot-io.yml","How To Create Review Apps For Android With Gitlab Fastlane And Appetize Dot Io",[7],"andrew-fontaine",null,"unfiltered",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-to-create-review-apps-for-android-with-gitlab-fastlane-and-appetize-dot-io",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"How to create Review Apps for Android with GitLab, fastlane, and Appetize.io","See how GitLab and Appetize.io can bring Review Apps to your Android project",[18],"Andrew Fontaine","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749664102/Blog/Hero%20Images/gitlab-values-cover.png","2020-05-06","{::options parse_block_html=\"true\" /}\n\n\n\nIn a [previous look at GitLab and _fastlane_], we discussed how _fastlane_ now\nautomatically publishes the Gitter Android app to the Google Play Store, but at\nGitLab, we live on [review apps], and review apps for Android applications didn't\nreally exist... until [Appetize.io] came to our attention.\n\nJust a simple extension of our existing `.gitlab-ci.yml`, we can utilize\nAppetize.io to spin up review apps of our Android application.\n\nIf you'd rather just skip to the end, you can see\n[my MR to the Gitter Android project].\n\n## Setting up Fastlane\n\nFortunately for us, _fastlane_ has integrated support for Appetize.io, so all\nthat's needed to hit Appetize is the addition of a new `lane`:\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/fastlane/Fastfile b/fastlane/Fastfile\nindex eb47819..f013a86 100644\n--- a/fastlane/Fastfile\n+++ b/fastlane/Fastfile\n@@ -32,6 +32,13 @@ platform :android do\n     gradle(task: \"test\")\n   end\n\n+  desc 'Pushes the app to Appetize and updates a review app'\n+  lane :review do\n+    appetize(api_token: ENV['APPETIZE_TOKEN'],\n+             path: 'app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk',\n+             platform: 'android')\n+  end\n+\n   desc \"Submit a new Internal Build to Play Store\"\n   lane :internal do\n     upload_to_play_store(track: 'internal', apk: 'app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk')\n\n```\n\n`APPETIZE_TOKEN` is an Appetize.io API token that can be generated on the\n[Appetize API docs] after signing up for an account. Once we add a new job and\nstage to our `.gitlab-ci.yml`, we will be able to deploy our APK to Appetize and\nrun them in the browser!\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml\nindex d9863d7..e4d0ce3 100644\n--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml\n+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml\n@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ stages:\n   - environment\n   - build\n   - test\n+  - review\n   - internal\n   - alpha\n   - beta\n@@ -81,6 +82,16 @@ buildRelease:\n   environment:\n     name: production\n\n+deployReview:\n+  stage: review\n+  image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG\n+  script:\n+    - bundle exec fastlane review\n+  only:\n+    - branches\n+  except:\n+    - master\n+\n testDebug:\n   image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG\n   stage: test\n\n```\n\nGreat! Review apps will be deployed when branches other than `master` build.\nUnfortunately, there is no `environment` block, so there's nothing linking these\ndeployed review apps to GitLab. Let's fix that next.\n\n## Dynamic Environment URLs\n\nPreviously, GitLab only liked environment URLs that used pre-existing CI\nvariables (like `$CI_COMMT_REF_NAME`) in their definition. Since 12.9, however,\na [new way of defining environment urls with alternative variables exists].\n\nBy creating a `dotenv` file and submitting it as an `artifact` in our build, we\ncan define custom variables to use in our environment's URL. As all Appetize.io\napp URLs take the pattern of `https://appetize.io.app/$PUBLIC_KEY`, where\n`$PUBLIC_KEY` is randomly generated when the app is created, we need to get the\npublic key from the Appetize response in our `Fastfile`, and put it in a\n`dotenv` file.\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/fastlane/Fastfile b/fastlane/Fastfile\nindex 7b5f9d1..ae3867c 100644\n--- a/fastlane/Fastfile\n+++ b/fastlane/Fastfile\n@@ -13,6 +13,13 @@\n # Uncomment the line if you want fastlane to automatically update itself\n # update_fastlane\n\n+\n+def update_deployment_url(pub_key)\n+  File.open('../deploy.env', 'w') do |f|\n+    f.write(\"APPETIZE_PUBLIC_KEY=#{pub_key}\")\n+  end\n+end\n+\n default_platform(:android)\n\n platform :android do\n@@ -37,6 +44,7 @@ platform :android do\n     appetize(api_token: ENV['APPETIZE_TOKEN'],\n              path: 'app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk',\n              platform: 'android')\n+    update_deployment_url(lane_context[SharedValues::APPETIZE_PUBLIC_KEY])\n   end\n\n   desc \"Submit a new Internal Build to Play Store\"\n\n```\n\nWe also need to add an `environment` block to our `.gitlab-ci.yml` to capture an\nenvironment name and URL.\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml\nindex f5a8648..c834077 100644\n--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml\n+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml\n@@ -85,12 +85,18 @@ buildCreateReleaseNotes:\n deployReview:\n   stage: review\n   image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG\n+  environment:\n+    name: review/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME\n+    url: https://appetize.io/app/$APPETIZE_PUBLIC_KEY\n   script:\n     - bundle exec fastlane review\n   only:\n     - branches\n   except:\n     - master\n+  artifacts:\n+    reports:\n+      dotenv: deploy.env\n\n testDebug:\n   image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG\n\n```\n\nOnce committed, pushed, and a pipeline runs, we should see our environment\ndeployed!\n\n![Our first review environment][first-review-app]\n\n## Optimizing Updates\n\nAfter running with this for a bit, we realized that we were accidentally\ncreating a new app on Appetize.io with every new build! Their docs\n[specify how to update existing apps], so we went about seeing if we could\nsmartly update existing environments.\n\nSpoiler alert: We could.\n\nFirst, we need to save the public key granted to us by Appetize.io somewhere. We\ndecided to put it in a JSON file and save that as an artifact of the build.\nFortunately, the `Fastfile` is just ruby, which allows us to quickly write it\nout to a file with a few lines of code, as well as attempt to fetch the artifact\nfor the last build of the current branch.\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/fastlane/Fastfile b/fastlane/Fastfile\nindex ae3867c..61e9226 100644\n--- a/fastlane/Fastfile\n+++ b/fastlane/Fastfile\n@@ -13,8 +13,32 @@\n # Uncomment the line if you want fastlane to automatically update itself\n # update_fastlane\n\n+require 'net/http'\n+require 'json'\n+\n+GITLAB_TOKEN = ENV['PRIVATE_TOKEN']\n+PROJECT_ID = ENV['CI_PROJECT_ID']\n+REF = ENV['CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME']\n+JOB = ENV['CI_JOB_NAME']\n+API_ROOT = ENV['CI_API_V4_URL']\n+\n+def public_key\n+  uri = URI(\"#{API_ROOT}/projects/#{PROJECT_ID}/jobs/artifacts/#{REF}/raw/appetize-information.json?job=#{JOB}\")\n+  http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)\n+  http.use_ssl = true\n+  req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)\n+  req['PRIVATE-TOKEN'] = GITLAB_TOKEN\n+  response = http.request(req)\n+  return '' if response.code.equal?('404')\n+\n+  appetize_info = JSON.parse(response.body)\n+  appetize_info['publicKey']\n+end\n\n def update_deployment_url(pub_key)\n+  File.open('../appetize-information.json', 'w') do |f|\n+    f.write(JSON.generate(publicKey: pub_key))\n+  end\n   File.open('../deploy.env', 'w') do |f|\n     f.write(\"APPETIZE_PUBLIC_KEY=#{pub_key}\")\n   end\n@@ -42,6 +66,7 @@ platform :android do\n   desc 'Pushes the app to Appetize and updates a review app'\n   lane :review do\n     appetize(api_token: ENV['APPETIZE_TOKEN'],\n+             public_key: public_key,\n              path: 'app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk',\n              platform: 'android')\n     update_deployment_url(lane_context[SharedValues::APPETIZE_PUBLIC_KEY])\n\n```\n\nWhen we go to deploy our app to Appetize, we hit the [Jobs API] to see if we\nhave a public key for this branch. If the API returns a `404`, we know we are\nbuilding a fresh branch and return an empty string, else we parse the JSON and\nreturn our public key. The [Fastlane docs] state the `appetize` action can take\na `public_key` to update an existing app. Here, `''` is considered the same as\n_not_ providing a public key, so a new application is still deployed as we expect.\n\n**NOTE:** If you've read the `diff` closely, you'll notice the usage of an\nenvironment variable called `PRIVATE_TOKEN`. This is a GitLab private token\ncreated with the `read_api` scope and injected into our build as an environment\nvariable. This is required to authenticate with the GitLab API and fetch\nartifacts.\n\nOnce we update `.gitlab-ci.yml` to save the new `appetize-information.json` file\nas an artifact, later builds on the same branch will be smart and update the\nexisting Appetize app!\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml\nindex c834077..54cf3f6 100644\n--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml\n+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml\n@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ deployReview:\n   except:\n     - master\n   artifacts:\n+    paths:\n+      - appetize-information.json\n     reports:\n       dotenv: deploy.env\n\n```\n\n## Cleaning up\n\nAll that's left is to delete old apps from Appetize once we don't need them\nanymore. We can do that by leveraging `on_stop` and creating a `stop` job that\nwill delete our app from Appetize.io\n\n```diff\ndiff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml\nindex 54cf3f6..f6ecf7e 100644\n--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml\n+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml\n@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ stages:\n   - alpha\n   - beta\n   - production\n+  - stop\n\n\n .updateContainerJob:\n@@ -88,6 +89,7 @@ deployReview:\n   environment:\n     name: review/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME\n     url: https://appetize.io/app/$APPETIZE_PUBLIC_KEY\n+    on_stop: stopReview\n   script:\n     - bundle exec fastlane review\n   only:\n@@ -100,6 +102,22 @@ deployReview:\n     reports:\n       dotenv: deploy.env\n\n+stopReview:\n+  stage: stop\n+  environment:\n+    name: review/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME\n+    action: stop\n+  variables:\n+    GIT_STRATEGY: none\n+  when: manual\n+  only:\n+    - branches\n+  except:\n+    - master\n+  script:\n+    - apt-get -y update && apt-get -y upgrade && apt-get -y install jq curl\n+    - curl --request DELETE https://$APPETIZE_TOKEN@api.appetize.io/v1/apps/`jq -r '.publicKey' \u003C appetize-information.json`\n+\n testDebug:\n   image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG\n   stage: test\n\n```\n\nOnce your MR is merged and your branch is deleted, the `stopReview` job runs,\ncalling the [`DELETE` endpoint of the Appetize.io API] with the public key that\nis contained in `appetize-information.json`. We don't need to fetch\n`appetize-information.json` because the artifact is already present in our build\ncontext. This is because the `stop` stage happens _after_ the `review` stage.\n\n![A merge request with a deployed review app][merge-request-with-review-app]\n\n## Conclusion\n\nThanks to some integration with _fastlane_ and the addition of a couple\nenvironment variables, having the ability to create review apps for an Android\nproject was surpsingly simple. GitLab's review apps are not _just_ for web-based\nprojects, even though it may take a little tinkering to get working. Appetize.io\nalso supports iOS applications, so all mobile native applications can be turned\ninto review apps. I would love to see this strategy be applied to a React Native\nproject as well!\n\n[previous look at gitlab and _fastlane_]: /blog/android-publishing-with-gitlab-and-fastlane/\n[my mr to the gitter android project]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitter/gitter-android-app/-/merge_requests/167\n[review apps]: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/review_apps/#review-apps\n[appetize.io]: https://appetize.io\n[appetize api docs]: https://appetize.io/docs#request-api-token\n[new way of defining environment urls with alternative variables exists]: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/environments/index.html#set-dynamic-environment-urls-after-a-job-finishes\n[first-review-app]: https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/how-to-create-review-apps-for-android-with-gitlab-fastlane-and-appetize-dot-io/first-review-app.png\n[specify how to update existing apps]: https://appetize.io/docs#updating-apps\n[jobs api]: 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Shadow Takeaways from Jacie","Recap of my experience in the CEO Shadow Program.",[709],"Jacie Bandur","2021-05-18","\n\n{::options parse_block_html=\"true\" /}\n\n\nHi! I’m Jacie Bandur. I completed GitLab’s CEO Shadow program from 2021-04-26 through 2021-05-07. It was a really enlightening experience. I generally work in Learning and Development and consider myself a lifelong learner. I can’t even explain how much I learned in such a short about of time. I learned a lot about the business. I learned a lot about the product. But learned even more about the importance of iteration in everything we do.\n\n### Qualifications to Participate\n\nI wanted to start this off with touching on qualifications to participate in the program.\n\nI am the type of person that has gone through most of my life thinking I’m not qualified for things. I’m not qualified for that job, that promotion, that program. The list goes on and on.\n\nWhen I saw the [CEO Shadow program](/blog/ceo-shadow-impressions-takeaways/) kick off in 2019, I really wanted to participate. I was a little intimidated. Who wouldn’t be, spending 2 weeks with the CEO of any company? But time passed and all the sudden it was 2021 and I had not taken any steps to participating in the program.\n\nIf you are sitting there waiting for someone to tell you that you are qualified to participate in this program, I’m not big on giving “pep talks,” but here’s me telling you - You are qualified for this program. There’s never going to be a good or perfect time to do it. Tell your manager you want to do the CEO Shadow program. Stop waiting. Sign up today.\n\nNote: Take a look at the [eligibility](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/ceo/shadow/#eligibility) section of the CEO Shadow page for more information on signing up.\n\n### Pre-Program Tips\n\nThere are many things recommended for shadows to do pre-program outlined on the CEO Shadow handbook page. As I was going through the program there were things that I thought helped me (or would have helped me).\n\nHere are my top 6 recommendations:\n\n1. Make sure your team knows you will be unavailable for 2 weeks. This isn’t a program that can or should be done alongside your normal day to day work. I found catching up from the 2 weeks away kind of difficult because I was trying to keep up on what was going on and I had a bunch of half done things.\n1. Talk with people who have done the shadow program - schedule at least 3 coffee chats with CEO Shadow Alumni.\n1. Have food that is easy to eat quickly. Sid’s meetings are back to back most days, so you will have small amounts of time to eat throughout the day. Sid does eat during calls, which you are welcome to do, too, but if you are taking notes, it is difficult to eat. And this will make you realize why speedy meetings are so important!\n1. Listen to the [Executive Leadership LinkedIn Learning course](https://www.linkedin.com/learning/executive-leadership/).\n1. Be prepared to ask questions. When doing the program virtually, there isn’t a ton of time for asking questions, so when one would come up, I would add it to a note on my computer and ask if there was ever time with just the shadows and Sid.\n1. Take at least 1 day off after the program. Take even a couple of days off if you can! This is recommended on the handbook page, but I can’t stress this enough.\n\n\n### Takeaways\n\n**Group Conversations**\n\nI’ve been at GitLab for almost 4 years. When I joined, I made it a point to attend as many GC’s as I could. I had gotten out of the habit of attending Group Conversations. After attending them again for 2 weeks, I realized how important they are to understand better what is going on across the business. Everything in the organization is so intertwined. It’s helpful to understand what other teams are working on and succeeding in.\n\n**Feedback**\n\nWe should all be giving and receiving feedback often. We have a whole [handbook page on giving and receiving feedback](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/guidance-on-feedback/). Read the handbook page and watch the videos, as well. Practice giving feedback. I recommend using the [1-1 agenda](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/leadership/1-1/suggested-agenda-format/) Sid uses, because Feedback is an essential piece of that agenda, and it makes feedback more of a routine thing.\n\n**Biggest Takeaway**\n\nWe have an incredible team here at GitLab, from Engineering to Product to Sales to People and all the groups in between. There are so many great ideas. I observed the constant reinforcement by Sid to start with something small and build on it. You can ALWAYS make something more complex. It’s hard to go back to something more simple when you start with something complex.\n\nA couple of quotes that I heard from Sid during the program that reinforced this point:\n\n- “Every complex system evolves from a simple system that worked.”\n- “It’s very clear what is the simple solution. We can always make it more complicated as we go on.”\n\nI know they are very similar, but they happened in different meetings on different days, so the point was reinforced repeatedly.\n\nDuring the program, I reflected on the projects that I’am working on. How many of them am I trying to do too much on before releasing. Probably all of them. When I’m working on projects in the future, I will break them down into smaller, more doable chunks. Iteration is hard - it’s a skill to be practicing constantly.\n\n\n### Overall\n\nOverall, the program was really insightful and impactful. If you haven’t participated in it yet, I cannot encourage you enough to do so!\n",{"slug":713,"featured":12,"template":13},"ceo-shadow-recap",{"content":715,"config":727},{"title":716,"description":717,"authors":718,"heroImage":720,"date":721,"body":722,"category":9,"tags":723},"Why I love contributing to GitLab","Making small meaningful changes is what it's all about.",[719],"Austin Regnery","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749679501/Blog/Hero%20Images/new-feature.png","2021-05-11","It was mid-morning on a Tuesday in February, and I had 10 minutes in between meetings. So I decided to try and solve a pain point of mine.\nYou see, I had to memorize this HTML snippet to create a collapsible section in GitLab Issue descriptions and comments, but I kept forgetting it. Was it `summary` or `section`? I could never remember.\n```html\n\u003Cdetails>\n\u003Csummary>Insert Title\u003C/summary>\nHidden content\n\u003C/details>\n```\nEven though it is not vanilla Markdown, GitLab knows how to interpret some HTML. I used this formatting trick fairly often since full-page screenshots can occupy a lot of screen space, which leads to excessive scrolling.\nSo I decided to poke around our codebase to see how the other Markdown shortcuts worked. To my surprise, it was pretty straightforward. Each shortcut had a simple text input that mapped to each button. This implementation was simple to replicate since I just needed to copy/paste and replace a few words.\n![Image of Vue and Haml files with editor shortcuts](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/why-i-love-contributing-to-gitlab/vue-haml.png){: .shadow}\nThe Vue and Haml files with the new shortcut\n\nI started a branch and began hacking away at the code. Now, I would never call myself a Software Engineer, but I like to try and make things from time to time. I was able to add a new shortcut to the toolbar to insert this code snippet for me in less than 10 minutes. No more memorizing! Making contributions like this is what makes working at GitLab so special.\nNow, it wasn't ready for production, but I at least had something that worked. I shared it with my UX colleagues in Slack, and it started to gain traction with several up-votes and few constructive comments on how to make it better.\nWith the functionality flushed out, a few other designers helped me get a better icon added to our SVG library. Using clear iconography is critical for communicating information more clearly.\n| Initial Icon | Final Icon |\n| - | - |\n| ![SVG of chevron right icon](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/why-i-love-contributing-to-gitlab/chevron-right.svg) | ![SVG of details block icon](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/why-i-love-contributing-to-gitlab/details-block.svg) |\n\nThe last thing to do was resolve my failing tests, and I had several teammates help me do that.\n![Gif of the shortcut being used](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/why-i-love-contributing-to-gitlab/demo.gif)\n\nToday [this change](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/54938) merged! Now I solved a pain point for me and others. It took a few months to go from idea to production, but the effort was super low. I'd say the return on my initial investment, 10 minutes, is super high.\n> Having a direct impact on a product was never an option for me before joining GitLab.\n\n![Image of participants in the Merge Request](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/why-i-love-contributing-to-gitlab/participants.png)\n\n\nThank you to everyone that helped me deploy this\n",[724,725,726],"UX","product","AWS",{"slug":728,"featured":12,"template":13},"why-i-love-contributing-to-gitlab",{"content":730,"config":742},{"title":731,"description":732,"authors":733,"heroImage":735,"date":721,"body":736,"category":9,"tags":737},"Placebo Lines on the Pipeline Graph","Have you noticed the connecting lines missing on your pipelines lately? Here's why",[734],"Sam Beckham","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749679507/Blog/Hero%20Images/ci-cd.png","\n\n{::options parse_block_html=\"true\" /}\n\n\n\nHave you ever pressed the close door button on the elevator, in the hope that you'll save a few precious seconds?\nOr got frustrated at the person stood next to you at the cross-walk, neglecting to press the button?\nWell, maybe they know something you don't, or perhaps you know this already.\nMany buttons in our society lie to us.\n[David McRaney](https://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/02/10/placebo-buttons/) dubbed these, \"Placebo buttons\" and they're everywhere.\nThose elevator doors won't close any faster and the cross-walk button has no effect on the lights.\nThe only lights they control are the lights on the buttons themselves.\nThey give you the feedback you crave, but that's all they're doing.\n\nThese placebos aren't constrained to the physical world, they're prevalent in [UI design](/blog/the-evolution-of-ux-at-gitlab/) too.\nFrom literal placebo buttons like [YouTube's downvote](https://www.quora.com/Does-downvoting-a-comment-on-YouTube-even-do-anything), to more subtle effects like Instagram always [pretending to work](https://www.fastcompany.com/1669788/the-3-white-lies-behind-instagrams-lightning-speed), or progress bars that have a [fixed animation](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/why-some-apps-use-fake-progress-bars/517233/).\nThey're everywhere if you know where to look.\n\nAt GitLab, we created a placebo of our own in one of our core features; the pipeline graph.\n\nThose of you who have used our pipeline graph, will be familiar with its appearance.\nThere's a series of jobs, grouped by stages, connected by a series of lines depicting the relationships between the jobs.\nBut these lines might be lying to you.\nThese lines are indiscriminately drawn between each job in a stage, regardless of their relationship.\nThese lines are placebos.\n\n![The old pipeline rendering with lines connecting every job in a stage](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/placebo-lines_old-graph.png)\n\nThis wasn't a problem to begin with.\nA basic pipeline has several jobs across a handful of stages.\nJobs in each stage would run parallel to each other, but each stage would run sequentially.\nIn the image shown above, all the jobs in the test stage would trigger at the same time. Once those jobs had finished, all the jobs in the build stage would trigger.\nWe used rudimentary CSS to draw lines connecting each job in one stage to each job in the next.\nThese lines weren't calculated based on their connections, but still reflected the story they were telling.\n\nSince the introduction of `needs` relationships in [v12.2](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/issues/47063), pipelines got a bit more complicated.\nNow you could configure a job in a later stage to trigger as soon as a job in an earlier stage completed.\nLooking at our old example, we could set the API deployment to run as soon as our spec tests passed.\nThis skips the remaining tests and the entire build stage, turning our lines into pretty little liars.\n\nWe had many internal discussions about these lines, and how to show the relationships between jobs.\nThere's the [`needs` visualization](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/directed_acyclic_graph/#needs-visualization), which does an excellent job of displaying these relationships, but the main pipeline graph was still inaccurate.\nFor the past few months, we've been [refactoring the pipeline graph](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/276949), giving it a new lease of life and fixing some of its issues along the way.\nOne of those issues were the faked lines.\nIn the new version, we can accurately draw lines between jobs.\nLines that actually depict the relationships jobs have with each other.\nNow the lines no-longer lie!\n\n![The newer pipeline graph showing the correct needs links between jobs](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/placebo-lines_new-graph.png)\n\nThe above image shows an unreleased version of the pipeline graph.\nYou can see the lines drawn between the jobs to show that the `deploy:API` job can start as soon as the `rspec` job is successful.\nSomething the old lines (shown earlier in this post) would have been unable to depict.\n\nOne unfortunate downside of this is that these lines can be quite expensive to calculate.\nThey're actual DOM nodes, drawn deliberately and placed precisely.\nOn smaller graphs this isn't a problem, but some of our initial tests have found pipelines with a potential 8000+ job connections.\nThat kind of calculation would grind the browser to a halt, and nobody wants that.\n\nAt GitLab, we believe in boring solutions.\nWe make the simple change that sets us on the path towards where we want to be.\nShip it, get feedback, and iterate.\nSo that's what we did.\nIn the first phase of this rollout, we shipped the new pipeline graph with no lines connecting the jobs.\nWe don't have to worry about the expensive calculations, and we still get to roll out the refactored pipeline graph.\n\n![The current (v13.11) pipeline graph showing no links between jobs](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/placebo-lines_current-graph.png)\n\nWe know some of you will miss them, but fear not.\nBoring solutions are just technical debt if you don't iterate on them.\nSo the [improved lines are coming](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/4509) in a future release, along with several other improvements to the pipeline graph.\nWe're already starting to roll out the new [Job Dependencies](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/298973) view which shows the jobs in a (much closer to) execution order.\nStay tuned for more updates, and watch [Sarah Groff Hennigh Palermo's talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2EKqKjB7OQ) for the technical side of this effort and a deeper dive into some of the decisions we made.\n",[738,739,740,741],"CI","frontend","agile","design",{"slug":743,"featured":12,"template":13},"placebo-lines-on-the-pipeline-graph",{"promotions":745},[746,760,771],{"id":747,"categories":748,"header":750,"text":751,"button":752,"image":757},"ai-modernization",[749],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":753,"config":754},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":755,"dataGaName":756,"dataGaLocation":242},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":758},{"src":759},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":761,"categories":762,"header":763,"text":751,"button":764,"image":768},"devops-modernization",[725,557],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":765,"config":766},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":767,"dataGaName":756,"dataGaLocation":242},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":769},{"src":770},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":772,"categories":773,"header":775,"text":751,"button":776,"image":780},"security-modernization",[774],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":777,"config":778},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":779,"dataGaName":756,"dataGaLocation":242},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":781},{"src":782},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":784,"blurb":785,"button":786,"secondaryButton":791},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":787,"config":788},"Get your free trial",{"href":789,"dataGaName":51,"dataGaLocation":790},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":494,"config":792},{"href":55,"dataGaName":56,"dataGaLocation":790},1772652091836]